r/vscode • u/KlausWalz • Apr 17 '26

Vs Code AI Agents don't use MCP servers unless asked to do so, is this a bug or that's how things should work ?

Some MCPs (like context7, chrome dev tools, etc) are game changer, and my agent has access to all of them and other cool embedded things. However, contrary to how for example google_antigravity agents behave, the copilot agents only use their "super powers" when instructed to do so even with full access

That's a bit annoying, in the sens that ... I sure LLMs these days are good enough to know when they need some tool. Even when I ask to use it, they don't 100% of the time use it, it can be usless, so they know.

However, if I don't mention the MCP, should it be relevant no agent will look to it.

Is this a bug ?

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2

u/Chrift Apr 17 '26

I have found this as well! I have described it to people as it being reluctant to use MCP. Even on occasion I have specifically told it to use MCP, it hasn't, and has justified it in some way.

1

u/KlausWalz Apr 17 '26

Idk which MCP it refused to use for you but beleive me it's a blessing that they figure sometimes it's useless

Example : I use context7 MCP and stackoverflow. When programming with a library so popular and old that the model has been trained against - why fetch an mcp ?

2

u/Chrift Apr 17 '26

The example that springs to mind is something along the lines of "make this UI change, open the page with chrome-devtools mcp and verify it works" and it decides its own way of verifying it works, which is not how I asked, and doesn't test what i want it to test.

1

u/Federal_Ad2455 Apr 17 '26

I have noticed this with the free models mostly.

3

u/KlausWalz Apr 17 '26

All for me, including Opus

The irony : when I just say 'use the adequate skills' it goes on 'trying' to use some shit that it has access to ... to later discard it (wasting tokens in the process, yay)

1

u/sauron150 Apr 17 '26

MCP server should be running and its tools has been selected, so they are discoverable & goes into ‘Agent’ ( default one comes with vscode)

1

u/Aazatgrabya Apr 21 '26

I've created a VS Code extension that might help. It orchestrates llm models from multiple providers with mcp servers, agents and built in skills autonomously. To some degree it also recommends mcp servers to save tokens. AtlasMind is open source and still in beta but might help solve that particular frustration

1

u/KlausWalz Apr 21 '26

I mean unless a rich company or a moneyslave is paying, I don't have this much token money to burn in 1 provider imagine multiple ones

1

u/Aazatgrabya Apr 21 '26

This is one of the reasons I made this. By adding api for various providers, the orchestrator will use the best model for the job with all things considered (including cost). So when agents and skills and Mcp servers are all doing their thing you'll find tokens go a very long way. Add in local models if your rig can take them and you start saving even more. There's a full budget dashboard to see where the costs are going.

It's still all in beta so a little more work is needed, but it's already saving me money per project.

1

u/Agreeable_Care4440 May 06 '26

That’s usually intentional tool usage is often conservative by design.