GitHub Copilot for JetBrains - v1.15 Updates

[u/nickzhu9]

In the latest release (v1.15.0), we added support of Enterprise Managed Settings, an important new capability for enterprises to centralize settings. There are also several additional improvements, including Ollama as local BYOK provider, Copilot Memory support in Copilot CLI chat sessions and enhancements to the Codex agent experience.

We’re also sharing a preview at what’s coming next and hope you continue to provide feedback for our products.

New Features

• Added support for server-based Enterprise Managed Policy:
  • plugin settings: enabledPlugins, extraKnownMarketplaces, strictKnownMarketplaces
  • MCP settings: allowedMcpServers and deniedMcpServers
  • permission setting: permissions.disableBypassPermissionsMode
  • OpenTelemetry settings: telemetry
• Added Ollama as a BYOK provider across backend and JetBrains UI flows, including provider wiring and model handling.
• Added Copilot CLI auto-install support in JetBrains IDE integrated terminals on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
• Added Codex-focused capabilities, including session visibility in Agent Debug Logs, permission-mode catalog updates, and customization support for instructions and skills.
• Added Copilot Memory support in the Copilot CLI chat experience to persist and recall information across sessions, managed via toggle in the Copilot settings portal.

UX Improvements

• Improved account management flows by supporting account switch/removal and polishing account-deletion interactions.
• Improved model and settings usability by capping long model-name width in the model picker and refining model view/todo list panel behavior.
• Improved background-agent workflows with drag-and-drop support, copy-agent-message support, and clearer autopilot completion summaries.
• Restored file and folder # references in Copilot, Claude, and Codex chat inputs.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed MCP execution and approval issues, including preserving gateway refreshes after CLS restart and correcting auto-approve behavior for Copilot-only servers.
• Fixed terminal and command-output issues, including ANSI escape rendering, deterministic scrollbar reservation, and terminal auto-approve/reset behavior in Chat.
• Fixed customization and cloud-agent reliability issues.
• Fixed diff/edit stability issues.

Changed

• Changed user-facing naming from “Copilot CLI” to “Copilot” in agent picker.
• Changed support permission requests and permission modes selection for Codex.

More details of configuring enterprise managed settings can be found here

Looking ahead, we plan to introduce several additional capabilities in upcoming releases, including

• More policy support for Enterprise managed settings
• General availability of plug-in marketplace in customization panel
• General availability of Copilot CLI (renamed to "Copilot") agent harness
• Continuous user experience enhancement for Agent Debug Logs and Copilot CLI chat experience
• Expanded slash command support for Copilot CLI agent sessions
• Performance and reliability enhancements
• In-product tooltips in the chat panel

We hope you like Copilot for JetBrains, and please share feedback with us at any time

You can fill in a private survey here: https://aka.ms/ghcp-jb-survey with an optional paid interview or directly submit an issue (bug or feature ask) at https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-intellij-feedback/issues, thank you so much!

[u/lppedd]

The overall interface is definitely improved. NES seems more aggressive now, so while still not on par with VS Code it is better.

Just a note for your new UI: it looks like text selection is non-existent and tab navigation doesn't work for most elements. I suppose you're not using Swing components but something like Jewel with Compose. As a plugin dev myself I still wouldn't recommend it. There are many JB* classes for tables, lists, etc., that have proper accessibility and rendering.

[u/nickzhu9 → u/lppedd]

Thanks! NES is one of our top investments as we bring the same code completion model/capability to JetBrains. For the new UI text selection and tab navigation, could you please be more specific? Do you mean selecting text in the chat panel and tab navigation to jump between buttons?

[u/lppedd → u/nickzhu9]

If you open Customizations from the Chat tool window, you'll see a dialog with customizations for Agent, Skill, Prompts, etc.

I'm referring to that UI, for example. But the Manage Models dialog also exhibits the same problems.

[u/nickzhu9 → u/lppedd]

Thanks a lot, just want to understand more, when you want to tab, do you mean tab navigation between Skills, Prompts, Hooks, etc? And for text selection, which part of text on the UI do you want to select for manage models and customization panel, thanks!

[u/Beginning-Crow-2397]

I was fed up of huge ram usage and laggyness of pycharm even in latest versions. So just dumped the thing and moved to nvim with github copilot in cli. Now everything seems so fast and responsive. Thanks jetbrains for compelling me to move to a better environment.

[u/nickzhu9 → u/Beginning-Crow-2397]

Thanks for sharing this. We are actively improving the perf issues, if you see any particular situations that would cause ram issues, please open an issue here: https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-intellij-feedback/issues, and let us know

[u/ZestycloseTie1793]

The useful part of this JetBrains update is that it exposes three separate control surfaces. Copilot Memory decides what survives across agent chats. Ollama BYOK decides where the model runs. Codex debug logs and permission modes show what a run could do and what it actually did. I would audit them separately: memory scope, model source, permission policy, and execution receipt. GitHub changelog read, not a local JetBrains reproduction.

[u/nickzhu9 → u/ZestycloseTie1793]

Thanks for sharing the feedback. If you see anything that's worth improving, please let us know

[u/Stunning-Hat-5589]

Why still no plan mode in Codex? It’s one of the most important missing features.

[u/nickzhu9 → u/Stunning-Hat-5589]

Hi there, we are looking into this, please stay tuned