Allison announces the general availability of Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for GitHub Copilot in JetBrains, Eclipse, and Xcode, highlighting expanded integration options and contextual coding capabilities.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support for GitHub Copilot Now Available in JetBrains, Eclipse, and Xcode

The GitHub Copilot team has announced that Model Context Protocol (MCP) support is now generally available for JetBrains, Eclipse, and Xcode IDEs. This update empowers GitHub Copilot to connect with a broad range of external tools and data sources, offering deeper contextual awareness for developers and improving coding intelligence.

What Is MCP?

MCP is a protocol specification that allows GitHub Copilot to integrate with both local and remote servers acting as context providers. Using MCP, Copilot operates in agent mode and can perform expanded tasks, such as:

  • Connecting to remote or local MCP servers
  • Creating GitHub issues from within the IDE
  • Checking repository history
  • Searching GitHub repositories and more

Connections to MCP servers require either Personal Access Token (PAT) or OAuth authentication methods for security.

Supported IDEs and Getting Started

MCP is supported in the following environments:

To use MCP:

  1. Install the latest GitHub Copilot plugin for your IDE.
  2. Ensure you have a valid Copilot license.
  3. Follow the official setup guides:

Enterprise and Organization Policy

For enterprise and organization administrators, MCP access is managed via the Copilot policy settings within the MCP server. Note that MCP is disabled by default and must be enabled by an administrator. Official documentation on enabling MCP policy is available.

Feedback

Developers are encouraged to provide feedback and share their experience:

MCP integration marks a significant improvement in the flexibility and contextual power of GitHub Copilot across popular development environments.

This post appeared first on “The GitHub Blog”. Read the entire article here