Use MCP servers in VS Code with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the VS Code toggle, and VS Code gets all of them through a single gateway entry, with lazy discovery loading 3 meta-tools instead of every server's full tool list.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your clients already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle VS Code on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into VS Code's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload VS Code. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching VS Code again.
Where VS Code keeps its MCP config
- Windows
%APPDATA%\Code\User\mcp.json - macOS
~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json - Linux
~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json
JSON with a top-level servers object (VS Code's own MCP schema).
Why a gateway instead of VS Code's own server list?
- One setup, every client. The same servers work in VS Code and every other client on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Up to 91% fewer tool tokens. Instead of every server dumping its tool list into context, the agent loads 3 meta-tools and searches on demand (measured).
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in VS Code's config file.
- Watched by default. Rug-pull and tool-poisoning detection on every tool, plus per-tool governance and a destructive-tool kill switch. How the security works.