Copilot CLI Not calling MS Docs MCP

[garrettlondon1]

Describe the bug

Affected version

0.0.353

Steps to reproduce the behavior

No response

Expected behavior

Call ms docs mcp tools

Additional context

Windows

[garrettlondon1]

Thanks @andyfeller, I created in the correct repo now

[andyfeller]

Sorry about that, @garrettlondon1 🤦

I've been using the Microsoft Learn MCP server as part of my MCP testing here and there because it is a fairly lightweight MCP server. Let me see if I can show you my setup and how it is used while we figure out what is different from your setup. 🙇

Questions

1. Would you have any information from ~/.copilot/logs / using --log-dir PATH regarding the configured MCP servers and their use?
2. Have you tried any other MCP servers?

Attempting to reproduce this

Note

MCP server names must be alphanumeric including hyphens and underscores; I learned that the hard way.

So in this scenario, I'm looking for information regarding winget install command as this is how the GitHub CLI and many other tools can be installed easily on Windows machines.

$ cat ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "msft-learn": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {},
      "tools": [
        "*"
      ]
    }
  }
}


$ copilot
┌──                                                                         ──┐
│                                                           ▄██████▄          │
    Welcome to GitHub                                   ▄█▀▀▀▀▀██▀▀▀▀▀█▄
    █████┐ █████┐ █████┐ ██┐██┐     █████┐ ██████┐     ▐█      ▐▌      █▌
   ██┌───┘██┌──██┐██┌─██┐██│██│    ██┌──██┐└─██┌─┘     ▐█▄    ▄██▄    ▄█▌
   ██│    ██│  ██│█████┌┘██│██│    ██│  ██│  ██│      ▄▄███████▀▀███████▄▄
   ██│    ██│  ██│██┌──┘ ██│██│    ██│  ██│  ██│     ████     ▄  ▄     ████
   └█████┐└█████┌┘██│    ██│██████┐└█████┌┘  ██│     ████     █  █     ████
    └────┘ └────┘ └─┘    └─┘└─────┘ └────┘   └─┘     ▀███▄            ▄███▀
│                              CLI Version 0.0.353      ▀▀████████████▀▀      │
└──                                                                         ──┘
 Version 0.0.353 · Commit f8fd3e3

 Copilot can write, test and debug code right from your terminal. Describe a task to get started or enter ? for help. Copilot uses AI, check for mistakes.

 ● Logged in as user: andyfeller

 ● Configured MCP servers: msft-learn

 ● Connected to GitHub MCP Server

 > Search Microsoft docs for how to install packages using winget

 ● I'll search Microsoft docs for information on installing packages using winget.

 ✓ Microsoft Docs Search
   ↪ [{"title":"Install apps on Surface Hub","content":"# Install apps on Surface ...

 ● I found comprehensive documentation on installing packages with winget. Here's a
   summary:

   Basic Installation Command:

     winget install <package-name>

   Typical workflow:

     - Search for a package: winget search "app name"
     - View details: winget show "app name"
     - Install: winget install "app name"

   Key points:

     - WinGet is preinstalled on Windows 10 (version 1809+) and Windows 11
     - The install command requires exact package names (use search first if unsure)
     - Supports multiple installer formats: EXE, MSI, MSIX, APPX, ZIP, and more
     - Available alias: winget add

   Additional useful commands:

     - winget list - Show installed packages
     - winget upgrade <app> - Update a package
     - winget uninstall <app> - Remove a package
     - winget download <app> - Download installer without installing

   For complete details on the install command and all options, see: 
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/install (
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/install)

 Total usage est:       1 Premium request
 Total duration (API):  12.6s
 Total duration (wall): 12m 24.2s
 Total code changes:    0 lines added, 0 lines removed
 Usage by model:
     claude-sonnet-4.5    32.2k input, 394 output, 0 cache read, 0 cache write (Est. 1 Premium request)

 Shutting down...

When I begun using this particular MCP server, I noticed the ✨ Example Prompts: Your Source of Truth section describing how I as the user should prompt copilot in this case to use the tool:

Your AI assistant should automatically use these tools for Microsoft-related topics. With both search and fetch capabilities, you can get quick answers or comprehensive deep dives. To ensure that it always consults the official documentation, you can add phrases like search Microsoft docs, deep dive, fetch full doc.

Wanting to see whether there was a different in using the MCP server name explicitly, here is a subsequent run:

$ copilot
┌──                                                                         ──┐
│                                                           ▄██████▄          │
    Welcome to GitHub                                   ▄█▀▀▀▀▀██▀▀▀▀▀█▄
    █████┐ █████┐ █████┐ ██┐██┐     █████┐ ██████┐     ▐█      ▐▌      █▌
   ██┌───┘██┌──██┐██┌─██┐██│██│    ██┌──██┐└─██┌─┘     ▐█▄    ▄██▄    ▄█▌
   ██│    ██│  ██│█████┌┘██│██│    ██│  ██│  ██│      ▄▄███████▀▀███████▄▄
   ██│    ██│  ██│██┌──┘ ██│██│    ██│  ██│  ██│     ████     ▄  ▄     ████
   └█████┐└█████┌┘██│    ██│██████┐└█████┌┘  ██│     ████     █  █     ████
    └────┘ └────┘ └─┘    └─┘└─────┘ └────┘   └─┘     ▀███▄            ▄███▀
│                              CLI Version 0.0.353      ▀▀████████████▀▀      │
└──                                                                         ──┘
 Version 0.0.353 · Commit f8fd3e3

 Copilot can write, test and debug code right from your terminal. Describe a task to get started or enter ? for help. Copilot uses AI, check for mistakes.

 ● Logged in as user: andyfeller

 ● Configured MCP servers: msft-learn

 ● Connected to GitHub MCP Server

 > Use msft-learn MCP server to search for how to install packages using `winget`

 ● I'll search the Microsoft Learn documentation for information about installing
   packages using winget.

 ✓ Microsoft Docs Search
   ↪ [{"title":"Install apps on Surface Hub","content":"# Install apps on Surface ...

 ● The search found comprehensive documentation about using winget to install
   packages. Here are the key points:

   Basic Installation Command

     winget install <package-name>

   Common Usage Examples

     - Install .NET SDK: winget install Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.9
     - Install by app name: winget install "Windows Camera"
     - Install with package ID: winget install Microsoft.Whiteboard

   Key Commands

     - winget search <name> - Search for packages
     - winget show <package-id> - View package details
     - winget install <package-id> - Install a package
     - winget list - Show installed packages
     - winget upgrade <package-id> - Update packages
     - winget uninstall <package-id> - Remove packages

   Useful Options

     - --accept-package-agreements - Auto-accept license agreements (useful for scripting)
     - --manifest <path> - Install from a local YAML manifest file

   WinGet is pre-installed on Windows 10 (version 1809+) and Windows 11. You can
   verify installation by running winget in a terminal.

[garrettlondon1]

"tools": [
"*"
]

For some reason my MCP Config had tools as an empty array, I added the asterisk and it works fine now :/