MCP model access permissions fail silently, making working servers appear broken

Describe the feature you’d like

When an MCP server requires model access (for example, to perform sampling), VS Code should explicitly notify the user if the currently selected model has not been granted permission to be used by that MCP server.

Currently, this failure is difficult to discover. From the user’s perspective, the MCP server appears to be malfunctioning, even though the actual issue is simply a missing model access permission.

This is especially confusing because:

* The MCP server starts successfully.
* The server is visible in VS Code.
* Tools may even be listed correctly.
* There is no obvious indication that the selected model is not allowed to access the server.

As a result, many users naturally assume that:

* the MCP server is broken,
* OAuth or authentication is misconfigured,
* or the MCP implementation itself has a bug.

Only users who already know about Configure Model Access are likely to identify the real cause.

Expected behavior

Instead of failing silently, VS Code should provide a clear and actionable message such as:

This MCP server is not permitted to use the selected model.

Actions could include:

* Grant Access
* Configure Model Access

or automatically open the model access configuration dialog.

Why this would help

The current security model makes sense—requiring explicit permission before an MCP server can use a model is a reasonable default.

The issue is discoverability, not security.

A clear permission prompt or error message would significantly improve the onboarding and debugging experience while preserving the existing security model.

Instead of spending time debugging a perfectly healthy MCP server, users would immediately understand that the missing permission is the only issue.