The coding agents tracker

Why your Model Context Protocol server gets stuck in 'connecting' from Claude Code 2.x and never registers any tools. Covers stdout pollution, the npx install prompt, MCP_TIMEOUT, buffered output, and WSL pitfalls, with verifiable repros.

A 2026 walkthrough for wiring RAG into Claude Code 2.1.x: when agentic grep stops scaling, how to attach a hybrid BM25 + dense vector MCP server, how to wrap a retrieval CLI in a custom skill, and how Anthropic's contextual embeddings technique pushes recall above 92%. Anchored to claude-sonnet-4-6, claude-opus-4-7, and Claude Context 0.x.

A 2026 playbook for keeping Claude Code's 200k token context lean in a monorepo: launch from the subtree you are touching, split CLAUDE.md into nested files that load on demand, push path-scoped rules into .claude/rules/, use skills and subagents for the noisy reads, and exclude other teams' files with claudeMdExcludes. Anchored to Claude Code 2.1.x, claude-sonnet-4-6, and claude-opus-4-7.

On May 11, 2026, Cursor shipped effort levels for Bugbot. Default finds 0.7 bugs per review, High pushes it to 0.95, and Custom lets you describe in plain English when each mode should kick in.

Place rolling cache_control breakpoints across messages, respect the 20-block lookback, and refresh the 5-minute TTL automatically so a 50-turn agent loop pays the prefix once, not fifty times. Verified against anthropic 0.42 (Python) and @anthropic-ai/sdk 0.30 (Node) in May 2026.

Cursor 3.3 (May 7, 2026) ships async subagents that work on independent steps of a plan at the same time, a quick action that splits one chat into multiple pull requests, and a redesigned PR workflow that keeps reviews, commits, and changes in one place.

Build a working LLM-as-judge eval harness for a coding agent in Python: golden tasks, deterministic checks, a rubric judge on Claude Sonnet 4.6, calibration against human labels, and a CI gate that fails the build when scores regress.

GitHub deprecated claude-sonnet-4 on May 6, 2026 across Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, and code completions. Recommended migration target is Claude Sonnet 4.6. What to grep for in your repo before the next pinned model selection silently breaks.

Cursor is the best place to plan a refactor. Aider is the best place to execute it from a terminal with cheap models and atomic git commits. This guide shows the exact pipe: dump the Cursor chat to markdown, hand it to Aider as a read-only context file, and run an architect/editor split that finishes the work.

Build a project-scoped Claude Code subagent that drives Playwright in a real browser, scoped to its own MCP server so the main session never sees the 25 browser_* tools. Covers the .claude/agents/browser-tester.md frontmatter, mcpServers inline definition, allowed tool list, isolation: worktree, the Playwright Test Agents init flow, and the Sonnet-vs-Haiku model choice.

Wrap an Agent Framework Workflow in Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask and each executor step is checkpointed. Crash, redeploy, restart - the run continues where it stopped.

Turn the unwritten rules in your repo into a SKILL.md that GitHub Copilot loads on demand. Frontmatter, descriptions that route, file references, and how to verify it actually fires.

Wrap an AIFunction in ApprovalRequiredAIFunction and the agent stops mid-run to ask permission. Here is how the request and response flow works in C#.

Wire a Microsoft.SemanticKernel 1.75.0 plugin into a hosted BackgroundService on .NET 11 and invoke its KernelFunctions on a PeriodicTimer schedule. Covers DI scopes, [KernelFunction] resolution, prompt-cache-friendly invocation, cancellation, and the lifetime gotchas that bite when you move a plugin off the request path.

Claude Code v2.1.128 (May 4, 2026) ships --plugin-dir support for .zip archives, makes EnterWorktree branch from local HEAD, and stops the CLI from leaking its own OTLP endpoint into Bash subprocesses.

Wire an EF Core 10 DbContext into a Model Context Protocol server so Claude Code, Cursor, or any compliant client can run safe, scoped queries against your database. Covers IDbContextFactory lifetime, read-only projections, schema discovery tools, AsNoTracking, parameterised filters, row-level scoping, and the destructive-tool gates you need before letting an agent touch UPDATE.

Cursor's new @cursor/sdk public beta exposes the same runtime, harness, and models that drive the desktop app, CLI, and web UI as a TypeScript package. You get sandboxed cloud VMs, subagents, hooks, MCP, and token-based pricing in a few lines of code.

Claude Code v2.1.126 ships claude project purge, a new CLI subcommand that deletes every transcript, task, file-history entry, and config block tied to a project path in a single shot. Includes --dry-run, --yes, --interactive, and --all.

Wire AIFunctionFactory.Create, ChatOptions.Tools, and ChatClientBuilder.UseFunctionInvocation in Microsoft.Extensions.AI 10.5 so an IChatClient can call your .NET methods automatically. Covers OpenAI and Azure OpenAI providers, the FunctionInvokingChatClient knobs that actually matter (iteration limits, concurrent calls, approval prompts, error handling), and streaming responses with tools.

Microsoft's new Microsoft.AgentGovernance package wraps MCP tool calls with a policy kernel, a security scanner, and a response sanitizer. Here is what each piece does and how the wiring looks in C#.

Take an existing Semantic Kernel plugin with [KernelFunction] methods and turn it into a Model Context Protocol server other agents can call. Covers the drop-in WithTools(kernel) bridge, the native [McpServerTool] rewrite, parameter binding, dependency injection, and the gotchas that bite during the cutover.

Wire up anthropics/claude-code-action@v1 so every pull request gets an autonomous Claude Code review with no @claude trigger. Includes the v1 YAML, claude_args for claude-sonnet-4-6 vs claude-opus-4-7, inline-comment tooling, path filters, REVIEW.md, and the choice between the self-hosted action and the managed Code Review research preview.

Claude Code v2.1.122 adds the ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER environment variable, sent as the X-Amzn-Bedrock-Service-Tier header. Set it to flex for a 50 percent discount on agent calls or priority for faster responses, without touching SDK code.

Stream Claude responses from an ASP.NET Core 11 minimal API end-to-end: the official Anthropic .NET SDK, TypedResults.ServerSentEvents, SseItem, IAsyncEnumerable, cancellation flow, and the gotchas that buffer your tokens silently. With Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.7 examples.

cowork-terminal-mcp v0.4.1 bridges Claude Cowork's sandboxed VM to your host shell. One tool, stdio transport, hard-pinned Git Bash on Windows.

A practical guide to turning the JSONL files Claude Code writes under ~/.claude/projects/ into shareable PDFs using jsonl-to-pdf, with sub-agent nesting, secret redaction, compact and dark themes, and CI-friendly batch recipes.

Add prompt caching to a Python or TypeScript Anthropic SDK app, place cache_control breakpoints correctly, and read cache_read_input_tokens and cache_creation_input_tokens to compute a real hit rate. With pricing math for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.7.

A 2026 playbook for CLAUDE.md files that Claude Code actually follows: the 200-line target, when to use path-scoped rules in .claude/rules/, @import hierarchy and 5-hop max depth, the user-message vs system-prompt gap, the line between CLAUDE.md and auto memory, and when to give up and write a hook instead. Anchored to Claude Code 2.1.x and verified against the official memory docs.

Claude Code v2.1.119 expands --from-pr beyond github.com. The CLI now accepts GitLab merge-request, Bitbucket pull-request, and GitHub Enterprise PR URLs, and a new prUrlTemplate setting points the footer PR badge at the right code-review host.

Three ways to put Claude Code on a schedule that triages GitHub issues unattended in 2026: cloud Routines (the new /schedule), the claude-code-action v1 with cron + issues.opened, and the session-scoped /loop. Includes a runnable Routine prompt, a complete GitHub Actions YAML, jitter and identity gotchas, and when to pick which.

GitHub Copilot for VS Code shipped Bring Your Own Key on April 22, 2026. Wire your own Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, or Azure account into Chat, or point at a local Ollama or Foundry Local model. Billing skips the Copilot quota and goes straight to the provider.

Build a working Model Context Protocol server in C# 14 / .NET 11 using the official ModelContextProtocol 1.2 SDK. Covers stdio transport, [McpServerTool] attributes, dependency injection, the stderr logging trap, and registration with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and VS Code.

Build a working Model Context Protocol server in Python using the official mcp 1.27 SDK and FastMCP. Covers Pydantic schemas, the stdio stdout trap, mcp dev / mcp install, and registration with Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

Step-by-step guide to wrapping any command-line tool as a Model Context Protocol server using the TypeScript SDK 1.29. Covers the stdout trap, child_process patterns, error propagation, and a full working git server.

Visual Studio 2022 17.14.30 bundles the Azure MCP Server into the Azure development workload. Copilot Chat can hit 230+ Azure tools across 45 services without installing a thing.

Visual Studio 18.5 GA ships a guided Debugger Agent workflow in Copilot Chat that forms a hypothesis, sets breakpoints, rides along through a repro, validates against runtime state, and proposes a fix.

Visual Studio 2026 18.5.0 lets GitHub Copilot load Agent Skills from .github/skills, .claude/skills, and ~/.copilot/skills. Reusable SKILL.md instruction packs travel with your repo.

GitHub Copilot Modernization is pitched as an Assess, Plan, Execute loop for migrating legacy .NET apps. The assessment phase is where the value lives: an inventory report, categorized blockers, and file-level remediation guidance you can diff like code.

Microsoft Agent Framework hits 1.0 with stable APIs, multi-provider connectors, multi-agent orchestration, and A2A/MCP interop. Here is what it looks like in practice on .NET 10.

The .NET team shares ten months of real data on running GitHub's Copilot Coding Agent in dotnet/runtime: 878 PRs, a 67.9% merge rate, and clear lessons on where AI-assisted development helps and where it still falls short.

Microsoft's free generative AI course for .NET developers ships Version 2, rebuilt for .NET 10 and migrated from Semantic Kernel to Microsoft.Extensions.AI's IChatClient pattern.

How to wire Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in C# on .NET 10 using microsoft/mcp. Covers tool contracts, input validation, auth, observability, and production-readiness patterns.