Technology Tales

An Overview of MCP Servers in Visual Studio Code

Published on 29^th August 2025 Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Agent mode in Visual Studio Code now supports an expanding ecosystem of Model Context Protocol servers that equip the editor’s built-in assistant with practical tools. By installing these servers, an agent can connect to databases, invoke APIs and perform automated or specialised operations without leaving the development environment. The result is a more capable workspace where routine tasks are streamlined, and complex ones are broken into more manageable steps. The catalogue spans developer tooling, productivity services, data and analytics, business platforms, and cloud or infrastructure management. If something you rely on is not yet present, there is a route to suggest further additions. Guidance on using MCP tools in agent mode is available in the documentation, and the Command Palette, opened with Ctrl+Shift+P, remains the entry point for many workflows.

The servers in the developer tools category concentrate on everyday software tasks. GitHub integration brings repositories, issues and pull requests into reach through a secure API, so that code review and project coordination can continue without switching context. For teams who use design files as a source of truth, Figma support extracts UI content and can generate code from designs, with the note that using the latest desktop app version is required for full functionality. Browser automation is covered by Playwright from Microsoft, which drives tests and data collection using accessibility trees to interact with the page, a technique that often results in more resilient scripts. The attention to quality and reliability continues with Sentry, where an agent can retrieve and analyse application errors or performance issues directly from Sentry projects to speed up triage and resolution.

The breadth of developer capability extends to machine learning and code understanding. Hugging Face integration provides access to models, datasets and Spaces on the Hugging Face Hub, which is useful for prototyping, evaluation or integrating inference into tools. For source exploration beyond a single repository, DeepWiki by Kevin Kern offers querying and information extraction from GitHub repositories indexed on that service. Converting documents is handled by MarkItDown from Microsoft, which takes common files like PDF, Word, Excel, images or audio and outputs Markdown, unifying content for notes, documentation or review. Finding accurate technical guidance is eased by Microsoft Docs, a Microsoft-provided server that searches Microsoft Learn, Azure documentation and other official technical resources. Complementing this is Context7 from Upstash, which returns up-to-date, version-specific documentation and code examples from any library or framework, an approach that addresses the common problem of answers drifting out of date as software evolves.

Visual assets and code health have their own role. ImageSorcery by Sunrise Apps performs local image processing tasks, including object detection, OCR, editing and other transformations, a capability that supports anything from quick asset tweaks to automated checks in a content pipeline. Codacy completes the developer picture with comprehensive code quality and security analysis. It covers static application security testing, secrets detection, dependency scanning, infrastructure as code security and automated code review, which helps teams maintain standards while moving quickly.

Productivity services focus on planning, tracking and knowledge capture. Notion’s server allows viewing, searching, creating and updating pages and databases, meaning an agent can assemble notes or checklists as it progresses. Linear integration brings the ability to create, update and track issues in Linear’s project management platform, reflecting a growing preference for lightweight, developer-centred planning. Asana support provides task and project management together with comments, allowing multi-team coordination. Atlassian’s server connects to Jira and Confluence for issue tracking and documentation, which suits organisations that rely on established workflows for governance and audit trails. Monday.com adds another project management option, with management of boards, items, users, teams and workspace operations. These capabilities sit alongside automation from Zapier, which can create workflows and execute tasks across more than 30,000 connected apps to remove repetitive steps and bind systems together when native integrations are limited.

Two Model Context Protocol utilities add cognitive structure to how the agent works. Sequential Thinking helps break down complex tasks into manageable steps with transparent tracking, so progress is visible and revisable. Memory provides long-lived context across sessions, allowing an agent to store and retrieve relevant information rather than relying on a single interaction. Together, they address the practicalities of working on multi-stage tasks where recalling decisions, constraints or partial results is as important as executing the next action. Used with the productivity servers, these tools underpin a systematic approach to projects that span hours or days.

The data and analytics group is comprehensive, stretching from lightweight local analysis to cloud-scale services. DuckDB by Kentaro Tanaka enables querying and analysis of DuckDB databases both locally and in the cloud, which suits ad hoc exploration as well as embedded analytics in applications. Neon by neondatabase labs provides access to Postgres with the notable addition of natural language operations for managing and querying databases, which lowers the barrier to occasional administrative tasks. Prisma Postgres from Prisma brings schema management, query execution, migrations and data modelling to the agent, supporting teams who already use Prisma’s ORM in their applications. MongoDB integration supports database operations and management, with the ability to execute queries, manage collections, build aggregation pipelines and perform document operations, allowing front-end and back-end tasks to be coordinated through a single interface.

Observability and product insight are also represented. PostHog offers analytics access for creating annotations and retrieving product usage insights so that changes can be correlated with user behaviour. Microsoft Clarity provides analytics data including heatmaps, session recordings and other user behaviour insights that complement quantitative metrics and highlight usability issues. Web data collection has two strong options. Apify connects the agent with Apify’s Actor ecosystem to extract data from websites and automate broader workflows built on that platform. Firecrawl by Mendable focuses on extracting data from websites using web scraping, crawling and search with structured data extraction, a combination that suits building datasets or feeding search indexes. These tools bridge real-world usage and the development cycle, keeping decision-making grounded in how software is experienced.

The business services category addresses payments, customer engagement and web presence. Stripe integration allows the creation of customers, management of subscriptions and generation of payment links through Stripe APIs, which is often enough to pilot monetisation or administer accounts. PayPal provides the ability to create invoices, process payments and access transaction data, ensuring another widely used channel can be managed without bespoke scripts. Square rounds out payment options with facilities to process payments and manage customers across its API ecosystem. Intercom support brings access to customer conversations and support tickets for data analysis, allowing an agent to summarise themes, surface follow-ups or route issues to the right place. For building and running sites, Wix integration helps with creating and managing sites that include e-commerce, bookings and payment features, while Webflow enables creating and managing websites, collections and content through Webflow’s APIs. Together, these options cover a spectrum of online business needs, from storefronts to content-led marketing.

Cloud and infrastructure operations are often the backbone of modern projects, and the MCP catalogue reflects this. Convex provides access to backend databases and functions for real-time data operations, making it possible to work with stateful server logic directly from agent mode. Azure integration supports management of Azure resources, database queries and access to Azure services so that provisioning, configuration and diagnostics can be performed in context. Azure DevOps extends this to project and release processes with management of projects, work items, repositories, builds, releases and test plans, providing an end-to-end view for teams invested in Microsoft’s tooling. Terraform from HashiCorp introduces infrastructure as code management, including plan, apply and destroy operations, state management and resource inspection. This combination makes it feasible to review and adjust infrastructure, coordinate deployments and correlate changes with code or issue history without switching tools.

These servers are designed to be installed like other VS Code components, visible from the MCP section and accessible in agent mode once configured. Many entries provide a direct route to installation, so setup friction is limited. Some include specific requirements, such as Figma’s need for the latest desktop application, and all operate within the Model Context Protocol so that the agent can call tools predictably. The documentation explains usage patterns for each category, from parameterising database queries to invoking external APIs, and clarifies how capabilities appear inside agent conversations. This is useful for understanding the scope of what an agent can do, as well as for setting boundaries in shared environments.

In day-to-day use, the value comes from combining servers to match a workflow. A developer investigating a production incident might consult Sentry for errors, query Microsoft Docs for guidance, pull related issues from GitHub and draft changes to documentation with MarkItDown after analysing logs held in DuckDB. A product manager could retrieve usage insights from PostHog, review session recordings in Microsoft Clarity, create follow-up tasks in Linear and brief customer support by summarising Intercom conversations, all while keeping a running Memory of key decisions. A data practitioner might gather inputs from Firecrawl or Apify, store intermediates in MongoDB, perform local analysis in DuckDB and publish a report to Notion, building a repeatable chain with Zapier where steps can be automated. In infrastructure scenarios, Terraform changes can be planned and applied while Azure resources are inspected, with release coordination handled through Azure DevOps and updates documented in Confluence via the Atlassian server.

Security and quality concerns are woven through these flows. Codacy can evaluate code for vulnerabilities or antipatterns as changes are proposed, surfacing SAST findings, secrets detection problems or dependency risks before they progress. Stripe, PayPal and Square centralise payment operations to a few well-audited APIs rather than bespoke integrations, which reduces surface area and simplifies auditing. For content and data ingestion, ImageSorcery ensures that image transformations occur locally and MarkItDown produces traceable Markdown outputs from disparate file types, keeping artefacts consistent for reviews or archives. Sequential Thinking helps structure longer tasks, and Memory preserves context so that actions are explainable after the fact, which is helpful for compliance as well as everyday collaboration.

Discoverability and learning resources sit close to the tools themselves. The Visual Studio Code website’s navigation surfaces areas such as Docs, Updates, Blog, API, Extensions, MCP, FAQ and Dev Days, while the Download path remains clear for new installations. The MCP area groups servers by capability and links to documentation that explains how agent mode calls each tool. Outside the product, the project’s presence on GitHub provides a route to raise issues or follow changes. Community activity continues on channels including X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Reddit, and there are broadcast updates through the VS Code Insiders Podcast, TikTok and YouTube. These outlets provide context for new server additions, changes to the protocol and examples of how teams are putting the pieces together, which can be as useful as the tools themselves when establishing good practices.

It is worth noting that the catalogue is curated but open to expansion. If there is an MCP server that you expect to see, there is a path to suggest it, so gaps can be addressed over time. This flows from the protocol’s design, which encourages clean interfaces to external systems, and from the way agent mode surfaces capabilities. The cumulative effect is that the assistant inside VS Code becomes a practical co-worker that can search documentation, change infrastructure, file issues, analyse data, process payments or summarise customer conversations, all using the same set of controls and the same context. The common protocol keeps these interactions predictable, so adding a new server feels familiar even when the underlying service is new.

As the ecosystem grows, the connection between development work and operations becomes tighter, and the assistant’s job is less about answering questions in isolation than orchestrating tools on the developer’s behalf. The MCP servers outlined here provide a foundation for that shift. They encapsulate the services that many teams already rely on and present them inside agent mode so that work can continue where the code lives. For those getting started, the documentation explains how to enable the tools, the Command Palette offers quick access, and the community channels provide a steady stream of examples and updates. The result is a VS Code experience that is better equipped for modern workflows, with MCP servers supplying the functionality that turns agent mode into a practical extension of everyday work.