DebugMCP AGENTS.md

A guide for DebugMCP, a VS Code extension that lets AI coding agents operate VS Code’s debugger. Debugging means pausing a running program to inspect its execution, including breakpoints, variables, and expressions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when an agent needs to start or stop debugging, step through code, set breakpoints, inspect values, or evaluate expressions.
Why use it?
It gives agents a documented path to the debugger, making it easier to investigate program behavior without manually clicking through VS Code.

Instructions file for CodexOpenCode

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/DebugMCP

Made for: Codex, OpenCode.

Per session 970 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 970 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00970 $0.00970
Opus 5 $0.00485 $0.00485
Sonnet 5 $0.00194 $0.00194
Haiku 4.5 $0.00097 $0.00097

Measured yesterday against content hash febea7c034f3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

DebugMCP AGENTS.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

AGENTS.md · 94 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 94 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Agent Guidelines for DebugMCP

Project Overview

DebugMCP is a VS Code extension that embeds an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, enabling AI coding agents to control VS Code's debugger via DAP (Debug Adapter Protocol). AI agents can start/stop debugging, step through code, set breakpoints, inspect variables, and evaluate expressions.

Architecture

AI Agent (Cline/Copilot/Cursor) → MCP/SSE → DebugMCPServer → DebuggingHandler → DebuggingExecutor → VS Code Debug API

Key Components

Component Responsibility Docs
DebugMCPServer MCP server, tool/resource registration docs/architecture/debugMCPServer.md
DebuggingHandler Operation orchestration, state change detection docs/architecture/debuggingHandler.md
DebuggingExecutor VS Code debug API calls, DAP requests docs/architecture/debuggingExecutor.md
DebugState Debug session state model docs/architecture/debugState.md
DebugConfigurationManager Launch configs, language detection docs/architecture/debugConfigurationManager.md
AgentConfigurationManager AI agent auto-configuration docs/architecture/agentConfigurationManager.md

Documentation Maintenance

IMPORTANT: Keep docs/*.md files up to date when modifying components. These docs should remain high-level:

  • Purpose and motivation
  • Responsibility scope
  • Key concepts and patterns
  • Pointers to relevant code sections

Do NOT duplicate detailed implementation in docs - that information should be inferred from the code itself.

File Header

Include in each source file:

// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

Build/Lint/Test Commands

Command Description
npm run compile Compile TypeScript to out/
npm run lint Run ESLint on src/
npm test Run all tests (src/test/*.test.ts)
npm run watch Compile in watch mode

Read the full file on GitHub · 94 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 94 lines · 970 tokens per session scan A febea7c034f3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

DebugMCP AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/DebugMCP (487 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 970 tokens to every session, about $0.0049 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other instructions, from other repositories

gortex CLAUDE.md

Instructions for zzet/gortex, covering gortex, build & test, codebase overview, discovery (read once, then keep using) and llm provider (powers ask and searchsymbols assist: modes).

zzet/gortex · 5,172 tokens

mcp-unity AGENTS.md

Instructions for CoderGamester/mcp-unity, covering mcp unity — ai agent guide (mcp package), purpose (what this repo is), how it works (high-level data flow), key defaults & invariants and repo layout (where to change what).

CoderGamester/mcp-unity · 2,498 tokens

mcp-server-azure-devops AGENTS.md

Instructions for Tiberriver256/mcp-server-azure-devops: /home/tiberriver256/repos/mcp-server-azure-devops/docs/important-knowledge/azure-devops-rest-api-research.md Researching Azure DevOps REST APIs, selecting api-version, or handling Azure DevOps Server (on-prem) endpoints.

Tiberriver256/mcp-server-azure-devops · 178 tokens

rosetta AGENTS.md

Instructions for griddynamics/rosetta: Main goal: cover E2E AI PDLC engineering workflows at foundation level for AI-First SDLC in enterprise. Top-level or orchestrator agents MUST READ docs/ARCHITECTURE.md contains technical details and guidance, and docs/CONTEXT.md - business context. Subagents - when needed.…

griddynamics/rosetta · 270 tokens

rails-ai-context AGENTS.md

Instructions for crisnahine/rails-ai-context, covering rails-ai-context, agent skills, issue tracker, triage labels and domain docs.

crisnahine/rails-ai-context · 134 tokens

inspecto CLAUDE.md

Instructions for inspecto-dev/inspecto, covering inspecto — claude code development guide, project overview, monorepo structure, development phases (load each file as needed) and key architectural decisions.

inspecto-dev/inspecto · 1,014 tokens