Remote-SSH Connection Pool Size Change in VSCodium 1.96 Causes Intermittent Exhaustion

Goal

Diagnose why Remote‑SSH sessions intermittently fail with connection errors after upgrading to VSCodium 1.96.

Context

VSCodium 1.96 introduced the remote.SSH.connectionPool.maxSize setting, raising the default pool limit from 10 to 20. When the pool is exhausted, new SSH operations return ECONNREFUSED or timeout errors. The issue appears sporadically under load—such as opening many folders or refreshing hosts—then resolves after idle periods when connections return to the pool.

Constraints & Uncertainty

Lowering maxSize can reduce exhaustion but may increase connection overhead. Reloading the Remote‑SSH extension is required for the new setting to take effect, yet users often overlook this step. It remains unclear whether the default 20 is optimal for most workflows or if alternative configurations (e.g., useLocalServer) provide a more robust solution.

Unresolved Questions

• At what exact pool usage threshold do intermittent connection errors begin to surface in typical multi‑folder workflows?
• Is permanently lowering remote.SSH.connectionPool.maxSize to a value matching expected concurrent sessions a viable long‑term fix, or does it introduce unacceptable latency?
• What is the most reliable method to ensure that changes to maxSize are applied immediately without requiring a full editor restart?