fix: disable MCP servers by default to prevent token limit errors#1144
Conversation
Rename mcp.json to mcp.json.sample so MCP servers are opt-in rather than loaded automatically. The WorkIQ and GitHub MCP servers were inflating prompt token counts beyond model limits (186k vs 168k cap), causing repeated API failures for contributors using GitHub Copilot. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <[email protected]>
Codecov Report✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests. Additional details and impacted files@@ Coverage Diff @@
## main #1144 +/- ##
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- Coverage 87.72% 87.08% -0.64%
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Files 61 59 -2
Lines 9318 8850 -468
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- Hits 8174 7707 -467
+ Misses 1144 1143 -1
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@katriendg & @agreaves-ms - the MCP server for workiq is causing some friction ... I think we need to disable it by default ... I was hitting this earlier and had to disable things to deal with the crashing. |
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@WilliamBerryiii @jakkaj Interesting, I have not noticed this issue in local environment, but I wonder if this is why we were also seeing some issues on GitHub coding agent (same error message). |
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Very nice addition here. Nit: Some documentation updates may be needed to some documentation files which may need to mention the newly renamed json.sample file: |
## Pre-Release 3.3.41 ### ✨ Features - add agentic workflows for automated issue triage, implementation, PR review, dependency review, and doc-staleness detection (#1219) - consolidate package-lock.json version sync into Update-VersionFiles.ps1 (#1240) - add standards code review agent and full review orchestrator (#1174) - standardize pytest-mock as Python mocking framework (#1170) - add Jira backlog workflows and Jira/GitLab skills (#978) - add centralized version bump script and supply-chain attestation (#1183) ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - replace invalid bare tool names with official tool identifiers (#1198) - fix broken links and remove orphaned reference in code review docs (#1257) - exclude Python env dirs from skill validation warnings (#1255) - pin happy-dom and serialize-javascript to resolve Dependabot vulnerabilities (#1253) - remove Mermaid diagram and add missing collection cards (#1247) - disable MCP servers by default to prevent token limit errors (#1144) - sync package-lock.json after pre-release version bump (#1236) - separate mermaid node declarations and add dynamic diagram generation with tests (#1215) - replace anchor links in meeting-analyst with bold text references (#1201) - remove recursive symlinks in jira and gitlab skill directories (#1233) - validate-installation scripts now check .github/skills directory (#1010) (#1206) - resolve npm audit vulnerabilities via dependency overrides (#1200) - add post-release triggers to scorecard workflow (#1186) - add missing .md extensions to relative links in agent documentation (#1180) ### 📚 Documentation - CLI getting-started: clarify plugin install commands as alternatives (-all vs base) (#1251) ### ♻️ Refactoring - align agent and prompt folder names to collection identifier (#1210) ### 🔧 Maintenance - streamline RAI Planner phase structure and documentation (#1273) - bump happy-dom from 20.8.8 to 20.8.9 in /docs/docusaurus (#1237) - pre-release 3.3.27 (#1191) - bump pygments from 2.19.2 to 2.20.0 in /.github/skills/gitlab/gitlab (#1234) - bump path-to-regexp from 0.1.12 to 0.1.13 in /docs/docusaurus (#1226) - bump the github-actions group with 4 updates (#1231) - add missing folders and alphabetize location lists (#1193) - bump brace-expansion (#1224) - bump handlebars from 4.7.8 to 4.7.9 in /docs/docusaurus (#1217) - bump brace-expansion from 5.0.3 to 5.0.5 in /docs/docusaurus (#1213) - pre-release 3.3.10 (#1187) - bump markdownlint-cli2 from 0.21.0 to 0.22.0 in the npm-dependencies group (#1175) - bump the github-actions group with 3 updates (#1176) - pre-release 3.3.1 (#1165) --- *Managed automatically by pre-release workflow.* Co-authored-by: github-actions[bot] <41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
## Pre-Release 3.3.101 ### ✨ Features - add removed maturity tier and retire owasp-docker (#1444) - add evaluation dataset creator (#1279) - align RAI planner with guide, remove scoring, improve UX (#1287) - add PSGallery staleness check and BOM cleanup (#1379) - ISA-95 network planner agent (#1177) - auto-generate collection.md with maturity filtering (#1316) - add folder-consistency check and standardize WARN outp… (#1350) - add synth-data-generate prompt to data-science collection (#1419) - add canonical deck workflow and customer-card rendering for design thinking (#1413) - add Figma MCP integration for DT artifact export (#1222) - introduce `owasp-docker` (#1245) - replace hve-core-specific references with portable discovery-based language (#1335) - introduce `owasp-cicd` (#1246) - add secure-by-design knowledge skill (#1223) - introduce `owasp-infrastructure` (#1244) - introduce `owasp-mcp` (#1207) - add OutputPath parameter to Invoke-LinkLanguageCheck.ps1 (#1229) - add -OutputPath parameter to Validate-SkillStructure.ps1 (#1225) - add maintainer-only skip-review label guard (#1293) - add extension collections overview and integrate into getting started flow (#950) - add agentic workflows for automated issue triage, implementation, PR review, dependency review, and doc-staleness detection (#1219) - consolidate package-lock.json version sync into Update-VersionFiles.ps1 (#1240) - add standards code review agent and full review orchestrator (#1174) - standardize pytest-mock as Python mocking framework (#1170) - add Jira backlog workflows and Jira/GitLab skills (#978) - add centralized version bump script and supply-chain attestation (#1183) ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - pin PowerShell-Yaml to 0.4.7 across all install sites (#1378) - close fork-PR/workflow-file-PR secret-strip gap and normalize upload-artifact version (#1421) - replace stream-based lookahead with array indexing in list-changed-files.sh (#1376) - centralize ISO 8601 timestamp regex in CIHelpers (#1343) - update stale documentation date in release-process.md (#1363) - pin basic-ftp to 5.3.0 to resolve GHSA-rp42-5vxx-qpwr (#1374) - add bot filter to dependency PR review workflow (#1362) - resolve pip-audit findings in powerpoint, gitlab, and jira skill lock files (#1360) - standardize Timestamp JSON key casing across all lint result files (#1314) - add synchronize trigger to PR Review workflow (#1323) - standardize timestamp in Validate-SkillStructure.ps1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1280) - add parallel subagent dispatch and structured JSON contracts to code-review-full (#1304) - standardize timestamp in SecurityHelpers.psm1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1284) - standardize timestamps in Test-DependencyPinning.ps1 and SecurityClasses.psm1 (#1282) - derive collection artifact counts from YAML at build time (#1275) - standardize timestamp in FrontmatterValidation.psm1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1285) - standardize timestamp in Markdown-Link-Check.ps1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1283) - escape hyphens in Mermaid diagram on Collections page (#1262) - add summary timestamp to PSScriptAnalyzer output (#1211) - fix plugin compatibility and robustness for coding-standards code review agents (#1289) - standardize timestamp in Test-CopyrightHeaders.ps1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1278) - standardize timestamp in Invoke-YamlLint.ps1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1270) - standardize timestamp in Invoke-LinkLanguageCheck.ps1 to use Get-StandardTimestamp (#1264) - fix dependency-review path filters and sparse-checkout cone mode (#1259) - replace invalid bare tool names with official tool identifiers (#1198) - fix broken links and remove orphaned reference in code review docs (#1257) - exclude Python env dirs from skill validation warnings (#1255) - pin happy-dom and serialize-javascript to resolve Dependabot vulnerabilities (#1253) - remove Mermaid diagram and add missing collection cards (#1247) - disable MCP servers by default to prevent token limit errors (#1144) - sync package-lock.json after pre-release version bump (#1236) - separate mermaid node declarations and add dynamic diagram generation with tests (#1215) - replace anchor links in meeting-analyst with bold text references (#1201) - remove recursive symlinks in jira and gitlab skill directories (#1233) - validate-installation scripts now check .github/skills directory (#1010) (#1206) - resolve npm audit vulnerabilities via dependency overrides (#1200) - add post-release triggers to scorecard workflow (#1186) - add missing .md extensions to relative links in agent documentation (#1180) ### 📚 Documentation - broaden Security Review description beyond OWASP (#1385) - document maintainer advisory mode and skip-review label guard (#1386) - document ExcludePaths/OutputPath for Invoke-LinkLanguageCheck (#1383) - CLI getting-started: clarify plugin install commands as alternatives (-all vs base) (#1251) ### ♻️ Refactoring - align agent and prompt folder names to collection identifier (#1210) ### 🔧 Maintenance - pin PSScriptAnalyzer to 1.25.0 and sync stale workflow version comments (#1389) - bump lxml from 6.0.2 to 6.1.0 in /.github/skills/experimental/powerpoint (#1424) - bump @vscode/vsce from 3.7.1 to 3.9.1 in the npm-dependencies group (#1390) - bump the github-actions group across 1 directory with 7 updates (#1391) - bump follow-redirects from 1.15.11 to 1.16.0 in /docs/docusaurus (#1356) - upgrade Node.js from 20 to 24 and bump cspell to v10 (#1353) - bump basic-ftp from 5.2.0 to 5.2.1 (#1324) - update github/gh-aw-actions requirement to 536ea1bad8c6715d098a9dc1afea8d403733acfe in the github-actions group across 1 directory (#1298) - update security instruction attributions and compliance (#1294) - bump the npm-dependencies group with 2 updates (#1297) - pre-release 3.3.41 (#1252) - streamline RAI Planner phase structure and documentation (#1273) - bump happy-dom from 20.8.8 to 20.8.9 in /docs/docusaurus (#1237) - pre-release 3.3.27 (#1191) - bump pygments from 2.19.2 to 2.20.0 in /.github/skills/gitlab/gitlab (#1234) - bump path-to-regexp from 0.1.12 to 0.1.13 in /docs/docusaurus (#1226) - bump the github-actions group with 4 updates (#1231) - add missing folders and alphabetize location lists (#1193) - bump brace-expansion (#1224) - bump handlebars from 4.7.8 to 4.7.9 in /docs/docusaurus (#1217) - bump brace-expansion from 5.0.3 to 5.0.5 in /docs/docusaurus (#1213) - pre-release 3.3.10 (#1187) - bump markdownlint-cli2 from 0.21.0 to 0.22.0 in the npm-dependencies group (#1175) - bump the github-actions group with 3 updates (#1176) - pre-release 3.3.1 (#1165) --- *Managed automatically by pre-release workflow.* Co-authored-by: github-actions[bot] <41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Pull Request
Description
Disables MCP servers by default by renaming
.vscode/mcp.jsonto.vscode/mcp.json.sample. Contributors opt in by renaming or copying server entries into their ownmcp.json.Related Issue(s)
N/A — discovered during contributor onboarding.
Type of Change
Infrastructure & Configuration:
Testing
Verified that with
mcp.jsonremoved, GitHub Copilot CLI no longer loads the WorkIQ or GitHub MCP servers automatically, avoiding the token limit error shown below:Checklist
Required Checks
Required Automated Checks
npm run lint:mdnpm run spell-checknpm run lint:frontmatterSecurity Considerations
Additional Notes
The MCP server configs (GitHub HTTP endpoint and WorkIQ via npx) are preserved in
mcp.json.sample. The README has been updated with a note explaining how to enable them.