VSCode MCP

Connect VSCode with MCP (Model Context Protocol) for enhanced AI assistant capabilities

Design Motivation • Available Tools • Installation • Architecture • License

Overview

VSCode MCP is a comprehensive monorepo solution that enables MCP (Model Context Protocol) clients to access rich VSCode context information in real-time. This project bridges the gap between AI assistants and your development environment, providing accurate code analysis, diagnostics, and intelligent code navigation.

Design Motivation

VSCode MCP Bridge primarily serves AI IDEs (like Cursor) and AI coding agents, helping them develop and analyze code more efficiently.

Traditional AI coding agents often need to execute time-consuming commands when validating code modifications:

• tsc --noEmit - TypeScript type checking
• eslint . - Code style checking
• npm run build - Project building

These commands run slowly in large projects, severely impacting AI development efficiency. VSCode MCP Bridge provides real-time LSP (Language Server Protocol) information, allowing AI agents to:

• Get fast diagnostics (get-diagnostics) - Replace time-consuming type checking and lint commands
• Access real-time type information (get-hover) - Get accurate type definitions without compilation
• Navigate code efficiently (get-definition, get-references) - Understand code structure and dependencies

Core Advantages

1. Real-time: Leverage VSCode's LSP for real-time code state without executing slow commands
2. Accuracy: Precise analysis based on language servers, more reliable than static analysis
3. Efficiency: Significantly reduce AI coding agent wait times
4. Integration: Deep integration with VSCode ecosystem, supporting multiple languages and extensions

Available Tools

VSCode MCP provides the following tools through the MCP protocol:

⚠️ Security Warning: The execute_command tool can execute arbitrary VSCode commands and potentially trigger dangerous operations. Use with extreme caution and only with trusted AI models.

All tools require the workspace_path parameter to target specific VSCode instances.

Installation

🚨 IMPORTANT: Before installing the MCP server, you must first install the VSCode MCP Bridge extension in your VSCode instance. The extension is required for the MCP server to communicate with VSCode.

Step 1: Install VSCode Extension

Install the VSCode MCP Bridge extension using ID: YuTengjing.vscode-mcp-bridge

Or search for "VSCode MCP Bridge" in the VSCode Extensions marketplace.

Step 2: Install MCP Server

Install in Cursor ✅ Tested

Click the button to install

Or install manually

Go to Cursor Settings -> Tools & Integrations -> New MCP Server. Name to your liking, use command type with the command npx @vscode-mcp/vscode-mcp-server@latest. You can also verify config or add command line arguments via clicking Edit.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vscode-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@vscode-mcp/vscode-mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

# For VS Code
code --add-mcp '{"name":"vscode-mcp","command":"npx","args":["@vscode-mcp/vscode-mcp-server@latest"]}'

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vscode-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@vscode-mcp/vscode-mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Architecture

VSCode MCP follows a modular architecture with three main components communicating through Unix sockets:

graph TB
    subgraph "MCP Client"
        Client[AI Assistant<br/>Cursor/Claude/etc]
    end

    subgraph "vscode-mcp-server"
        Server[MCP Server<br/>Protocol Implementation]
    end

    subgraph "vscode-mcp-ipc"
        IPC[IPC Layer<br/>Type-safe Communication]
        Socket[Unix Socket<br/>Cross-platform]
    end

    subgraph "VSCode Instance"
        Extension[VSCode Extension<br/>vscode-mcp-bridge]
        LSP[Language Server Protocol]
        API[VSCode API]
    end

    Client <-->|JSON-RPC<br/>stdio| Server
    Server <-->|TypeScript<br/>Function Calls| IPC
    IPC <-->|JSON<br/>Unix Socket| Socket
    Socket <-->|Local Connection| Extension
    Extension <-->|Extension API| API
    Extension <-->|Diagnostics<br/>Navigation| LSP

    classDef client fill:#e1f5fe
    classDef server fill:#f3e5f5
    classDef ipc fill:#e8f5e8
    classDef vscode fill:#fff3e0

    class Client client
    class Server server
    class IPC,Socket ipc
    class Extension,LSP,API vscode

Communication Flow

1. MCP Client sends requests via JSON-RPC over stdio
2. MCP Server translates requests to TypeScript function calls
3. IPC Layer handles type-safe communication and validation
4. Unix Socket provides fast, local-only communication
5. VSCode Extension executes operations using VSCode APIs
6. LSP Integration provides real-time code analysis and navigation

Multi-Workspace Support

Each VSCode workspace gets its own socket connection:

• /Users/user/frontend → /tmp/vscode-mcp-a1b2c3d4.sock
• /Users/user/backend → /tmp/vscode-mcp-e5f6g7h8.sock

How It Works

Once installed and configured, VSCode MCP works seamlessly with MCP-compatible clients:

1. VSCode Extension: Runs in your VSCode instance and provides access to LSP data
2. MCP Server: Translates MCP protocol calls to VSCode extension requests
3. Socket Communication: Uses Unix sockets for fast, local-only communication
4. AI Integration: MCP clients can access real-time code context through standard tools

The system operates transparently - MCP clients use standard tool calls, and VSCode MCP handles all the complexity of communicating with VSCode's APIs.

All tools require the workspace_path parameter to target specific VSCode instances. Each VSCode workspace gets its own socket connection for multi-window support.

License

This project is licensed under the Anti 996 License.