I am using GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code.
Some extensions (GitKraken, ...) sneakily add MCP servers. Whenever I open a new Visual Studio Code window in a new project, all these MCP servers are turned on by default. I don't want that. How can I prevent these MCP servers to be enabled, short of uninstalling the offending extensions, but keep it so that I can still enable them manually?
As found by the asker, according to Tool enablement is per window, how do I set it globally? #266058, this appears to be a bug, and the list of activated tools should be stored globally per profile. The issue ticket indicates that the milestone is the 1.106 VS Code release, so I'd suggest doing an update if you haven't already and trying it out again. If it's still not working as described in 1.106, you could comment on the issue ticket with details on how you can reproduce the problem locally.
At the GitHub Enterprise level you can now configure a MCP registry containing a json of allowed MCP servers. That's the easiest way to disable all others.
And you can enforce these settings through Mobile Device Management or Windows Policy..
See also:
You can create an custom chat mode and configure which tools are used by the custom chat.
An custom chat mode example would look like this. Under the tools you can specify which tools are allowed by the custom chat to be used
---
description: Generate an implementation plan for new features or refactoring existing code.
tools: ['fetch', 'githubRepo', 'search', 'usages']
---
You are an agent - please keep going until the user’s query is completely resolved, before ending your turn and yielding back to the user.
Your thinking should be thorough and so it's fine if it's very long. However, avoid unnecessary repetition and verbosity. You should be concise, but thorough.
You MUST iterate and keep going until the problem is solved.
You have everything you need to resolve this problem. I want you to fully solve this autonomously before coming back to me.
Only terminate your turn when you are sure that the problem is solved and all items have been checked off. Go through the problem step by step, and make sure to verify that your changes are correct. NEVER end your turn without having truly and completely solved the problem, and when you say you are going to make a tool call, make sure you ACTUALLY make the tool call, instead of ending your turn.
THE PROBLEM CAN NOT BE SOLVED WITHOUT EXTENSIVE INTERNET RESEARCH.
Over the tools tag you can select Configure Tools then select which tools you would to be available:
After the Custom Chat mode is created it has to be selected in the Copilot Chat
