VS Code

Verified on VS Code 1.137.0 with its built in GitHub Copilot Chat 0.65.0, on 14 September 2026. See the compatibility matrix.

Connect

prodpilot connect vscode

This runs VS Code’s own command line tool, code --add-mcp, which writes the server into your VS Code user profile, so it works for every project. ProdPilot then reads VS Code’s configuration back to confirm the entry is there, rather than trusting the command’s exit code.

It looks for VS Code’s own code in VS Code’s install locations first. The code command of an editor built on VS Code, such as Cursor, is never used, because on the machine ProdPilot was developed on the first code on the path was Cursor’s, which accepted the command, exited without error and wrote nothing.

What it writes

Under servers in your user profile’s mcp.json, naming the prodpilot command on this machine by its absolute path:

{
  "servers": {
    "prodpilot": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/prodpilot",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

If VS Code cannot be found, connect stops and prints the entry to add by hand: run MCP: Open User Configuration and add it under servers.

Start it

Run MCP: List Servers from the Command Palette, select prodpilot and start it. Open the chat in Agent mode and check that the five prodpilot_ tools are listed in the tools picker.

How VS Code behaved

Approvals. The agent asked before each tool’s first call. Choosing to allow a tool for the session covered its later calls; a tool not yet allowed asked again.

A refused first connection. The Copilot agent’s first connection can be refused with protocol error -32022 and then connect on its automatic retry a second later:

MCP server 'prodpilot' failed (error): failed to initialize MCP client:
JSON-RPC error: -32022: connection is serving the 2026-07-28 protocol;
the initialize handshake is not accepted

The refusal comes from the MCP SDK ProdPilot is built on, and it is correct: the client’s first request fixes the connection to the newer protocol, and the older handshake that follows on the same connection is refused by design. If the retry does not connect, restart prodpilot from MCP: List Servers. Troubleshooting has the detail.

Response size. ProdPilot’s largest response, the Node.js with Express blueprint from prodpilot_detect_stack, is 11,988 bytes on the wire. In this agent a 10.9 KB result is over the limit for inline delivery, so the agent received it as a saved file and read it back in parts. It still got every byte, at the cost of an extra step and an extra file read approval. Every other ProdPilot response is 3 KB or less.