GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot Chat (VS Code, agent mode) supports MCP servers. The schema differs from Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf - Copilot uses servers (not mcpServers) and requires an explicit "type": "stdio" field.

See MCP Client Setup for the cross-client overview.

Config file

Copilot reads MCP server definitions from:

Scope	Path
Per-project	.vscode/mcp.json
Per-user	VS Code settings.json under "mcp.servers"

Per-project .vscode/mcp.json is the recommended default and can be committed.

Configuration

Copy the canonical Copilot block from MCP Client Setup. Save it at .vscode/mcp.json in the repo root.

Schema is different

Note the three differences from other clients:

• Top-level key is servers, not mcpServers
• "type": "stdio" is required
• Env vars live under env same as elsewhere

Copying the Claude Code config verbatim will silently fail to register.

Verify

1. Open Copilot Chat, switch to Agent mode (dropdown at the top of the chat pane).
2. Click the tools icon. You should see a ctxo group with 14 tools.
3. Ask:

List the tools available from the ctxo server.

If Copilot replies that no MCP tools are configured, check Output -> GitHub Copilot Chat for spawn errors.

Using Ctxo tools

Copilot Chat will request approval the first time it calls each tool. A typical flow:

I'm about to change the signature of extractSymbols. What depends on it?

Copilot proposes calling get_blast_radius, pops an approval toast, then after approval returns the impact JSON and adapts its plan.

Tips

• Agent mode only. Ask-mode and inline completions do not use MCP. Switch to Agent mode (the dropdown, not a setting).
• Approve once per tool. The first call to each Ctxo tool requires a click. Check "Always allow" to stop seeing the prompt.
• Trust the workspace. MCP servers do not run in untrusted workspaces. If ctxo fails to start, make sure the folder is trusted.
• HTTP transport. Copilot also supports "type": "http". Start Ctxo with CTXO_HTTP_PORT=7337 npx @ctxo/cli mcp and point Copilot at http://localhost:7337/mcp.

Next steps

• MCP Client Setup
• MCP Tools Overview
• Quick Start