Using Locally with Copilot in VS Code

Install

Locally can register the MCP server with VS Code for you:

Use the --force flag to overwrite an existing entry, which is useful in scripts or when updating an existing entry:

To check the registration status across all supported clients on your machine:

Manual Configuration

To configure the MCP server yourself, run MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette. This opens the mcp.json in your VS Code user profile, so the server is available across every workspace. Add a locally entry under servers - VS Code requires the type field to be set to "stdio":

{
  "servers": {
    "locally": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/path/to/locally",
      "args": [
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/locally with the absolute path to the locally binary (which you can find by running which locally on macOS/Linux, or where locally on Windows). VS Code doesn't always use your shell's PATH, so a bare locally may not be found.

VS Code will need to be restarted to pick up the new MCP server.

Uninstall

To remove the entry that locally mcp install copilot-vscode added:

If no Locally entry is present, the command will fail. Use the --force flag to make removal idempotent, which is useful in scripts:

If you configured the MCP server manually, remove the locally entry from your user mcp.json instead.

Next steps

The MCP Server page lists the tools Copilot can use, and the other AI tools locally mcp install supports. You can check what Copilot has created in the Locally Dashboard.