Granular Tool Management for MCP Servers via Configuration file

[matteo-ladrat-Legrand]

Problem

Currently, VS Code only allows enabling or disabling entire MCP servers. While we can disable individual tools on a per-session basis through the agent mode interface, this approach has significant limitations:

• Repetitive: We must manually disable unwanted tools in every new chat session (except if i missed a way to do it)
• No persistence: Tool preferences don't carry over between sessions
• Error-prone: Easy to forget to disable risky tools, leading to accidental usage

This forces us to either accept all tools from a server, disable the entire server, or waste time managing tools repeatedly in each session.

Proposed Solution

Add configuration options to manage individual tools from MCP servers through settings, providing persistent control that eliminates the need for per-session management if we want

1st idea: Allowlist approach

{
  "mcp": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["server.js"],
      "allowedTools": ["safe-tool-1", "safe-tool-2"]
    }
  }
}

2nd idea: Blocklist approach

{
  "mcp": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["server.js"],
      "disabledTools": ["risky-tool-1", "experimental-tool-2", "useless-tool-3"]
    }
  }
}

[iwangbowen]

VS Code should remember the tool selection

[matteo-ladrat-Legrand]

VS Code should remember the tool selection

Yes, that would be great, but the ability to define it via a configuration file makes it easier to integrate these tools within a development team. This would avoid each member having to do the same configuration on their own.