Connect VS Code with Copilot

Connect VS Code with Copilot to your workspace memory. The server is https://agentics.you/mcp, named agentics in every tool, so an admin can allowlist one name.

One click from the desktop app

In the Agentics desktop app, Connect your agents lists VS Code with Copilot with its state. Nothing changes until you confirm.

1. Click Connect. Before anything changes, the app shows what it will do: “Add Agentics to VS Code for your user (your user profile's mcp.json), keeping your other servers.” With it are the command it runs and the file it changes.
2. Click Confirm. The app saves a backup of the file beside it (<file>.agentics-backup-<timestamp>, readable by you only), runs code --add-mcp '{"name":"agentics","type":"http","url":"https://agentics.you/mcp"}', then reads the file back to check that agentics is there.

If VS Code with Copilot isn't installed, its row says so and offers nothing to click. Once it has agentics, the row says Connected and offers Disconnect.

The app is for macOS and Windows. Get it from Download, which lists each build once a release is published.

By hand

Run this in a terminal. It is the command the app runs:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"agentics","type":"http","url":"https://agentics.you/mcp"}'

The quotes are for a macOS or Linux shell.

The entry it writes to ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Code\User\mcp.json on Windows and ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json on Linux includes:

{
  "servers": {
    "agentics": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://agentics.you/mcp"
    }
  }
}

If one of these is set, the file is in the folder it names. The first one set wins:

• VSCODE_APPDATA: Code/User/mcp.json
• XDG_CONFIG_HOME on Linux: Code/User/mcp.json

~ is your home folder.

In VS Code you can also run MCP: Add Server from the Command Palette, choose HTTP, and paste https://agentics.you/mcp.

A project can have its own .vscode/mcp.json, with the same servers shape. GitHub Copilot's own file, .mcp.json at a project's root or ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, uses mcpServers instead (Connect Copilot CLI). Do not paste one into the other.

Sign in

VS Code opens your browser to sign in to Agentics the first time it starts agentics: in Copilot Chat, or with MCP: List Servers > agentics > Start Server.

A console API key (ak_…) does not work here. Production answers HTTP 401 {"error":"invalid_token"} to one.

If the file shows an Auth code lens above agentics, choose it.

Without a browser

A machine that can't open a browser sends an agent key (agk_mcp_…) instead of signing in. Create one under API keys, Agent keys. VS Code asks for it once and keeps it, so it is never in the file you commit:

{
  "servers": {
    "agentics": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://agentics.you/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:agentics-agent-key}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "agentics-agent-key",
      "type": "promptString",
      "description": "Agentics agent key (agk_mcp_…)",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

A server that uses ${input:…} is not passed into a Copilot harness session. For that session, sign in instead.

Check it worked

Open ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Code\User\mcp.json on Windows and ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json on Linux: servers has agentics with https://agentics.you/mcp.

In Copilot Chat, set the mode to Agent, then paste this.

remember answers with saved true and a receipt_hash. recall returns that memory in results. Open the verify_url: the check does not show the memory's text.

Disconnect

In the desktop app, click Disconnect, then Confirm. When nothing else in the file changed since Connect, it goes back exactly as it was; otherwise only the agentics entry comes out.

By hand, delete agentics from servers in ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Code\User\mcp.json on Windows and ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json on Linux.

If your organization manages VS Code with Copilot

Before it changes anything, the app reads these files. One that blocks agentics stops the connect: the row says “Blocked by your organization's policy” and names the file. One that already provides agentics means there is nothing to add. A file that exists but can't be read stops the connect too.

• VS Code's policies: ChatMCP can turn MCP servers off or limit them to a registry, and ChatAllowedMcpServers and ChatDeniedMcpServers list the servers that may run. The app looks at /Library/Managed Preferences/com.microsoft.VSCode.plist and /Library/Managed Preferences/%USER%/com.microsoft.VSCode.plist on macOS, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\VSCode and HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\VSCode on Windows and /etc/vscode/policy.json on Linux.
• GitHub Copilot's managed settings, which VS Code and Copilot CLI both apply. allowedMcpServers and deniedMcpServers list the servers that may run. The app looks at /Library/Managed Preferences/com.github.copilot.plist, /Library/Managed Preferences/%USER%/com.github.copilot.plist and /Library/Application Support/GitHubCopilot/managed-settings.json on macOS, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\GitHubCopilot and %ProgramFiles%\GitHubCopilot\managed-settings.json on Windows and /etc/github-copilot/managed-settings.json on Linux.

What the app can't check

• Copilot policies your organization sets on GitHub (MCP servers in Copilot, its registry and allowlist) aren't visible on this computer. VS Code applies them when it starts agentics.
• This adds agentics to VS Code. VS Code Insiders keeps its own settings.

If it does not connect

More errors are on Connect any MCP client.