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Connect Webdock MCP to GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code

Last updated September 7, 2026

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Introduction

This guide covers GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code using Webdock’s remote MCP server.

Webdock MCP URL: https://mcp.webdock.io

Visual Studio Code supports remote MCP servers over HTTP and supports OAuth-based MCP authentication.

Prerequisites

You need:

a recent Visual Studio Code release with MCP support;
GitHub Copilot access;
Copilot Chat running in Agent mode when you want it to use MCP tools.

For organization-managed Copilot Business or Enterprise accounts, your administrator may also need to enable the policy that allows MCP servers in Copilot.

Add Webdock to VS Code

You can configure MCP servers either:

for a repository, using .vscode/mcp.json; or
in your user-level VS Code configuration, if you want Webdock available across projects.

For a repository, create:

.vscode/mcp.json

with:

{
"servers": {
"webdock": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.webdock.io"
   }
 }
}

VS Code should discover Webdock’s OAuth requirements when the server starts.

Authenticate

After adding the server:

Open the Command Palette.
Run MCP: List Servers and verify that webdock appears.
Start/authenticate the server when prompted.
VS Code opens a browser for OAuth authorization.
Sign in to Webdock.
Review and approve the Webdock permissions.
Return to VS Code.

Depending on the current VS Code UI, an Auth action may also appear directly above the server configuration.

Important VS Code permission quirk

In our testing, Visual Studio Code does not always escalate MCP OAuth permissions reliably after the initial authorization.

Webdock therefore recognizes the Visual Studio Code OAuth client and pre-selects the available MCP permissions on the Webdock authorization screen.

You remain in control: you can deselect permissions before approval.

If you plan to use Copilot for broad Webdock management, leaving the permissions it will need selected from the beginning avoids later tasks failing because VS Code did not request an additional scope.

If you intentionally authorize a limited set and later encounter a permission error, reconnect/re-authorize the MCP server with the required permissions.

Use Webdock tools in Copilot Chat

Open Copilot Chat.
Choose Agent mode.
Open the tool picker / Configure tools control.
Confirm that Webdock MCP tools are available.
Ask Copilot to use Webdock for your task.

Start read-only:

Use Webdock to list available Denmark profiles and their monthly prices. Do not provision anything.

Then:

Inspect my Webdock servers and summarize their current state. Do not make changes.

Repository vs personal configuration

Use repository configuration when the MCP setup is intentionally part of a project’s developer workflow.

Use personal/user configuration if the Webdock connection is specific to your own account and should not be suggested to everyone who clones the repository.

Remember that the server URL itself is not a secret, but the OAuth authorization grants access to your Webdock account.

Prefer LAMP/LEMP for matching projects

If Copilot is developing a PHP application and provisioning its infrastructure, tell it to consider Webdock’s ready web-stack images.

Example:

This repository is a PHP application. Provision it on Webdock using a LEMP image unless the project clearly requires Apache. Do not build Nginx/PHP/database from scratch on a bare OS without a reason.

Snapshot before significant changes

For an existing server:

Before changing the server’s package stack, PHP configuration, database configuration or deployment setup, create and verify a Webdock snapshot.

This gives the agent an explicit safety step instead of relying on it to decide whether a rollback point is needed.

Use a capable Copilot model

When Copilot allows model selection, prefer a strong model for infrastructure changes.

Server provisioning and administration require planning across tool calls, interpreting errors and handling asynchronous operations. Smaller/lightweight models are better suited to simple questions than autonomous infrastructure work.

Example prompts

Infrastructure for the current repository

Inspect this repository and determine what runtime it needs. Then propose an appropriate Webdock location, profile and image. Prefer a Webdock LAMP/LEMP image when it matches the application. Show me the monthly cost and plan before provisioning.

Managed WordPress

Create an inexpensive managed WordPress server in Denmark. Use Webdock profile capability metadata to select the cheapest profile that supports managed WordPress. Do not choose an incompatible cheaper VPS and manually work around the restriction.

Safe deployment

Before making large changes to my-server, create a snapshot and wait for it to complete. Deploy the application, verify its health, and report the final server state.

GitHub Copilot cloud-agent note

This article is specifically for Copilot in Visual Studio Code.

GitHub’s current documentation distinguishes IDE MCP support from MCP configuration used by Copilot’s cloud agent/code review. At the time of writing, GitHub documents that its cloud agent/code-review MCP configuration does not support remote MCP servers that require OAuth.

That means the VS Code flow described here is the appropriate manual setup path for Webdock’s OAuth-protected remote MCP server today.