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Cannot install MCP:Context7 on WSL Remote when using nvm #255220

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@brucejo75

Description

@brucejo75

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: N/A - trying to run extension

  • VS Code Version: 1.102.0
  • OS Version: 24H2 (OS Build 26100.4652

Repro

I am running a Remote Session with WSL2 as the target.

  1. Click on Extensions
  2. Click on Browse MCP servers
  3. Find Context7 from upstash
  4. Click install, all good! That was pretty easy.
  5. Click on start server

Result:

2025-07-10 12:27:08.298 [info] Starting server context7
2025-07-10 12:27:08.298 [info] Connection state: Starting
2025-07-10 12:27:08.301 [info] Starting server from LocalProcess extension host
2025-07-10 12:27:08.303 [info] Connection state: Starting
2025-07-10 12:27:08.312 [info] Connection state: Error spawn npx ENOENT

Other

I have npx/node installed on my WSL remote machine:

$ which npx
/home/test/.nvm/versions/node/v22.17.0/bin/npx
$ which node
/home/test/.nvm/versions/node/v22.17.0/bin/node
  • I tried installing node on my windows machine. In that case installing Context7 would simply hang. So I uninstalled windows node.

Does installing via extensions always install in user? Can I somehow get it to install in Remote:WSL settings? I think that is the issue...

Workaround?

I tried to configure directly in Remote:WSL settings.json and I now get an error:

Unknown Configuration Setting
MCP servers should not be configured in remote user settings. Use the dedicated MCP configuration instead.

PS

This may be a pretty wide problem:
#249424
#246293
#245045

This is the response: #245045 (comment) (totally off base)
This is nvm in WSL Remote.

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