vscode-mcp-server-mini

A minified version of vscode-mcp-server by Andrew Gertig.

About

This is a lightweight version of the original VS Code MCP Server by Block, which helps reduce the number of tools sent with each message to Claude.

This means you can send more messages and have longer conversations without running into "time based rate limits" on the $20/month professional plan.

I strongly recommend using this in combination with https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp, which adds only a single tool to Claude.

With EZ Yang's codemcp + vscode-mcp-server-mini, you come to a total of 6 tools which give you a true coding AI Agent that can executre terminal commands, commit changes in git-like fashion and most importantly allow you to see what is happening in Visual Studio Code.

This combination is an alternative to:

• The original vscode-mcp-server by Block Open Source 10 Tools [https://github.com/block/vscode-mcp]
• Desktop Commander 20 Tools [https://smithery.ai/server/@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander]
• Cursor with MCP tools
• Windsurf with MCP tools
• Cline with MCP Tools

How is this approach different from Cusrsor, Windsurf, Cline and other AI Code Editors?

• When you're coding in an editor (IDE), you will either bring your own API Key for the LLM you wish to use OR pay a hefty fee based on a credits based system
• Second, you will be operating inside the code editor which in itself imposes context limitations (i.e your API requests will often timeout or get refused because you're sending very large amounts of text/code with each request)
• Here, you shift to the Claude Desktop interface and use terminal commands to access the most relevant lines of code within the file you're working on
• This means the LLM gets overwhelmed a lot less frequently, you pay less and responses are much faster
• The only compromise is that you will be limited to using Anthropi's models, such as Claude 3.7 Sonnet
• But truth be told, you're most likely already using Claude 3.7 Sonnet (but paying more) so it isn't really a compromise
• For those new, Claude 3.7 Sonnet continues to outperform competing LLM's in code generation (especially for Python & JavaScript)

Modifications from Original

• Removed tools: open_project, open_file, list_available_projects, get_active_tabs
• Kept only essential tools: execute_shell_command, create_diff, check_extension_status, get_extension_port, get_context_tabs
• Reduced package size and dependencies

Credits

Original package and implementation by Andrew Gertig (https://github.com/block/vscode-mcp)

Minified version by Umair Kamil (I take no credit for this, I literally just reduced the package)

License

This project is licensed under the same terms as the original repository.

Architecture & Installation

For those new to coding with AI Agents, vs-code-mcp works as follows:

1. An extension is installed inside VS Code allowing it to listen for requests
2. A local server is spun up when you start Claude allowing to make requests to VS code

Always open VS Code first, navigate to the relevant folder/directory where your code files are (File>Open Folder) and then Open Claude Desktop afterwards.

And I strongly recommend using the "check_extension_status" and "get_extension_port" at the beginning of your conversation to make sure that everything is working.

1. Install the vs-code-mcp extension for VS Code here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=block.vscode-mcp-extension

2. Install the vs-code-mcp tools for Claude with this command (run in Mac OS terminal/Windows cmd):

npx vscode-mcp-server-mini install