> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orinadus.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# VS Code / Copilot Chat Integration

> Connect Urchin's MCP server to VS Code Copilot Chat for persistent cross-session memory.

## Configuration

Create `.vscode/mcp.json` in your workspace root (not in `.vscode/settings.json`):

```json theme={null}
{
  "servers": {
    "urchin": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "urchin",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```

Restart VS Code. The Urchin tools appear in Copilot Chat automatically.

<Note>
  `.vscode/mcp.json` is workspace-scoped. To enable Urchin globally across all VS Code workspaces, use the VS Code user settings MCP config instead (see VS Code MCP documentation for the exact path on your platform).
</Note>

## Verify

In Copilot Chat, type:

```
#urchin_status
```

Or just ask the agent to run `urchin_status`. Expected output:

```
urchin — local memory sync substrate

running:  true
events:   1042
...
```

## Available tools in Copilot Chat

Once connected, Copilot Chat has access to all 10 Urchin MCP tools:

| Tool                       | Purpose                                 |
| -------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| `urchin_status`            | Show journal health and identity        |
| `urchin_ingest`            | Record a decision, note, or context     |
| `urchin_recent_activity`   | Recall recent events across all sources |
| `urchin_search`            | Keyword search over journal content     |
| `urchin_project_context`   | Scope recall to a project name          |
| `urchin_workspace_context` | Load context for the current repo path  |
| `urchin_remember`          | Quick-capture without a workspace       |
| `urchin_ephemeral`         | Toggle burn mode — suppress writes      |
| `urchin_agent_reflect`     | ReAct reflection over recent journal    |
| `urchin_semantic_search`   | Semantic (cosine similarity) search     |

## Recommended INSTRUCTIONS file addition

Add to `.github/copilot-instructions.md` in your repo:

```markdown theme={null}
At the start of each session, call urchin_workspace_context with the repository root path
to load recent memory. Record decisions with urchin_ingest using kind: decision.
```

## Requirements

* `urchin` on PATH. Install: `cargo install --path crates/urchin-cli`
* VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension
* MCP support in Copilot Chat (available in recent versions)

## Notes

* `urchin serve` is not required for the MCP integration. The VS Code extension launches `urchin mcp` as a subprocess directly.
* If the `.vscode/mcp.json` file is committed to the repo, all team members who open the repo in VS Code will have Urchin available in Copilot Chat (assuming `urchin` is on their PATH).