[ICYMI] VS Code updates May 2026

Welcome to the monthly recap of updates and releases to VS Code and InterSystems-related extensions relevant to IRIS developers. 

Don’t forget, if you’re migrating from InterSystems Studio to VS Code, or want to deepen your knowledge, check out the VS Code training courses from George James Software: georgejames.com/vscode-training. 

This recap covers the four VS Code releases in May: v1.119, v1.120, v1.121, and v1.122.

Editor and navigation

• Quieter inline suggestions (v1.121) - if you work with an inline completion provider, typing in the editor no longer pops up the suggestion control and auto-selects the first alphabetical symbol it finds. That behavior was rarely what you wanted, and it tended to feed Copilot the wrong prefix, making suggestions noisier as a result. 

Writing ObjectScript should feel cleaner now, however if you preferred the old way you can restore it through the editor.quickSuggestions  setting.

Markdown and documentation

• Built-in Mermaid diagrams (v1.121) - Mermaid rendering is now baked into the Markdown preview, notebook cells, and chat, so you no longer need a separate extension for it. Larger diagrams also pan and zoom, which helps when you're mapping something complex. 

This is the one we'd flag as most useful this month: you can document IRIS data flows, interoperability productions, or class relationships right inside your project's README, and right-click any diagram to copy its source.

• Easier switching between source and preview (v1.119) - VS Code has long been able to swap a Markdown file between its raw source and the rendered preview, whereas the feature was easy to miss. New toolbar buttons and a "Markdown: Switch to Preview View" command make it far more discoverable.

Handy when you want to sanity-check formatting on project docs without opening a second tab.

• Frontmatter as a table (v1.121) - if your docs carry YAML metadata at the top of the file, the preview now renders it as a readable table by default rather than hiding it.

You can change how it appears through the markdown.preview.frontMatter setting if you'd rather see it as a code block, or not at all.

Terminal 

• Agent-aware terminal commands (v1.121) - VS Code now sets a VSCODE_AGENT environment variable on any terminal command it launches through an agent flow.

If you maintain build or deployment scripts, you can have them check for that variable and switch to machine-readable output or skip interactive prompts, much as you'd already do for a CI environment. It's a small hook, however it saves your scripts from tripping over prompts they can't answer.

Integrated browser

• Open local HTML without an extension (v1.121) - previewing a local HTML file used to mean installing something extra, whereas now you can right-click the file in the Explorer, or use the Preview icon in the editor title bar, to open it straight in the integrated browser.

Useful for a quick look at generated docs or any front-end assets your IRIS application serves.

• Device emulation (v1.122) - the integrated browser now emulates different screen sizes, mobile and touch behavior, and custom user-agents out of the box, reachable through the "Show Emulation Toolbar" command.

If you build front-ends on top of IRIS, you can check how they respond across devices without leaving VS Code or reaching for an external browser.

For extension builders

• Custom editor diffs and a new document diff API (v1.120, proposed) - VS Code added proposed APIs that let custom editors render diffs through a dedicated diff UI, and expose its built-in diff algorithm to extensions so they can show the same diffs as the editor itself.

Beneficial when building VS Code extensions, which is something we specialize in at George James Software. If you've ever wanted a custom editor tailored view, or any other kind of extension, built for your own workflow, get in touch: https://georgejames.com/vs-code-extension-authoring/

These releases also include contributions to issue tracking from our very own @John Murray.

View the full release notes: 
Version 1.119 - https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_119
Version 1.120 - https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_120
Version 1.121 - https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_121
Version 1.122 - https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_122

George James Software extensions

• gj :: servAI (new release) - a new extension that wraps MCP servers requiring InterSystems credentials, obtaining them through the InterSystems Server Manager authentication provider once you've granted permission. It currently offers a single MCP server, intersystemsObjectscriptRoutine, giving real-time routine context for ObjectScript. 

Worth a look if you're exploring MCP and want it tied into your InterSystems credentials properly. More on the routine server on the InterSystems Developer Community. 

• InterSystems REST API Server (1.0.4) - dependency updates in response to GitHub security alerts, with no functional change. 

InterSystems extensions

• SQLTools InterSystems IRIS (v0.3.0)
  • The most substantial update this month, adding a new resultSetRowLimit setting to cap query rows, correct handling of duplicate column names on IRIS 2023.1 and later, and respect for the http.rejectUnauthorizedsetting when working with self-signed certificates.

The row-limit setting is handy if you regularly run exploratory queries against large tables and want to keep results manageable.

• InterSystems ObjectScript (v3.8.1) - A maintenance release whose most noticeable fixes improve the Output channel, with all compile error messages now logged there and HTML-unescaped so they read properly, alongside fixes for {%%PARENT} storage definitions in child classes and for the Overwrite from Server command reliably replacing the whole class text. 

Worth updating if you work server-side or lean on the Output channel for compile errors.

• InterSystems Language Server (v2.8.3) - a small fix release that removes a stray asterisk from the hover information for methods that take no arguments, plus a dependency upgrade. 
• InterSystems Testing Manager (v2.0.5) - a minor release fixing a directory-naming edge case for unusual usernames and documenting the coverage.list file requirement. 

Let us know if you try any of these new features. Happy coding!