BifrostMCP is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides a server compliant with the MCP (Model Context Protocol) protocol, exposing VS Code's powerful development tools and language features to AI tools, thereby giving AI coding assistants that support the MCP protocol advanced code navigation, analysis, and manipulation capabilities.
Purpose This extension is mainly used to open up VS Code's language server capabilities, symbol search, code analysis, and refactoring features to AI coding assistants, enabling them to perform semantic-level code understanding and manipulation when assisting with coding.
Main capabilities
- Language server integration: Access VS Code's language server capabilities for any supported language.
- Code navigation: Find references, definitions, implementations, etc.
- Symbol search: Search for symbols throughout the entire workspace.
- Code analysis: Obtain semantic tokens, document symbols, and type information.
- Smart selection: Use semantic selection ranges for intelligent code selection.
- Code actions: Access refactoring suggestions and quick fixes.
- HTTP/SSE server: Expose language features through an MCP-compatible HTTP server.
- AI assistant integration: Can be used with AI assistants that support the MCP protocol.
Available tools The tools exposed by the extension include: find_usages (locate all symbol references), go_to_definition (jump to a symbol definition), find_implementations (discover implementations of interfaces/abstract methods), get_hover_info (get rich symbol documentation on hover), get_document_symbols (list all symbols in a file), get_completions (context-aware autocompletion), get_signature_help (function parameter hints and overloads), get_rename_locations (safely obtain the locations that need to be renamed in the project), rename (perform rename on a symbol), get_code_actions (quick fixes, refactorings, and improvements), get_semantic_tokens (enhanced highlighting data), get_call_hierarchy (view incoming/outgoing call relationships), get_type_hierarchy (visualize class and interface inheritance), get_code_lens (inline insights such as references, tests, etc.), get_selection_range (intelligent selection expansion for code blocks), get_type_definition (jump to the underlying type definition), get_declaration (navigate to a symbol declaration), get_document_highlights (highlight all occurrences of a symbol), get_workspace_symbols (search for symbols throughout the entire workspace).
How to use
- Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
- Install the required language-specific extensions.
- Open a project in VS Code.
- After the extension is activated, the MCP server starts automatically. The default port is 8008 (configurable via bifrost.config.json).
- Configure an MCP-compatible AI assistant to connect: SSE endpoint http://localhost:8008/sse，消息端点 http://localhost:8008/message。
- Example rules are provided and can be used in a .cursorrules file for better results, and example MDC rules are also available.
Multi-project support Each project can have its own independent MCP server endpoint and port. Create a bifrost.config.json file in the project root, and the server will create a project-specific endpoint accordingly (e.g., http://localhost:5642/my-project/sse）、向 The AI assistant provides project information, uses a dedicated port for each project, and isolates project services. Each project should specify a unique port to avoid conflicts among multiple VS Code instances; if no port is specified, port 8008 is used by default to maintain backward compatibility. If the configured port is already in use, the server will fail to start, and you need to free the port, change the configured port, or close other VS Code instances occupying that port.
Available commands
- Bifrost MCP: Start Server: manually start the MCP server on port 8008.
- Bifrost MCP: Start Server on port: manually start the MCP server on a specified port.
- Bifrost MCP: Stop Server: stop the running MCP server.
- Bifrost MCP: Open Debug Panel: open the debug panel to test available tools.
Use cases Suitable for development scenarios involving code navigation, analysis, refactoring, and symbol search using AI programming assistants that support the MCP protocol (such as Cursor, Cline, Roo Code, etc.).
Limitations Requires Visual Studio Code 1.93.0 or later, as well as the language extension for the language being used. If you encounter problems, you need to check whether the language extension is installed, whether the project is loaded correctly in VS Code, whether port 8008 is available, and view the error information in the VS Code Output panel. This extension uses the APGL-3.0 license.
