What's New in Visual Assist

General Release Build 2026.2 (2602)

Requires active software maintenance through general release date: 2026.02.06

UPDATE Fixed issue where the installation could fail in some circumstances.
Visual Assist 2026.2 released

Summary:

Visual Assist Build 2026.2 comes early with important fix.

This focused release fixes an installation failure that could occur when installing Visual Assist via its Visual Studio VSIX package. If you experienced installation errors or failures with the previous build, this update resolves that issue.

We recommend all users update to 2026.2 to ensure a smooth installation experience.

As always, we appreciate everyone who reports issues and shares feedback. Your input helps us respond quickly to critical issues like this. If you have any similar concerns or suggestions, please send us a message or start a thread on our Discord.

Bug fixes:

  • Fixed issue where the installation could fail in some circumstances when installing via VSIX.

General Release Build 2026.1 (2598)

Requires active software maintenance through general release date: 2026.01.16

NEW Deep analyze macro by expanding with Clang on hover.
UPDATE Updated remaining UI dialogs that were not refreshed in the previous release.
NEW Local AI responses now stream progressively instead of waiting for the full response to complete.
NEW Local AI response splitter now recalls its position between queries.
Visual Assist 2026.1 released!

Summary:

Visual Assist Build 2026.1 brings smarter insights and smoother experience.

We're starting 2026 with improvements largely based on user feedback from our previous releases. These changes are designed to give you more speed and power while keeping Visual Assist fast and unobtrusive.

Deeper macro understanding: Ever wondered what's actually hiding inside a complex macro? Originally a feature requested by a user in Unreal, we’ve now improved it further so you can hover over any macro to see its full Clang expansion. No more guessing at preprocessor magic.

Modernized dialogs across the board: We've refreshed the remaining UI dialogs that were not included in the previous update. This completes a polished, more consistent experience and visual interface when accessing VA features.

Realtime responsive AI: Visual Assist’s Local AI responses now stream progressively, so you see answers forming in real-time rather than waiting for the full response. The response splitter also remembers its position between queries, making back-and-forth conversations feel more natural.

More reliable, more consistent: This release also addresses key stability and accuracy issues across navigation, search, and code completion—including full compatibility with Visual Studio 2026 and improved parsing reliability.

Head on to our complete release post for more information about what these new additions do and how to access them.

As always, we appreciate everyone reporting issues and sharing feedback. The input helps us prioritize big ticket items to include in subsequent releases. If you have any comments, suggestions, or encounter any errors, please send us a message or start a thread on our Discord.

Bug fixes:

  • Fixed crash when opening a project in Visual Studio 2026.
  • Fixed an issue where Open File in Solution results could change after closing and reopening the dialog.
  • Fixed issue where functions defined after certain string operations could be missing from Find Symbol in Solution (and more).
  • Fixed issue where accepting Smart Suggestions would not include generic parameters in C#.

General Release Build 2025.5 (2588)

Requires active software maintenance through general release date: 2025.11.12

NEW Compatibility for Visual Studio 2026
NEW Explain with AI now streams responses in real-time
Visual Assist 2025.5 released!

Summary:

Visual Assist 2025.5 is here with Visual Studio 2026 support!

The headline of this release is full compatibility with the recently published Visual Studio 2026. VS 2026 marks a significant evolution of the IDE with deep AI platform integration, enhanced performance, and stronger fundamentals to help users “stay in the flow”.

Visual Assist 2025.5 ensures that all of VA's productivity features work seamlessly alongside these improvements, giving you the best of both worlds as you make the transition.

We also have improvements for those enjoying VA’s own A feature, VA Intelligence, introduced in 2025.4. Explain with AI now streams responses in real-time, so you can start reading explanations immediately rather than waiting for the complete response to generate. This makes the feature feel more responsive and natural, especially when facing more complex code and prompts.

While this is a more compact release compared to our typical feature updates, it delivers exactly what matters most right now: ensuring Visual Assist works flawlessly with Visual Studio 2026 from day one.

As always, we appreciate everyone who takes the time to report issues and share feedback. Your input helps us prioritize fixes and improvements for each release. If you have any comments, suggestions, or encounter any errors, please send us a message or start a thread on our Discord.

Bug fixes:

  • Fix for the misc-include-cleaner code inspection to prevent suggestions for unnecessary includes
  • Fix for the Welcome Page appearing more frequently than intended