VS Code setup

CommitMind meets VS Code in two ways: MCP for Copilot Chat (same tools as Claude Code / Cursor) and the CommitMind for VS Code extension (tasks, active sessions, rules, playbooks from the local daemon cache). They complement each other — MCP is for the chat agent; the extension is for the sidebar UI.

Install the extension

Visual Studio Marketplace: CommitMind for VS Code
Open VSX (Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf, etc.): Open VSX listing

The extension reads the local SQLite cache the commitmind daemon maintains. No separate login inside the extension — use the CLI first.

CLI + daemon (required)

From your repo:

commitmind login
commitmind init

init picks the org/project, stores a repo-scoped agent token under ~/.config/commitmind/tokens/, and installs the git hooks. To wire the Copilot Chat MCP config, run commitmind init --mcp-config-only=vscode — it writes <repo>/.vscode/mcp.json (see below).

Check the daemon:

commitmind sync status

If panels show “run commitmind init”, do that in the workspace root, then Reload Window.

MCP config for Copilot Chat (per-project)

VS Code’s MCP host expects servers, not mcpServers, in:

<repo>/.vscode/mcp.json

commitmind init --mcp-config-only=vscode writes two servers:

{
  "servers": {
    "commitmind": {
      "command": "commitmind",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    },
    "commitmind-code": {
      "command": "commitmind",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve-code"]
    }
  }
}

commitmind — memory and task tools (prime_session, search_memory, recent_activity, task_*, log_observation, …).
commitmind-code — indexed code tools (xref — single code-navigation tool with suffix grammar: < callers, :: body, /+ext outline, mode=fts|substring content), plus get_rules_for_this_file, check_rules, search_memory, review_changes.

If you use a non-default API host, both blocks get the same COMMITMIND_BACKEND_URL env — mirror what commitmind init prints.

Enable both servers in Settings → MCP (or the Copilot MCP panel). Chat only sees tools from enabled servers.

Restart VS Code or run Developer: Reload Window after editing .vscode/mcp.json.

Slash commands

VS Code + Copilot Chat doesn't load repo-defined custom slash commands. Ask in natural language (e.g. “prime CommitMind for this project”) so the agent calls prime_session and the other MCP tools — or rely on Copilot instructions / team rules you keep in-repo.

Extension UI (sidebar)

Open the CommitMind activity bar. You get read-only trees fed by the cache — Active Task (pinned task + todos; can list live MCP sessions when the daemon has synced them), Tasks (grouped by workflow phase), Active Rules, Playbooks. Use CommitMind: Refresh on a panel if something looks stale.

Troubleshooting

Could not open cache / native module errors — use extension ≥ v0.0.3 (ships better-sqlite3 transitives in the .vsix).
No MCP tools in Copilot — confirm .vscode/mcp.json exists at the workspace folder root, both commitmind and commitmind-code are enabled, and commitmind is on the same PATH VS Code uses (or use an absolute command path in JSON).
“No project” in every panel — run commitmind init in this repo, then reload the window.

For the full MCP tool list, see Claude Code setup — Tools — the surface is the same; only the config path and top-level key (servers vs mcpServers) differ.