microsoft / microsoft/AL

AL MCP (VS Code facade): al_publish only publishes the active project — no projectPath/scope to target a specific app or publish all workspace apps

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Description

1. Describe the bug

The in-VS-Code AL MCP facade al_publish can only publish the active project (resolved from VS Code''s active editor context). It exposes no parameter to choose which project to publish, and no way to publish more than one.

Its parameters are debug, skipbuild, fulldependencytree, type ΓÇö there is no projectPath, no scope, no project/app selector. In a multi-root / multi-project workspace (e.g. a main app plus separate test apps), an agent cannot publish a chosen app or all apps via MCP. The only way to switch the target is to externally change which editor/project is "active" in the VS Code UI ΓÇö not viable for autonomous, headless agent loops.

fulldependencytree=true publishes the active app along its dependency-symbol chain; it does not publish sibling apps in the workspace as separate extensions.

2. To Reproduce

  1. Open a workspace with two or more AL projects (e.g. an app, plus separate test-app projects each with their own app.json).
  2. From Copilot Chat, call al_publish.
  3. Only the currently active project is published. There is no argument to select a different project, and no way to request publishing all of them.

3. Expected behavior

al_publish should support non-interactive, explicit project targeting ΓÇö e.g. one of:

  • a projectPath parameter (as the standalone almcp al_publish already accepts), to publish a specific project regardless of active editor, and/or
  • a scope parameter mirroring al_build (scope=current | scope=all) to publish the active project or every publishable app in the workspace in dependency order.

4. Context

  • al_build already has scope=current / scope=all for whole-workspace builds; al_publish has no equivalent ΓÇö an inconsistency between two tools in the same family.
  • The standalone almcp al_publish accepts projectPath; the VS Code facade variant does not ΓÇö so the facade is strictly less capable for multi-project publishing.
  • Combined with the interactive-picker gap (#8274), the facade al_publish cannot autonomously deliver a multi-app workspace to a target.

5. Versions

  • AL Language: 18.0.x (pre-release)
  • VS Code: 1.124.0
  • OS: Windows

Internal work item: AB#648587

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the VS Code facade implementation of al_publish and compare its parameters with the standalone almcp al_publish and al_build's scope handling. Reproduce the behavior in a multi-root workspace containing separate AL projects, then define and verify explicit projectPath or scope targeting, including the requested handling for all publishable apps.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
vscode
Domain
developer-experience, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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