Unable to authenticate using PAT in ADO from VS Code (Azure DevOps MCP Server)

[saym146]

Use case

I have two separate accounts for different services:

• GitHub: Gmail ID — used for GitHub Copilot (GHCP) operations in VS Code
• Azure DevOps: Hotmail ID — used for Azure DevOps operations

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Scenario

1. In VS Code, I sign in with my Gmail account for GitHub Copilot.
   → Works fine for GHCP operations.

2. I have also installed the Azure DevOps MCP server to use Azure DevOps resources from VS Code.

3. I attempt to authenticate Azure DevOps MCP via:

   az login --tenant <tenant-id> --use-device-code

   Azure CLI login succeeds.

4. However, the Azure DevOps MCP server does not detect my Azure CLI authentication and fails to authenticate/authorize in Azure DevOps.

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What I tried

• Confirmed that az devops project list works only if my CLI account has access to the org (which is the Hotmail guest account in my case).

• Attempted to bypass CLI authentication by using a Personal Access Token (PAT):

  npx -y @azure-devops/mcp@latest <org> --token <PAT>

  But MCP still appears to rely on Azure CLI / ChainedTokenCredential authentication and fails with:

  Please run az login...
  

  or

  You are authenticated, but your account does not have permission to access Azure DevOps projects in this organization.
  

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Request for input

• Is PAT-based authentication currently supported in @azure-devops/mcp?
• If so, what is the correct way to configure MCP in VS Code to only use a PAT and skip Azure CLI authentication entirely?
• If not, is there any recommended approach for scenarios where GitHub (Gmail) and Azure DevOps (Hotmail) accounts differ, and the Azure DevOps account is a guest account in Azure AD?

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If needed, I can share the exact MCP config I have been using and CLI output.
Looking forward to community and product team insights.

[danhellem]

PATs will not be supported. We are in the process of building an OAuth flow that should be available for testing soon.