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Document plugin, customization, and MCP deep links missing from the guides

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
78/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
markdown, vscode
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start with the agent plugins guide, customization overview, and MCP guides named in the issue; compare their existing link coverage with the route details and implementation references provided here. Cross-link the existing command-line and MCP installation URL guidance instead of duplicating it. Done means the guides explain the plugin, customization-page, and MCP lookup links, include Stable and Insiders examples, and distinguish navigation, confirmed installation, and execution.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Documentation gap

Plugin and MCP providers need shareable links that open VS Code at the right discovery or installation experience. The public guides don't yet cover several supported routes, particularly installing a named plugin from a marketplace that the user has not added yet.

For example, the VS Code equivalent of:

copilot plugin marketplace add github/evals && copilot plugin install eval@github-copilot-evals

is:

vscode://chat-plugin/install?source=github%2Fevals&plugin=eval

This is an illustrative mapping, not a verification of that repository's current manifest. The plugin value must match the plugin's manifest name, rather than the CLI's plugin@marketplace expression.

Missing or incomplete coverage

  • Plugin marketplace and installation links: The agent plugins guide does not document vscode://chat-plugin/add-marketplace?ref=<source> or vscode://chat-plugin/install?source=<source>&plugin=<name>. The 1.113 release notes mention the older add-marketplace and untargeted install forms, but omit plugin. Explain that targeted installation registers the marketplace and installs the exact named plugin after confirmation; adding a marketplace alone does not install its plugins. Distinguish plugins from extensions and show URL-encoded query values.
  • Customization-page navigation: vscode://chat-customizations/open?page=<page>&search=<query> is missing from the customization overview. Supported pages are discover, agents, skills, instructions, hooks, mcp-servers, plugins, tools, and migrations. search is optional and populates pages that expose a search field. These links navigate; they do not install. Note applicable feature gates, including chat.customizations.marketplace.enabled for Discover.
  • MCP gallery lookup links: vscode:mcp/by-name/<registry-server-name> is missing from the MCP guides. It resolves against the active gallery and opens server details, rather than silently installing. The handler also supports the gallery URL-based vscode:mcp/<https-server-url-without-scheme> form; clarify whether both forms are intended as public provider-facing links.

For these routes, include Stable/Insiders examples and distinguish navigation, user-confirmed installation, and execution. Links should not imply that consent, trust, or enterprise restrictions can be bypassed.

Already documented — cross-reference rather than duplicate

Cross-linking these existing sections would give providers a discoverable way to build “Install in VS Code” buttons without duplicating or confusing extension, plugin, and MCP flows.

Implementation references

Coverage checked against microsoft/vscode-docs main on October 22, 2026.

🤖 Posted by GitHub Copilot on Harald's behalf.

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