Making your own MCP server in VS Code

In this theater session, Software Engineer Eleanor Boyd walks through building a custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in Visual Studio Code using GitHub Copilot and Python. She walks through a real use case, fetching PyPI package data, and shows how to connect your tool to Copilot’s Agent Mode for powerful AI-assisted coding. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/chat/mcp-servers https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanorjboyd/ 00:00 — Intro: Build an MCP Server in VS Code 00:09 — Overview of GitHub Copilot Features 02:17 — Agent Mode in VS Code Explained 03:05 — Branch Coverage in Python with Coverage.py 05:00 — Using Copilot to Fetch Package Version Info 05:34 — What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? 07:14 — MCP Tools and Real-World Use Case 08:12 — Building a PyPI Info Tool with MCP 09:02 — Setting Up Python Environment in VS Code 11:03 — Generating PyPI Script with Copilot 13:59 — Converting Script into MCP Tool 15:40 — Running and Testing the MCP Server 17:23 — Registering MCP Server in VS Code 18:22 — Using the Tool in Agent Mode 20:50 — Live Demo: Querying PyPI Packages 21:38 — Recap: Benefits of MCP in VS Code 22:14 — Q&A: Optimizing Tool Descriptions 23:49 — Q&A: Sharing MCP Tools with Others 25:56 — Closing Remarks and Thank You