How to Set Up an MCP Server for GitHub Copilot in VS Code

copilot Jul 15, 2025

What is MCP?

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol - a feature from GitHub Copilot that lets you extend Copilot’s capabilities by giving it access to tools like GitHub’s REST API. This enables Copilot to perform actions such as listing pull requests, merging PRs, or managing workflows, all through chat.

Basically, it gives Copilot more power by letting it connect to and interact with other tools that support MCP, like GitHub’s API. This allows Copilot to go beyond just suggesting code - it can take actions like managing pull requests, issues, and workflows directly from your editor.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following set up:

Create a Personal Access Token(PAT) via https://github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens
Visual Studio Code installed
An active GitHub Copilot for Business license (required for Agent Mode)

Step 1: Create the mcp.json File

Let's start by creating the mcp.json file in VS Code

mkdir -p .vscode && touch .vscode/mcp.json

Copy this exact config and paste it into mcp.json. This is copied from the official GitHub repo referenced below. Now there are several ways of authenticating and setting it up, but for this guide, I'll be using a PAT token, restricting which repos the MCP Server has access to

{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:github_mcp_pat}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "github_mcp_pat",
      "description": "GitHub Personal Access Token",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

Save the file

Step 2: Start the MCP Server

Open the Command Palette (F1 or Ctrl+Shift+P)
Search for “MCP: List Servers”
Select your server, then choose “Start Server”

When prompted, enter your GitHub PAT. Once the server is running, you’ll see output logs confirming that Copilot has discovered your configured tools.

If not running, start it. It will show in the Output Panel if it has discovered the tools

To find out the tools it has access to, you can click on Configure Tools in the chat, then scroll through the tools from the dropdown

Step 3: Ask GitHub Copilot Questions

Now that your MCP server is active, open the Copilot Chat panel and try asking it something about your repository!

It should look similar to the below. Note (MCP Server)

Some generated prompts you can ask:

Prompts

List all open, closed, or merged pull requests
Get details, comments, or reviews for a specific pull request
Merge, close, or update a pull request
List, create, update, or close issues
Get or add comments to issues or pull requests
List branches, tags, or recent commits
Get repository settings or collaborators
List or re-run GitHub Actions workflows and jobs
Download workflow logs or artifacts
List Dependabot, code scanning, or secret scanning alerts
Get your GitHub notifications or mark them as read
Fork, star, or watch repositories
Search for code, issues, or pull requests across GitHub

And that's it! You're ready to go. With your MCP server now set up, GitHub Copilot becomes far more than just a code completion tool - it’s now your powerful assistant for managing repos, issues, PRs, and CI/CD workflows.