MCP Server for VS Code

What it does

This VS Code extension bridges your editor's full language intelligence and debugging capabilities to any MCP-compatible AI assistant. Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP client can now directly navigate your codebase semantically, set breakpoints, step through code, and inspect variables — all without reading raw file contents.

It runs as a VS Code extension that exposes an HTTP API on localhost:8991, with a lightweight stdio bridge that translates MCP requests to the extension's HTTP API.

Tools

Language Intelligence (7 tools)

• hover — Get type info and documentation for any symbol by name
• definition — Jump to where a symbol is declared across the workspace
• references — Find all semantic references to a symbol (better than grep)
• callHierarchy — Trace incoming and outgoing call graphs for any function
• symbolSearch — Search for classes, functions, and variables across the project
• workspaceSymbols — Get a complete symbol map of the entire workspace
• diagnostics — Retrieve all errors and warnings from the language server

Refactoring (1 tool)

• refactor_rename — Rename a symbol everywhere it's used, including imports

Debug Tools (17 tools)

Breakpoint management (set, toggle, list, clear), session management (start, stop, list configs, status), runtime control (pause, continue, step over/into/out), and inspection (call stack, inspect variables, evaluate expressions, get debug output).

Installation

Step 1: Download the .vsix from GitHub Releases and install in VS Code via Extensions → ... → Install from VSIX.

Step 2: Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vscode": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["github:malvex/mcp-server-vscode"]
    }
  }
}

For Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add-json vscode '{"type":"stdio","command":"npx","args":["github:malvex/mcp-server-vscode"]}' -s user

Supported hosts

Claude Desktop and Claude Code are explicitly confirmed in the README.