Hey folks! Welcome to a new year, and a new release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). That’s right, we’re starting off 2026 with SSMS 22.2.1, which may look like “just another” minor release, but it’s not…it’s definitely not.

SSMS 22.2.1 contains a set of important bug fixes, thanks to our engineers. You can find the full list of fixes in the release notes, and I’ll note that all but one are linked to an item on the feedback site. That’s my not-so-subtle way of reminding you that logging issues on the site matters 😊

As always, please search for an existing issue before you create one…and if you do find that someone else has logged the same issue/problem/error, please upvote it so we understand how many folks are affected.

We updated our roadmap when SSMS 22 became generally available, but we didn’t specifically call out that in December and January we would primarily focus on fundamentals work. In addition to some bug fixes, the engineering team is also making improvements internally, related to pipelines, testing, etc. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes improvements that will help with quality and reliability, though they may not be immediately obvious.

We’ve added support for code completions in the query editor for GitHub Copilot. Thanks to those who waited patiently for this functionality! While our GitHub Copilot is based on the one for Visual Studio, we had to add database context into completions functionality. For completions to behave in the manner that you expect, we had to give the model information about the database, and make sure it provided suggestions quickly.

Code completions for GitHub Copilot in SSMS are not the same as IntelliSense, and I’d argue they exceed the concept of “IntelliSense on steroids”. The more T-SQL that exists in the editor window, the more powerful you’ll find the suggestions to be. If you find that completions and IntelliSense are competing, you may want to try turning off IntelliSense. I’m extremely pleased with the code completion capabilities, and I’m excited for you all to give it a try.

I mentioned the SSMS Roadmap earlier, and we’ll be updating the AI experiences section to note that Agent mode is on the roadmap for GitHub Copilot. We’re also working on improvements related to instructions, which is a top request specific to AI Assistance. If that’s something you’d like to see, feel free to *vote *on the [feedback item](http://(https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Copilot-should-support-an-Instructions-f/10948846) and add a comment if there’s something specific in which you’re interested. Friendly reminder that votes are the quickest and easiest way for us to understand interest. It’s what we check first. The comments help capture more details about what SSMS users want to see and why.

If you’re interested in other requests for GitHub Copilot in SSMS, please search the feedback site for open suggestions. I’ll be adding "GHCP" to the title of all GitHub Copilot-related feedback items - both suggestions and issues - to make it easier for everyone to find. You can filter by “copilot” right now but that doesn’t quite catch everything. While Agent mode is a big space, I’d love to see more ideas about what folks want to see/do with it.

For those in the northern hemisphere, hope you’re staying warm and safe. For those in the southern hemisphere, please enjoy some sunshine for the rest of us today. Looking forward to hearing from you all about the 22.2.1 release!