How to connect GitHub Copilot to MCP servers and tools with Arcade.dev
Blog post from Arcade
Arcade.dev is presented as a remote Model Context Protocol runtime for connecting GitHub Copilot in VS Code to services such as Slack, Jira, Linear, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Word without storing raw API tokens locally. Users create an Arcade MCP Gateway, add its HTTPS URL to VS Code’s MCP configuration through the Command Palette or by editing mcp.json, and authenticate through browser-based OAuth when Copilot first invokes a tool. The platform is described as vaulting credentials, injecting them only at execution time, enforcing user and tool permissions, supplying more than 8,000 agent-oriented tools, and maintaining audit logs of actions. The guide contrasts this approach with local MCP configurations that may use unencrypted, broadly privileged tokens and lack clear execution records, while noting configuration considerations such as longer timeouts for consent flows and narrower prompts to avoid context limits. Example workflows include converting Slack alerts into Linear issues, posting Jira-based progress reports to Slack, and generating a daily plan from Google Calendar data, alongside troubleshooting steps for missing tools, OAuth authorization failures, cached server catalogs, and disabled MCP support.
| Trend | Post Mentions | Total Month Mentions | Posts | Companies | MoM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCP | 49 | 2,241 | 148 | 72 | -74% |
| AI Coding Assistant | 44 | 341 | 115 | 55 | -77% |
| LLM | 6 | 747 | 162 | 79 | -85% |
| Secrets Management | 5 | 451 | 99 | 43 | -80% |
| AI Agents | 1 | 931 | 231 | 103 | -84% |
| Zero Trust | 1 | 20 | 10 | 5 | -90% |
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