DebugMCP is a Microsoft-maintained VS Code extension and MCP server that hands real debugger capabilities (breakpoints, stepping, variable inspection, expression evaluation) to AI coding agents. It runs entirely locally, works out of the box, supports major MCP clients and many languages, and exposes 16 debugging tools while limiting its attack surface with loopback-only binding, Host/Origin validation, least-privilege variable reads, and secret redaction. It suits developers doing interactive, agent-driven debugging in VS Code; it is not intended for non-VS Code environments, networked debug endpoints, or cloud-hosted debugging.
DebugMCP is a Microsoft-maintained VS Code extension that also runs as an MCP server, giving AI coding agents direct control over the VS Code debugger. Agents can autonomously set breakpoints, launch debug sessions, step through code line by line, inspect variable values, and evaluate expressions, just like a human developer. It runs 100% locally, requires zero configuration, works out of the box with any MCP-compatible assistant, and supports any VS Code supported coding language (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, C/C++, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, C#/.NET). The server listens over Streamable HTTP on loopback (default port 3001), auto-detects and offers to register itself with GitHub Copilot, GitHub Copilot CLI, Cline, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Roo Code, Antigravity, and other clients, and can also be configured manually. Security controls include loopback-only binding, Host/Origin header validation, least-privilege variable inspection, and secret redaction, with no debug data leaving the machine. Procedural debugging guidance ships as the companion debug-live Agent Skill, installed into standard skills directories.
{
"mcpServers": {
"debugmcp": {
"type": "streamableHttp",
"url": "http://localhost:3001/mcp",
"description": "DebugMCP - Debugging tools for AI assistants"
}
}
}