René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"MCP enabled but no registry servers or tools discovered (no registry UI)","articleBody":"**Title**\nCopilot for Xcode: MCP enabled but always discovers 0 servers / 0 tools on GitHub.com (no registry UI)\n\n**Describe the bug**\nGitHub Copilot for Xcode shows MCP as enabled and triggers MCP refresh, but it never discovers any MCP servers or tools `(Servers: 0, Total tools: 0)`. Our org has a private MCP registry configured in allow “registry-only” mode, with GitHub's MCP server in the allowlist. The same registry works on github.com browser Copilot chats and in other IDEs (VS Code, IntelliJ), but not in Copilot for Xcode.\n\nIn Settings → Tools → MCP:\n- MCP is enabled\n- “Available MCP Tools” is empty\n- UI consistently reports “Servers: 0, Total tools: 0”\n\nThe only editable MCP configuration is a local `mcp.json` file (via “Edit Config”) containing a `servers` object. There is no UI to view/configure an MCP registry base URL for GitHub.com (non-GHES) accounts. Logs show refresh succeeds but results are always 0 servers / 0 tools, with no MCP errors.\n\n**Versions**\n- Copilot for Xcode: 0.46.0\n- Xcode: 26.1.1 (17B100)\n- macOS: 26.2 (Tahoe)\n\n**Steps to reproduce**\n1. Install Copilot for Xcode 0.46.0\n2. Sign in with a GitHub.com Copilot Business account (non-GHES)\n3. Open Copilot for Xcode Settings → Tools → MCP\n4. Confirm MCP is enabled and “Available MCP Tools” is empty\n5. Click “Edit Config”; observe default `mcp.json` contains `\"servers\": {}`\n6. Enable Verbose Logging\n7. Trigger an MCP refresh (activation or settings change)\n8. Observe logs: refresh succeeds but servers/tools remain 0\n\n**Screenshots**\n- Tools → MCP showing MCP enabled and “Available MCP Tools” empty (“Servers: 0, Total tools: 0”)\n\n\u003cimg width=\"898\" height=\"627\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/aa8fd002-609a-4a3b-892a-d15a598681ec\" /\u003e\n\n- `mcp.json` opened via “Edit Config” showing `\"servers\": {}`\n\n\u003cimg width=\"598\" height=\"348\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0c7423ac-ec15-48cc-b5dd-5bb887b62595\" /\u003e\n\n- Tools → Built-In showing built-in tools present (tools UI otherwise works)\n\n\u003cimg width=\"892\" height=\"619\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/53d00eac-ab14-4867-99a4-85d539ca4eca\" /\u003e\n\n**Logs**\n```\nCopilot policy updated: customAgent=true, mcp=true, subagent=true\nRefreshing MCP server tools…\nRefreshed MCP tools - Servers: 0, Total tools: 0, Server names: []\n```\n\n**Additional context**\n- Occurs on GitHub.com Copilot Business (not GHES)\n- No MCP-related errors/warnings during refresh; result is consistently 0 servers / 0 tools\n- Logs also show an `Apple Events permission error on activation: ‘Not authorized to send Apple events to System Events.’ (NSAppleScriptErrorNumber=-1743).` seems unrelated","author":{"url":"https://github.com/AppSecCharlie","@type":"Person","name":"AppSecCharlie"},"datePublished":"2025-12-20T02:02:51.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":5},"url":"https://github.com/673/CopilotForXcode/issues/673"}