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Align tool names and add support for legacy reference identification#277047

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pwang347 merged 27 commits intomainfrom
pawang/renameTools
Nov 20, 2025
Merged

Align tool names and add support for legacy reference identification#277047
pwang347 merged 27 commits intomainfrom
pawang/renameTools

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@pwang347 pwang347 commented Nov 13, 2025 •
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Overview

The goal of this PR is to unify the tool names. As part of this change, we want to introduce a system that allows for deprecating old names but retaining backwards compatibility. Added as a contribution which will also allow extension authors similar capabilities.

Out of scope

  • Handling for nested toolsets
  • Manual ordering of tools

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tools

See related change: microsoft/vscode-copilot-chat#1995

Fixes #272734

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings November 13, 2025 01:46
Copilot AI reviewed Nov 13, 2025
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Pull Request Overview

This PR aligns tool names and adds support for tool reference aliases to improve backward compatibility and tool discovery. The changes rename toolsets for clarity ("runCommands" → "shell", "runTasks" → "vscode") and introduce a mechanism for tools to have alternative names through toolReferenceAliases.

Key Changes:

  • Renamed VSCodeToolReference.runCommands to VSCodeToolReference.shell for better semantic clarity
  • Introduced toolReferenceAliases field across the tool data infrastructure (interfaces, DTOs, and extension points)
  • Added toolset merging logic to allow internal and external extensions to contribute to the same toolset
  • Added backward compatibility aliases for terminal and task tools (e.g., runCommands/runInTerminal, runTasks/runTask)

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 21 out of 21 changed files in this pull request and generated 14 comments.

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File Description
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/common/languageModelToolsService.ts Added toolReferenceAliases field to IToolData interface; renamed VSCodeToolReference.runCommands to shell
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/languageModelToolsService.ts Implemented alias matching logic with support for simple and qualified names; added trace logging for tool registration; updated GitHub-to-VSCode tool mapping
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/common/tools/languageModelToolsContribution.ts Added toolReferenceAliases to extension point schema; implemented toolset merging logic to allow multiple extensions to contribute to same toolset
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/terminal.chatAgentTools.contribution.ts Renamed "runCommands" toolset to "shell"; renamed "runTasks" toolset to "vscode"; added logic to get or create toolsets instead of always creating new ones
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/task/runTaskTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runTasks/runTask
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/task/getTaskOutputTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runTasks/getTaskOutput
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/task/createAndRunTaskTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runTasks/createAndRunTask
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/runInTerminalTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runCommands/runInTerminal
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/getTerminalSelectionTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runCommands/terminalSelection
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/getTerminalOutputTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runCommands/getTerminalOutput
src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminalContrib/chatAgentTools/browser/tools/getTerminalLastCommandTool.ts Added backward compatibility alias runCommands/terminalLastCommand
src/vs/workbench/contrib/extensions/browser/extensions.contribution.ts Added logic to add searchExtensions tool to vscode toolset if it exists
src/vs/workbench/contrib/extensions/common/searchExtensionsTool.ts Added toolReferenceAliases field (though redundant - same as toolReferenceName)
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/common/tools/tools.ts Added logic to add runSubagent tool to vscode toolset if it exists
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/common/tools/runSubagentTool.ts Added toolReferenceAliases field (though redundant - same as toolReferenceName)
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/common/tools/manageTodoListTool.ts Renamed toolReferenceName from 'todos' to 'todo'; added 'todos' as alias for backward compatibility
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/actions/chatToolPicker.ts Added logic to track tools in toolsets to prevent duplicates in picker; added debug console.log statements
src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/test/browser/languageModelToolsService.test.ts Updated test to use VSCodeToolReference.shell instead of runCommands
src/vs/workbench/api/common/extHost.protocol.ts Added toolReferenceAliases field to IToolDataDto
src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadLanguageModelTools.ts Added toolReferenceAliases field to tool data mapping
extensions/mermaid-chat-features/package.json Added example aliases 'mermaid' and 'diagram' to renderMermaidDiagram tool

@pwang347 pwang347 changed the title Align tool names and add aliases Align tool names and add support for legacy reference identification Nov 13, 2025
@pwang347 pwang347 requested a review from aeschli November 14, 2025 00:23
@pwang347 pwang347 marked this pull request as ready for review November 14, 2025 00:28
@vs-code-engineering vs-code-engineering bot added this to the November 2025 milestone Nov 14, 2025
@pwang347 pwang347 requested a review from roblourens November 14, 2025 01:42
aeschli
aeschli reviewed Nov 14, 2025
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aeschli commented Nov 14, 2025 •
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Looks good! Should also have some tests. Check out

vscode/src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/test/browser/languageModelToolsService.test.ts

Line 766 in 37eac26

test('toToolAndToolSetEnablementMap map Github to VSCode tools', () => {

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aeschli commented Nov 14, 2025

And

vscode/src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/test/browser/promptSytntax/promptValidator.test.ts

Line 174 in 37eac26

test('old tool reference', async () => {

roblourens
roblourens reviewed Nov 15, 2025
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So with the legacy names, do we respect them but still show a warning?

aeschli
aeschli reviewed Nov 17, 2025
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pwang347 commented Nov 18, 2025

@aeschli thoughts on something like this?
image

I think we'll need some more changes for nested toolsets, but for now this should at least handle cases where a toolset is completely removed (no legacy names or current references)

roblourens
roblourens previously approved these changes Nov 18, 2025
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I don't know if you were in standup today, we were talking about the chat.tools.eligibleForAutoApproval setting, will the legacy reference names get applied to that?

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pwang347 commented Nov 18, 2025

I don't know if you were in standup today, we were talking about the chat.tools.eligibleForAutoApproval setting, will the legacy reference names get applied to that?

Thanks @roblourens, I synced with @joshspicer about this and there will be some small work involved for that setting, but should be doable.

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joshspicer commented Nov 19, 2025

I will work on a fix for chat.tools.eligibleForAutoApproval targetting this branch

@pwang347 pwang347 enabled auto-merge (squash) November 20, 2025 00:00
@pwang347 pwang347 mentioned this pull request Nov 20, 2025
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@pwang347 pwang347 merged commit f6ce5d1 into main Nov 20, 2025
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@pwang347 pwang347 deleted the pawang/renameTools branch November 20, 2025 01:53
@joshspicer joshspicer mentioned this pull request Dec 1, 2025
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@DonJayamanne DonJayamanne DonJayamanne approved these changes

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agent files: align tool names to names from custom agents specification

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@pwang347 @aeschli @joshspicer @roblourens @DonJayamanne