VectorCode and MCP practical usage when cli tools development

[bmihovski]

Could you explain and provide an example from a practical scenario when vectorcode when MCP and how to use it from neovim.
In particular my use case is C++ codebase where I can run the built code locally and grep data out from the execution output, or run the unit tests with a command and if some test fail then to parse the command results and run it individually and analyse the results. Most important part is I'm using neovim only and in particular CopilotChat plugin.

[Davidyz]

Hi, I'm not very familiar with CopilotChat and after a quick search in there repo I don't see MCP being mentioned apart from a draft PR, so I'm not quite sure how the MCP server can be used there. In Codecompanion.nvim, you can use mcphub.nvim which provides an integration helper for codecompanion. It exposes the ls and query subcommand to the LLM, so that the LLM can "ask" for whatever context it needs.

For copilotchat, I'd suggest that you keep an eye on this PR, which looks like is going to improve the context/tool component and potentially add MCP support.

[bmihovski]

That's great I will check codecompanion with mcphub. Could you give me some hints/instructions about the integration and my particular use case. At the end I can compile learned and add it to our documentation here. I will check their docs later today. However, it would be very helpful if you know some insides which can save me time. My first question is currently I'm using lsp mode, do I need to change something when mcp in place. And not at the last do we need some specific prompt syntax to make it to work efficient.

Thanks a lot!

[Davidyz]

As long as you managed to get codecompanion and mcphub working, adding vectorcode to it is dead simple. Just refer to the Vectorcode wiki about adding the vectorcode-mcp-server to the JSON of mcphub, and vectorcode will be automatically added to the chat when you call the mcp tool in codecompanion. (Ofc you'd need to install vectorcode[MCP] dependency group, but you're already using LSP so it shouldn't be a problem for you)

[bmihovski]

Is it make any sense to have mcp integration when codecompletion tool like minuet-ai compared to the current integration with vectorcode. I know the mcp use case is specific. I'm just trying to think out of the box and getting maximum from what we have. Thank you!!!

[Davidyz]

Minuet-ai doesn't use MCP yet, so it's not really relevant here. For codecompanion, using MCP means you have access to a lot more tools than just vectorcode (web search, long term memory, etc.). At the moment it's up to you, but as the MCP ecosystem gets better, I might stop maintaining the codecompanion tool in this repo at some point, and just recommend ppl to use MCP.

[Davidyz]

Also there are some options that allows you to adjust the system prompt for the Vectorcode codecompanion tool (think of it as customisable doc strings, that tells the LLM how many files to retrieve by default, etc.). Those are not available in MCP yet, but it's something I will add. In the meantime, if you prefer MCP, you can probably just tell LLM "retrieve 15 files" in the chat. Nothing significantly different, but the non-mcp tool might be better at the moment in terms of configurability.

[bmihovski]

By the way I managed to make it to work with avante.nvim VectorCode in combination with their dual_boost is a beast. You are right with mcp is easy to integrate with everything.
I really love that option of avante where you can override their tools in favor of mcp
require("avante").setup({
disabled_tools = {
"list_files", -- Built-in file operations
"search_files",
"read_file",
"create_file",
"rename_file",
"delete_file",
"create_dir",
"rename_dir",
"delete_dir",
"bash", -- Built-in terminal access
},
})

[DanRioDev]

Hey @bmihovski, how is it going?

I need your help, I've looked up your dotfiles (dusk) and couldn't find how you pulled VectorCode to work with Avante.

[bmihovski]

Hey @DanRioDev, all good, thank you for asking.
You can't see it because Avante is calling VectorCode via mcp protocol.
You need to enable https://github.com/ravitemer/mcphub.nvim?tab=readme-ov-file avante integration and add vectorcode-mcp to mcphub.
You can use it by adding "use vectorcode mcp for more context" or similar in avante.