VS MCP Server

Let AI assistants like Claude control Visual Studio through the Model Context Protocol!

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🤔 What is this?

VS MCP Server exposes Visual Studio features through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI assistants like Claude to interact with your IDE programmatically. Open files, read code, build projects, and more - all through natural conversation!

✨ Features

📂 Solution Tools

Tool	Description
project_info	Get detailed project information
project_list	List all projects in the solution
solution_close	Close the current solution
solution_info	Get information about the current solution
solution_open	Open a solution file
startup_project_get	Get the current startup project
startup_project_set	Set the startup project for debugging

📝 Document Tools

Tool	Description
document_active	Get the active document
document_cleanup	Run code cleanup on a document
document_close	Close a document
document_list	List all open documents
document_open	Open a file in the editor
document_read	Read document contents
document_save	Saves an open document
document_write	Write to a document
file_create	Create a file on disk and open it in the editor
folder_create	Create a folder on disk

✏️ Editor Tools

Tool	Description
editor_find	Search within documents
editor_goto_line	Navigate to a specific line
editor_insert	Insert text at cursor position
editor_replace	Find and replace text
selection_get	Get the current text selection
selection_set	Set the selection range

🔨 Build Tools

Tool	Description
build_cancel	Cancel a running build
build_configuration_get	Get the active and available build configuration/platform pairs
build_configuration_set	Change the active build configuration and platform
build_project	Build a specific project
build_solution	Build the entire solution
build_status	Get current build status
clean_solution	Clean the solution

🧭 Navigation Tools

Tool	Description
find_references	Find all references to a symbol
goto_definition	Navigate to the definition of a symbol
symbol_document	Get all symbols defined in a document
symbol_workspace	Search for symbols across the solution

🐛 Debugger Tools

Tool	Description
debugger_add_breakpoint	Add a breakpoint at a file and line
debugger_break	Pause execution (Ctrl+Alt+Break)
debugger_continue	Continue execution (F5)
debugger_evaluate	Evaluate an expression in the current debug context
debugger_get_callstack	Get the call stack
debugger_get_locals	Get local variables in current frame
debugger_launch	Start debugging (F5), optionally for a specific project
debugger_launch_without_debugging	Start without debugger (Ctrl+F5), optionally for a specific project
debugger_list_breakpoints	List all breakpoints
debugger_remove_breakpoint	Remove a breakpoint
debugger_set_variable	Set the value of a local variable
debugger_status	Get current debugger state
debugger_step_into	Step into (F11)
debugger_step_out	Step out (Shift+F11)
debugger_step_over	Step over (F10)
debugger_stop	Stop debugging (Shift+F5)

🔍 Diagnostics Tools

Tool	Description
errors_list	Read build errors, warnings, and messages from the Error List
output_list_panes	List all available Output window panes
output_read	Read content from an Output window pane
output_write	Write a message to an Output window pane

🧪 Test Tools

Tool	Description
test_cancel	Cancel the test run in progress
test_debug	Debug the tests in a single class or method
test_debug_all	Debug every test in the solution
test_run	Run the tests in a single class or method
test_run_all	Run every test in the solution
test_stats	Get passed, failed, skipped, and not-run counts
test_status	Get the run state plus current counts

📊 Coverage Tools

Tool	Description
coverage_analyze	Run all tests with code coverage collection
coverage_report	Read results as a module / class / method tree with line and block counts
coverage_show	Open the Code Coverage Results window

ℹ️ Running coverage needs an edition that supports it — Enterprise only through VS 2022, all editions from VS 2026. Reading an existing .coverage file with coverage_report works on every edition.

💻 Terminal Tools

Tool	Description
terminal_close	Close a single integrated terminal
terminal_close_all	Close every integrated terminal
terminal_create	Open an empty terminal using the default profile
terminal_list	List the open terminal identifiers
terminal_run	Run a command in a new terminal, inside the VS developer environment
terminal_show	Bring a terminal into view

⚠️ Terminal output is not captured. The Visual Studio terminal is a raw PTY with no exit code or command boundaries, so terminal_run reports only whether the terminal opened. To read results, redirect output to a file and read it back with document_read.

🪟 Window Tools

Tool	Description
toolwindow_hide	Hide (close) a tool window by caption
toolwindow_show	Show a tool window by name (SolutionExplorer, ErrorList, Output, Terminal, etc.)
window_activate	Activate (focus) a window by caption
window_list	List all open windows with caption, kind, visibility, and GUID

🛠️ Installation

Visual Studio Marketplace

1. Open Visual Studio 2022 or 2026
2. Go to Extensions > Manage Extensions
3. Search for "MCP Server"
4. Click Download and restart Visual Studio

Manual Installation

Download the latest .vsix from the Releases page and double-click to install.

🚀 Usage

▶️ Starting the Server

1. Open Visual Studio
2. Go to Tools > MCP Server > Start Server (or enable auto-start in settings)
3. The MCP server starts on http://localhost:5050

🤖 Configuring Claude Desktop & Claude Code

Add this to your Claude Desktop or Claude Code MCP settings (preferred HTTP method):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "visualstudio": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:5050"
    }
  }
}

Legacy SSE method (deprecated, but still supported):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "visualstudio": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:5050/sse"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code (CLI) - alternate installation technique:

   claude mcp add --transport http visualstudio http://localhost:5050

ℹ️ Note: The HTTP method is the preferred standard. SSE (Server-Sent Events) is a legacy protocol and should only be used for backward compatibility.

⚙️ Settings

Configure the extension at Tools > Options > MCP Server:

Setting	Description	Default
Auto-start server	Start the MCP server when Visual Studio launches	Off
Binding Address	Address the server binds to	localhost
HTTP Port	Port for the MCP server	5050
Server Name	Name reported to MCP clients	Visual Studio MCP
Log Level	Minimum log level for output	Information
Log Retention	Days to keep log files	7

⚠️ terminal_run executes commands on your machine. Combined with a Binding Address other than localhost, this exposes command execution to your network. Leave the binding address at localhost unless you specifically need remote access.

🏗️ Architecture

+------------------+              +----------------------+   named pipes   +------------------+
|  Claude Desktop  |   HTTP/SSE  |  MCPServer.Server    | <-------------> |  VS Extension    |
|  (MCP Client)    | <---------> |  (MCP Server)        |    JSON-RPC     |  (Tool Impl)     |
+------------------+    :5050    +----------------------+                 +------------------+

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether it's bug reports, feature requests, or pull requests - all feedback helps make this extension better.

🔧 Development Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Open src/CodingWithCalvin.MCPServer.slnx in Visual Studio 2022
3. Ensure you have the "Visual Studio extension development" workload installed
4. Ensure you have .NET 10.0 SDK installed
5. Press F5 to launch the experimental instance

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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👥 Contributors

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Made with ❤️ by Coding With Calvin