Visual Studio Code + Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers Getting Started Guide | What, Why, How

What the heck is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server, why do you care, how does it help you, how does it help software development, and how do you get it setup in VS Code with GitHub Copilot. Let's do it!

Links:

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - What is Model Context Protocol?
02:40 - Model Context Protocol & Servers on GitHub
03:47 - Enabling MCP in VS Code
05:23 - Configuring MCP Servers in VS Code
09:35 - Real world MCP Servers with GitHub
17:53 - Using command palette with MCP
19:30 - Creating your own MCP Server & Wrap-up

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Disclaimer: This channel, videos, and streams are created in my spare time and are a product of me... James Montemagno! They are NOT officially affiliated or endorsed by Microsoft (my employer) in any way. Opinions and views are my own.

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#vscode #githubcopilot #mcpserver #mcp #mcps #claude #claudecode #modelcontextprotocol #dotnet

[dongzhao]

Thanks for the introduction of how to use MCP server inside of VS Code!

[indylawi]

Thanks for this practical intro to MCP in VS Code.

[ChrisStayte]

God tier video. Just googled MCP this morning and did not wanna delve into all the nitty gritty

[annraoi]

Thank you for the tutorial, James. It has been very helpful for my current MAUI project.

[rafaelpereiraarias]

Hola James, aunque se que quizas tengas que traducir este mensaje para entenderlo, quiero darte gracias por el contenido y que puedas configurar la opcion de poderlo escuchar en español, you have a new subscriber!

[rolandvonkriegenbergh]

As always, James for the win! Great tutorial!

[ericritter]

Gerald and James videos in one day. ❤ It's definitely thirsty Thursday

[hooky]

Thanks for the video James. I’ve tried playing with MCP servers before and couldn’t quite get it to work how I wanted but this video really does a great job of explaining it in simple terms. I’m keen to build my own MCP server, would you consider doing a video on that? Something super small of course but would be really interesting. Thanks again

[tjkarwal]

Nice! Is it possible to connect to a remote MCP server or just localhost? Cant seem to get this to work on a remote mcp server

[feiggy]

I appreciate the video, but if I want to look into first hand sources going forward for how VS Code is attempting to work with MCPs in this way, what would be the best way to do so? I was looking through their blogs earlier, and I believe they mention the agent stuff back in February but not seeing information regarding how to configure the MCP servers like you're performing at this time.

[TurkicPoseidon]

Hi James, i added some mcp Servers to my Workspace but i am worried about giving my Database UrI etc. ⚠️
How can i disable one specific MCP Server or delete it completely? ⚠️

[InfernalOdn]

I really wish there was more videos on how to do this in Visual Studio. Every video uses vscode and not just vs.

[RollingWithG]

Does Visual Studio Code support MCP connections using the SSE (Server-Sent Events) transport type, and if so, what would the configuration look like to establish such a connection?

[HonestGuy-ghyn]

James do have a video on creating input variables for launch.json ?

[noubgaemer]

Hi James, just wanted to know how do i configure github section for Github enterprise
Facing hard time doing setup for that

[ReinkeDK]

Great video thanks :)

How does Visual Studio Code, know that it can ask the 'time' MCP server for the time or to convert time?

[tilakrajsingh]

Vs code insiders is not staying open


It's happening from day before yesterday. That whenever I am trying to Open it it opens and suddenly closes. I don't what's the issue. So I tried to use the the old version(it worked) then I update it to lastest version but then the same issue. Can you please check

[billupton]

Cool video. Thanks. But why no mcp servers for sql server in that list...?

[CHAOS_Coding]

I have configured the mcp server but my docker says this when I try to start it.
"Connection state: Error spawn docker ENOENT"
I'm new to this, what do you think I can do?
(Am running on ubuntu)

[AlexChiu-oeqp]

Hi, is Github Enterprise Server(on-premise github) is supported by MCP?