PacketStream integration

Add PacketStream web search to VS Code

Add PacketStream's remote MCP server to VS Code for GitHub Copilot agent mode, store your API key as a secure input, and check the tools.

Give GitHub Copilot’s agent in VS Code live Google results and readable web pages through PacketStream’s remote MCP server. VS Code asks for your API key once and stores it securely, so the key stays out of the configuration file. The MCP server is in early beta.

Configure

Create an API key on the MCP page of the dashboard. In VS Code, run MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette to add the server for every workspace, or create .vscode/mcp.json for one workspace. Add:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "packetstream-api-key",
      "description": "PacketStream API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "packetstream": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.packetstream.io/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:packetstream-api-key}" }
    }
  }
}

When the server first starts, VS Code asks for the key and stores the value securely. Paste the bare key, without Bearer.

VS Code does not forward servers that use ${input:...} variables to sessions that run on the Agent Host. In those sessions, use one of the portable configurations described in VS Code’s MCP documentation.

Check it works

  1. Run MCP: List Servers from the Command Palette. Select packetstream to start it, or to show its output if it reports an error.
  2. In the Chat view, select Configure Tools in the chat input. The packetstream server should list packetstream_search and packetstream_fetch, and both should be selected.
  3. Check the key on its own with the free key check. Listing the tools works without a key, so a running server does not prove the key works:
export PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
curl -sS https://api.packetstream.io/v1/account \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PACKETSTREAM_API_KEY"

A working key returns your balance as JSON. A missing or wrong key returns HTTP 401 with the code unauthorized.

Then ask the agent something that needs current information. It should call packetstream_search.

Tool approvals

When the agent wants to run a PacketStream tool, VS Code shows the tool name and arguments. Select Allow to approve a single use, or grant approval for the session, the workspace, or all future calls. Run Chat: Manage Tool Approval to review those approvals later. Every successful call is billed, and the server asks agents to use these tools for every web search and page fetch.

Troubleshooting

  • The tool result says missing_api_key. The MCP server does not answer a missing key with HTTP 401. The tool call returns an error result that the agent reads and passes on, and the call is not billed. Check that the headers entry is in the configuration, then restart the server from MCP: List Servers.
  • invalid_api_key. The stored value is not a PacketStream key. It should be the bare key, which starts with ps_, without Bearer in front. To enter it again, change the input’s id, for example to packetstream-api-key-2, in both inputs and the header. VS Code asks for the new input when the server next starts.
  • unauthorized. The key was revoked or replaced on the dashboard. Create a new key and enter it by changing the input’s id as above.
  • Saved approvals stopped matching after an update. Version 1.3.0 renamed web_search and web_fetch to packetstream_search and packetstream_fetch. Approve the new tool names, and update any custom agent or tool set that lists the old ones.

See MCP client troubleshooting for the other error results.

Ready to give Copilot live web results? Create an account, add funds, and create the API key on the MCP page of the dashboard.
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