ailinks:

VS Code/install-mcp

Install an MCP server

One click adds an MCP server to the reader's VS Code.

macos · windows · linux · updated 2026-07-12

Format

vscode:mcp/install?{config}

Try it

vscode:mcp/install?%7B%22name%22%3A%22github%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fapi.githubcopilot.com%2Fmcp%2F%22%7DOpen

What you supply

{config}

The whole server definition as JSON, URL-encoded. The server's name lives inside the JSON.

encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify({name, type, url})) — exactly what VS Code does when it builds one of these itself.

Note the single colon. It is vscode:mcp/install, not vscode://mcp/install, and the entire query is the JSON — there is no name= or config= parameter.

The ?name=…&config=… shape you see on README badges belongs to the redirect wrapper, not to the scheme. insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install works for stable VS Code too, despite the hostname; it is what badges use because an https:// link survives GitHub, where the raw scheme is stripped. Add &quality=insiders to target Insiders.

Two siblings worth knowing: vscode:mcp/by-name/{name} installs a server from the gallery by name, with no config payload at all, and vscode:mcp/{host/path} treats the rest as an https URL.

The config travels inside the link, so the reader is installing whatever you encoded, and it runs on their machine. Read one before you click it. Cursor's equivalent wants base64 instead of URL-encoded JSON — same badge row, incompatible payloads.

Also seen in the wild

  • https://insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name={name}&config={config}
  • https://vscode.dev/redirect?url={vscodeUrl}