Delegate plan to the background or cloud

[unthinkmedia]

When Plan Mode finishes creating a plan, people see a "Start Implementation" button.

Currently: Clicking it does two things:

1. Adds "Start Implementation" text to the prompt area
2. Takes them back down to the prompt where they can either hit send or add more instructions

Alternatively, they can click the separate "Delegate" button, which opens a selection menu.

We would like to reduce that friction and get them to delegate plan more efficiently

There are various places in the journey that this could happen

1. At the point of the original prompt "Make a plan for a to do" -> Send and Implement the entire plan. This sends the prompt, and add "Start Implementation" to a the queue
2. At the response: Once you have a response you can you can delegate
3. While you are reviewing: You can select (maybe highlight a section) and send to background
4. While it's building: While everything is being implemented, you can open up the "to do" list and send out a specific step to be sent to the background.

Goals for this are:

• Reduce friction (Time to task)
• Increase Delegation usage (More delegations)
• Increase discoverability (People use this feature faster)

[vs-code-engineering]

Hi @unthinkmedia. As a member of the team, you can help us triage this issue by referring to https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot/wiki/Copilot-Inbox-Tracker and assigning an owner directly.

[unthinkmedia]

Add delegation options to "Start Implementation" button

Summary

Surface delegation options (background/Cloud) on the "Start Implementation" button to improve feature discoverability during the natural implementation flow. Uses the same interaction pattern as the prompt area Delegate button for 1:1 consistency. #277555

Screen.Recording.2025-11-20.at.7.14.18.PM.mov

Note

Without queuing, delegation can't happen until plans complete. The UI must handle this gracefully: button stays active (users need to add "Start Implementation" to prompt), but delegation options show as disabled with explanation until the plan finishes. This is a temporary problem once we have prompt queuing working #260330

When plan is complete:

• Clicking adds "Start Implementation" to prompt area (current behavior)
• On hover of button shows delegation options: background, or Cloud
• Interaction matches prompt area Delegate button exactly

When plan is running:

• Clicking adds "Start Implementation" to prompt area (current behavior)
• Delegation options appear disabled with message: "Waiting for plan to complete..."
• No conditional hover on button itself (avoids broken feeling)

[BOXER78]

Can i work on this issue? lmk...