In my previous post, I covered what Copilot Spaces are and how to set one up. Spaces live on github.com by default, but you don't have to leave your editor to use one. The GitHub MCP server exposes your Spaces as tools, so you can pull that curated context straight into VS Code.
Prerequisites
You'll need the remote GitHub MCP server configured for VS Code, and the copilot_spaces toolset explicitly enabled. It's not part of the default toolset.
The easiest way is to install the GitHub extension in VS Code.
This will also add the GitHub MCP server. But as I mentioned above, you will not find the copilot_spaces toolset out-of-the-box. You need to open up the MCP configuration and explicitly add it there.
Add this to your .vscode/mcp.json (or your global MCP configuration):
{
"servers": {
"github": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
"headers": {
"X-MCP-Toolsets": "default,copilot_spaces"
}
}
}
}
Tip: if you only want Spaces and nothing else from the GitHub MCP server, there's a dedicated URL for that: https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/x/copilot_spaces.
Reload VS Code, open Copilot Chat, and switch to Agent mode. Spaces are only reachable through agent mode, since they're implemented as MCP tools rather than a chat participant. Click the tools icon and expand the GitHub MCP server entry to confirm get_copilot_space and list_copilot_spaces show up and are enabled.
Asking Copilot to use a Space
You don't need any special syntax. Just reference the Space in your prompt:
Using the Copilot space ‘Project Mamba’ owned by myorganization,
evaluate the project management plan.
If you don't remember the exact name or owner, a looser prompt works too. Copilot falls back to list_copilot_spaces to find a match:
Evaluate the management plan from the Copilot space for project Mamba.
Follow-up questions in the same conversation keep using that Space automatically.
What doesn't come along for the ride
When testing the feature, I noticed something important: repository context and uploaded files are not available through the MCP server. Only text content added via "Add text content," linked GitHub files, issues, pull requests, and your instructions come through. If your Space's value mostly comes from an attached repo, that context simply isn't there when you ask from VS Code. Only the web version sees it.
Turns out that this is mentioned inside the documentation… 😐
Where this is headed
Will GitHub Spaces replace my usage of Notion, NotebookLM or our Azure DevOps wiki soon? I don’t think so, but it’s certainly worth to give GitHub Spaces and try and keep a close look on how this feature evolves.