copilot

GitHub Copilot

codescout works with GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code via the MCP protocol. Once registered, Copilot uses codescout's symbol and semantic tools for all code navigation instead of reading source files directly.

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One-Time Setup

Prerequisites: VS Code (latest), GitHub Copilot subscription (Individual, Business, or Enterprise), Rust toolchain.

Install codescout:

cargo install codescout

The binary lands at ~/.cargo/bin/codescout. Make sure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH.

Next, clone the codescout-companion repository — this provides the workflow skills, enforcement hook, and code-reviewer agent used in the steps below. The commands use path/to/copilot-codescout as a placeholder for wherever you cloned it.

Register codescout as an MCP server

Recommended: user-level registration — codescout becomes available in all your projects without per-project config. Edit ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json (create if it doesn't exist):

{
  "servers": {
    "codescout": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "codescout",
      "args": ["start"]
    }
  },
  "inputs": []
}

Note: VS Code uses "servers" not "mcpServers". If cargo is not in PATH, use the full path as the command value (e.g. ~/.cargo/bin/codescout).

Alternative: per-project registration — create .vscode/mcp.json in your project root with the same servers block. Use this if you want codescout only for specific projects.

VS Code schema validation note: VS Code validates MCP tool schemas more strictly than Claude Code. If you see a warning like "Failed to validate tool … array type must have items", it is a schema bug in the MCP server — other tools still load and work normally. Report it to the codescout maintainer.

Once registered, codescout's system prompt injects automatically into every Copilot Chat session, giving Copilot iron laws for code navigation, a tool selection table, anti-patterns to avoid, and the output buffer system for large results.