VS Code

Add the server

Create .vscode/mcp.json in the workspace and reload the window:

{
  "servers": {
    "vike-trader": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "vike-cli",
      "args": ["mcp", "--node", "127.0.0.1:7879"]
    }
  }
}

Two details are easy to miss if you are copying a Cursor entry: the top-level key is servers, not mcpServers, and each entry carries an explicit type. That type selects the rest of the shape — stdio takes command and args, http takes url and headers. vike-cli mcp is a local process VS Code launches and speaks stdio to, so stdio is the only correct value here.

Both vike-cli mcp flags are optional: --node <host:port> is the running vike-tradehub the live tools observe and control (no default), --addr <host:port> the vike-datahub the backtest tools use (default 127.0.0.1:7878). Without either, the four offline authoring tools still work. If VS Code cannot find the binary, give command an absolute path — an editor started from the desktop does not inherit your shell's PATH.

Keep the node keys out of the repository

.vscode/mcp.json sits inside the workspace, so anything written into it is one git add away from being committed. The good news is that this server needs nothing secret in the file at all.

vike-cli reads VIKE_TRADEHUB_OBSERVE_KEY and VIKE_TRADEHUB_CONTROL_KEY from the process environment first and then from <project>/settings/secrets.env — the same store the vike-tradehub daemon reads (crates/vike-cli/src/cmd/nodekeys.rs's resolve). A desktop-launched editor passes on none of your terminal's exports, so the store is the source that actually reaches the server, and it is also the source that keeps the workspace file clean.

⚠ A committed control key is worse than a committed API key: it places orders on a live node, and there is no central console to revoke it from. The fix is to rotate the key in <project>/settings/secrets.env and restart the daemon, which is a real interruption — so do not put it here in the first place.

Verify

Open Copilot Chat in agent mode and ask:

list the vike strategy templates

list_templates runs offline, with no key, no node and no network, so it separates "is the subprocess running" from every credential question. Copilot's tools picker should list the vike-trader server; if the server is present but its tools are not offered, they may need enabling for the conversation.

With a node configured, "show me the node snapshot" then proves the observe key.

Troubleshooting

The file was edited but nothing changed. Reload the window. MCP configuration is read at startup.

The server never appears. Check the file path (.vscode/mcp.json, in the workspace root VS Code actually has open) and that the JSON parses — a trailing comma silently disables the whole file.

The server starts but the live tools error while the offline ones work. That is a node address or a node key, not the MCP wiring, and the two are worded to be told apart: "no vike-tradehub node configured" is the --node flag; "set neither in the process environment nor in the credential store" names a key and both places it looked. vike-cli secrets path prints the store this project resolves to; vike-cli secrets list shows whether the key is in it, by name.

The binary is not found. Run vike-cli mcp in a terminal first. It reads JSON-RPC on stdin and writes every diagnostic to stderr — never stdout, because stdout is a protocol — so a PATH problem or a rejected flag surfaces immediately.

The data server too

The same file holds both Vike servers: the hosted data server goes in beside this one as a "type": "http" entry with a key header. Data client setup → VS Code has its shape, and the warning above about committing secrets applies with full force to that one — it does need a key in the file unless you use VS Code's input-variable support. The names must differ; a second vike replaces the first.