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Auto-accepting AI edits in VS Code

When you let Copilot edit your code in agent mode, every change waits for a decision: Keep or Undo. For a small change that's fine. After ten prompts in a row, you're clicking Keep more than you're reading code.

VS Code has a setting to take that click away.

Why do we need this?

By default, edits from chat are pending until you accept or discard them. The pending state survives closing VS Code, so you can come back later and still decide.

That's a good default. But if you already review everything in a diff before you commit, the extra step per edit adds little.

Accept edits after a delay

Add this to your settings.json:

"chat.editing.autoAcceptDelay": 5

Edits are now accepted automatically after the delay. The default is 0, which means auto-accept is disabled.


You are not locked out. While the countdown runs, hover over the editor overlay controls to cancel it, and you can still Undo afterwards.


Keep approval for sensitive files

Auto-accept applies to edits after they are made. A separate setting decides which files Copilot may edit without asking you first: chat.tools.edits.autoApprove. It takes glob patterns.

This example allows everything except JSON files in .vscode and your .env files:

"chat.tools.edits.autoApprove": {
  "**/*": true,
  "**/.vscode/*.json": false,
  "**/.env": false
}

For those files you still get a diff and have to approve the edit.

Review before you commit

The VS Code docs are clear on this: if you automatically accept all edits, review the changes in source control before you commit them.

Source control also helps in the other direction. Staging your changes accepts any pending edits, and discarding them discards the pending edits too.

Tip: Newer Agent Host sessions skip the pending state entirely. The agent saves edits straight into the session's folder or an isolated Git worktree, so the diff before you commit is your only review step.

That's it! Fewer clicks, but the review step is still yours.

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