github / github/copilot-cli

MCP Profiles

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area:mcp
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Description

### Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

GitHub Copilot CLI currently uses a single MCP server configuration, which means all configured MCP servers are loaded and available at once. As users adopt more MCP servers (e.g., filesystem, Azure, WorkIQ, Microsoft Learn, Dataverse, internal MCPs), this becomes inefficient and noisy. In practice, users work in different modes—such as development versus productivity/research—and do not need the same MCP servers active in every situation.

### Proposed solution

Introduce MCP server profiles (or contexts) that allow users to define and switch between named sets of MCP servers (e.g., dev, productivity). Only the MCP servers associated with the active profile would be loaded and exposed to the agent.

This would benefit GitHub Copilot CLI users by:

- Improving agent accuracy by limiting tools to what’s relevant for the current task
- Reducing startup overhead and unnecessary permission prompts
- Supporting least‑privilege and safer defaults by avoiding unneeded capabilities
- Making Copilot CLI scale better as MCP usage grows
- Providing a clearer mental model for switching between coding and non‑coding workflows

### Example prompts or workflows

Startup Parameters:
- copilot --mcp-profile dev
- copilot --mcp-profile productivity

In session commands:
- /mcp profile list
- /mcp profile show
- /mcp profile use dev
- /mcp profile use productivity

### Additional context

_No response_

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