VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Connect Causely to GitHub Copilot in VS Code to query root causes and service health from Copilot Chat.

Prerequisites

• Active Causely account
• VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension (version 0.22+ for MCP support)
• For skills: a recent VS Code build with Agent Skills support (VS Code 1.108 or later) and Copilot agent mode enabled

Setup

Setup is two steps: connect the MCP server, then add the skills. The badge below handles the first step. The skills are a separate install covered in Step 2: Add the skills, and they are what route your questions to the right tools.

Step 1: Connect the server

Click to install the Causely MCP server in VS Code:

VS Code opens a confirmation dialog showing the server config. Confirm, and on first connect a browser window opens for Causely OAuth login. After you authorize, VS Code stores the token and reconnects automatically.

note

The badge must be clicked from a browser or the rendered docs page, not from inside VS Code. Clicking a vscode: link within VS Code resolves it as a file path and fails.

Manual alternative

Create or update .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "causely": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.causely.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

note

VS Code Copilot uses servers as the top-level key, not mcpServers. Using mcpServers silently fails, the server simply won't appear.

Config file location

Scope	Path
Workspace	.vscode/mcp.json at the repository root
User	Command Palette → MCP: Open User Configuration

Confirm the connection

After connecting, open the Command Palette and run MCP: List Servers to confirm causely appears. Copilot Chat picks up the server on the next conversation turn, no full restart required.

Step 2: Add the skills

Seven skills activate automatically once installed: one master router (causely-mcp) plus six specialists. See the Skills page for the full list, trigger phrases, and override options.

VS Code reads skills as folders on disk. Copilot discovers any skill directory in a supported location and loads it on relevance.

Install

Ensure that Skills are enabled for your Enterprise or Team plan.

1. Clone the Causely client repo

git clone https://github.com/causely-oss/causely-client
cd causely-client/skills

2. Copy the seven skill folders into a location VS Code reads. Pick one of the two options below, they differ only in where the skills are available.

Option A, personal. Installs the skills once for your user account, available in every workspace. Copies into ~/.copilot/skills/:

mkdir -p ~/.copilot/skills
cp -r skills/causely-mcp skills/causely-alert-triage skills/causely-change-impact \
      skills/causely-correlated-incidents skills/causely-health-reporting \
      skills/causely-k8s-investigation skills/causely-postmortem \
      ~/.copilot/skills/

Option B, workspace. Installs the skills into a single repository, available only when that repo is open, and shared with anyone who clones it. Replace <your-repo> with the path to the repository. Copies into .github/skills/:

mkdir -p <your-repo>/.github/skills
cp -r skills/causely-mcp skills/causely-alert-triage skills/causely-change-impact \
      skills/causely-correlated-incidents skills/causely-health-reporting \
      skills/causely-k8s-investigation skills/causely-postmortem \
      <your-repo>/.github/skills/

tip

VS Code also reads .claude/skills/ (workspace) and ~/.claude/skills/ (user). If you already installed the Causely skills for Claude Code, VS Code picks them up with no extra steps.

3. Reload the window: Command Palette → Developer: Reload Window. In Copilot Chat, switch to agent mode, then type / to see the causely-* skills listed as slash commands, or run /skills to open the Configure Skills menu. Verify

In Copilot Chat agent mode, try: "What's broken right now?" The causely-health-reporting skill should activate. To confirm a specific skill loads, invoke it directly with /causely-health-reporting.

Overrides

Force a specific specialist with its slash command, for example /causely-postmortem, or with natural language: "use causely-postmortem: write a retrospective for the payment incident on April 25." To bypass skills entirely, call MCP tools directly. See the Full Tool Reference.

Try It Now

• "List my clusters."
• "Are there any active symptoms right now?"
• "What services are currently degraded?"
• "Draft a postmortem for the most recent incident."

Known Gotcha

• Skills load in agent mode only. In ask or edit mode, the skills are not consulted. Switch Copilot Chat to agent mode before testing.
• Older VS Code builds ignore the skills folders silently. If /causely-* commands do not appear after a reload, confirm your VS Code version supports Agent Skills (1.108 or later) and that the GitHub Copilot extension is current.
• Directory name must match the skill name. The folders in the Causely repo already satisfy this. If you rename a folder, its name field in SKILL.md must match, or the skill fails to load with no error.
• Enterprise policy. If your organization uses GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise, an admin may need to allow MCP servers, and in some cases Agent Skills, in the Copilot policy settings before user-configured skills and servers connect. See Advanced Authentication for adding machine credentials via headers or VS Code inputs.
• Routing behavior can differ from Claude. In VS Code, Copilot matches your prompt against each skill's description directly, so a specialist may activate without going through the causely-mcp router. This is expected. If a prompt consistently routes to the wrong specialist, name the correct one with its slash command and email support@causely.ai with the prompt text.