VS Code notes

The plugin path is the same as the desktop app

VS Code's Settings → Extensions → Copilot → Plugins panel installs this plugin the same way the standalone Copilot desktop app does, resolving the same .github/plugin/plugin.json manifest. See Install: Desktop app for the walkthrough — it applies to VS Code without modification, including the requirement to install both hve-squad and hve-squad-hve-core and to update them together. Two rules carry over unchanged: refresh hve-squad-hve-core by removing and reinstalling it rather than using the update action, and do not install the official hve-core plugin alongside it.

Alternative: MCP-only, no plugin install

If you don't want to install the plugin at all — for example, you only want tool-call access to the squad rather than direct agent dispatch — you can register the companion @hve-squad/mcp server directly in a workspace's .vscode/mcp.json instead. This is the pattern documented in this plugin's own skills/squad/mcp-server.template.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "hve-squad": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@hve-squad/mcp@0.7.1"]
    }
  }
}

Pin an exact version rather than a bare @hve-squad/mcp: unpinned, npx resolves whatever is latest at the moment you run it, so two machines set up on different days get different servers. Each published @hve-squad/mcp release is built against a specific hve-squad version, which is the same pairing discipline the two marketplace entries follow.

Merge that entry into .vscode/mcp.json (do not replace servers you already depend on), reload VS Code, and the squad's tools (squad_research, squad_plan, squad_review, squad_architect, squad_run) become model-invocable — without installing the plugin's agents or skills at all. See Architecture for how this tool-call surface relates to the plugin's direct agent-dispatch surface.