Client Setup: Copilot CLI and VS Code (including Insiders)

Official references

• https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/customize-copilot/add-mcp-servers
• https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/context/mcp
• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/mcp-servers
• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/reference/mcp-configuration

Status

• Confidence: High (official GitHub and VS Code docs found).

Integration notes

• Configure local stdio MCP server in Copilot CLI and VS Code MCP settings.
• Ensure workspace trust before enabling server.
• Use the absolute path to the built release binary, usually /path/to/reasonkit-think/target/release/reasonkit-think-mcp.

Copilot CLI example (~/.copilot/mcp-config.json or workspace .mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reasonkit-think": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/reasonkit-think-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": { "TMPDIR": "/tmp" },
      "tools": ["*"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / VS Code Insiders example (mcp.json)

VS Code stores MCP servers under the top-level servers key.

{
  "servers": {
    "reasonkit-think": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/reasonkit-think-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": { "TMPDIR": "/tmp" }
    }
  }
}

Multi-client reference: root README.md.

Verification checklist

• server added and trusted
• tools visible in MCP panel
• prompts visible in MCP panel
• reasoning resources accessible through list_reasoning_resources and read_reasoning_resource
• ./scripts/client_compat_check.py reports status: "ok"

Troubleshooting

If Copilot reports spawn ... ENOENT or Failed to connect to MCP server "reasonkit-think", the configured binary path does not exist or is not executable. Rebuild and verify:

cd /path/to/reasonkit-think
export CARGO_TARGET_DIR="$PWD/target"
cargo build --release
./scripts/client_compat_check.py
copilot mcp get reasonkit-think