DebugMCP is an MCP server that gives AI coding agents access to a debugger inside Visual Studio Code, including breakpoints, stepping, variable inspection, expression evaluation, and pausing execution. Developers use it to let compatible agents investigate and debug programs in any language supported by VS Code, and the catalogue includes its debugging workflow instruction and skill.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/DebugMCP. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/DebugMCP/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/DebugMCPWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/debugmcp/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00970 | $0.00970 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00388 | $0.00388 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00194 | $0.00194 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00097 | $0.00097 |
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 2mo ago.
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.
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 |
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.
- 2mo ago First seen · 94 lines · 970 tokens per session scan A febea7c034f3
DebugMCP AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/DebugMCP (579 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 970 tokens to every session, about $0.0039 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.
DebugMCP AGENTS.md compared with instructions from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DebugMCP AGENTS.mdmicrosoft/DebugMCP | Instructions file | 579 | 2d ago | MIT | A | 970 | Codex, OpenCode |
| plugin-files-modegriddynamics/rosetta | Instructions file | 370 | today | Apache-2.0 | A | 236 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 9,719 | GitHub Copilot |
| next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js | Instructions file | 143k | today | MIT | A | 7,461 | Codex, OpenCode |
| langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain | Instructions file | 149k | yesterday | MIT | A | 4,680 | Codex, OpenCode |
| vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 5,516 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 3,093 | GitHub Copilot |