VS Code and GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot in VS Code uses MCP servers in agent mode.

Add GoBanana

One command

From a terminal, add it to your VS Code user profile:

code --add-mcp "{\"name\":\"gobanana\",\"type\":\"http\",\"url\":\"https://gobanana.fun/api/mcp\"}"

VS Code prints Added MCP servers: gobanana.

This project

Create .vscode/mcp.json in the workspace and commit it to share the server with the team:

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "gobanana": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://gobanana.fun/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code also reads .mcp.json at the project root, which uses mcpServers instead of servers (the same file Claude Code writes).

Command Palette

Run MCP: Add Server from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P), choose HTTP, paste the URL, name it gobanana, and pick where to save it. To edit your user config by hand, run MCP: Open User Configuration.

Start it and sign in

1. Open the Copilot Chat view and switch to Agent mode.
2. Open the tools picker and make sure the GoBanana tools are checked. The server starts; VS Code may ask you to trust it first.
3. When VS Code asks to sign in for GoBanana, allow it and sign in in the browser.
4. Ask: “Use the GoBanana ping tool.”

To restart or see logs, run MCP: List Servers, pick gobanana, and choose Show Output (or Disable and Enable). MCP: Reset Trust clears trust choices.

Without skills

Copilot does not load Claude plugins. Save the one line that fetches the playbook as a prompt file, or paste it at the start of a chat. The line is in No plugin?.

Hand off for Copilot

export_kit with the copilot format (Pro) returns .github/instructions/gobanana-<slug>.instructions.md with applyTo set to your page’s files. Copilot applies it only when it works on those files. GoBanana never edits your global .github/copilot-instructions.md. See Hand off.

Organizations

Organizations can centrally manage which MCP servers Copilot may use. If GoBanana’s tools never show, ask your admin whether MCP servers are allowed.

What was verified

Checked on 2026-10-12 against the VS Code docs “Add and manage MCP servers”. On this machine, VS Code 1.141.0 ran the one command above with a temporary profile (--user-data-dir) and wrote exactly the servers entry shown in the project tab, with "type": "http". The VS Code docs page does not describe the OAuth prompt, and the sign in itself was not tested here.