Top 5 MCP Servers Every Developer Should Have in VS Code

The Model Context Protocol (MCP), open-sourced by Anthropic, has transformed how we interact with AI in our development workflows. Instead of treating your AI coding assistant as an isolated text generator in VS Code (via extensions like Cline, Roo Code, GitHub Copilot, Continue, or Claude Dev), MCP turns it into an agentic powerhouse that can interact directly with your files, browsers, issue trackers, and internal knowledge bases.

If you're already using MCP-compatible extensions in VS Code, your next step is choosing the right servers to supercharge your daily productivity.

Here are the Top 5 MCP servers every developer should configure in VS Code today.

1. 📄 MarkItDown MCP Server (Token-Saver for Documents)

What it is

Developed around Microsoft's open-source markitdown utility, this MCP server seamlessly converts binary and rich document formats—including PDFs, Word documents (.docx), Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), PowerPoint slides (.pptx), and audio transcripts—into clean, structured Markdown.

Why every developer needs it

LLMs are text engines. When you feed a 40-page technical specification PDF or architecture document into an LLM context window:

1. PDFs and complex docs consume massive token volumes due to raw formatting and OCR overhead.
2. Models often get distracted or hallucinate due to poorly parsed layout artifacts.
3. You burn through your API budget rapidly.

MarkItDown solves this: It strips away the layout bloat and produces pristine GitHub-flavored Markdown. Your AI assistant parses the distilled text instantly using a fraction of the original token footprint.

Typical Use Cases

• Feeding API spec PDFs or vendor datasheets into your coding prompt.
• Parsing product requirement documents (PRDs) stored in .docx format into actionable task lists.
• Reading legacy business logic tables from Excel spreadsheets directly into code.

Example Config (mcp.json)

{
  "microsoft/markdown": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "markdown-mcp@0.1a4"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.0.0"
  }
}

2. 🌐 Playwright MCP Server (Headless Browser & Web Automation)

What it is

The Playwright MCP Server (or Puppeteer MCP equivalent) equips your AI assistant with a full headless/headed Chromium browser engine. It gives the model the ability to visit URLs, take screenshots, click buttons, fill out forms, and scrape dynamic single-page applications (SPAs).

Why every developer needs it

Static web fetchers (curl / fetch) fail on modern client-rendered web applications (React, Angular, Vue). When debugging frontend issues, testing authentication flows, or checking the latest documentation for an unindexed library, your AI needs real browser execution.

With Playwright MCP:

• Your AI assistant can launch your local dev server (http://localhost:3000), inspect console logs, take visual screenshots of a broken UI component, and fix the CSS/JSX automatically.
• It can read live web documentation even if the page requires JavaScript execution.

Typical Use Cases

• Automated Visual Verification: Prompt: "Check my newly generated modal on http://localhost:5173, take a screenshot, and tell me if the dark theme padding looks right."
• End-to-End Smoke Testing: Verifying user sign-up and login forms during refactoring.
• Scraping dynamic docs: Extracting code snippets from dynamic single-page docs sites.

Example Config (mcp.json)

{
  "microsoft/playwright-mcp": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "@playwright/mcp@latest"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "0.0.1-seed"
  }
}

3. 🐙 GitHub MCP Server (Official Repo & PR Management)

What it is

The official GitHub MCP server connects your LLM directly to GitHub's REST & GraphQL APIs and GitHub Copilot services.

Why every developer needs it

Developers spend a huge portion of their day switching between VS Code and the browser just to check open PR reviews, find issue numbers, reference code in remote repositories, or inspect CI/CD failure logs.

With the GitHub MCP server configured:

• You can query, review, and comment on pull requests directly from your AI chat.
• The assistant can create branches, commit code, open pull requests with detailed descriptions, and link issues automatically without you leaving VS Code.
• It can search issues and remote repositories across your organization for existing solutions.

Typical Use Cases

• Instant PR Generation: "Review my local branch changes against main, write a comprehensive summary, and open a draft Pull Request on GitHub."
• Issue Triage: "Summarize issue #142 and propose a code change to fix the reported bug."
• Remote Code Search: "Search our org's auth-service repo on GitHub to see how they handle JWT token rotation."

Example Config (mcp.json)

{
  "io.github.github/github-mcp-server": {
    "type": "http",
    "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.9.0"
  }
}

4. 🏢 Atlassian Rovo MCP Server (Jira & Confluence Integration)

What it is

The Atlassian Rovo / Atlassian MCP server links your local AI agent to your company's Jira tracking and Confluence knowledge base systems via Atlassian's remote MCP endpoint.

Why every developer needs it

Almost every enterprise engineering team organizes work around Jira tickets and Confluence documentation. Before MCP, you had to manually copy acceptance criteria from Jira, paste them into your AI chat, copy the response, and switch back to update the status.

With the Atlassian MCP server:

• You simply pass the Jira issue key (e.g., JIRA-4089). The AI reads the user story, acceptance criteria, edge cases, and attached comments in real time.
• It searches company Confluence wikis to ground its responses in your team's internal architecture guidelines, design standards, and deployment runbooks.
• With proper API permissions, it can update ticket statuses, log work notes, or create subtasks upon code completion.

Typical Use Cases

• Requirement-Driven Coding: "Read Jira ticket BACK-2041, inspect our repository, and implement the requested endpoint with unit tests."
• Internal Knowledge Grounding: "Search Confluence for our standard RBAC implementation guidelines and ensure my new middleware adheres to company policy."
• Sprint Documentation: "Summarize the changes in my working directory and post an update comment on Jira ticket FE-892."

Example Config (mcp.json)

{
  "com.atlassian/atlassian-mcp-server": {
    "type": "http",
    "url": "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp",
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.1.3"
  }
}

5. 📊 Mermaid MCP Server (Architecture & Flow Diagramming)

What it is

The Mermaid MCP Server enables your AI assistant to generate, validate, and render complex diagrams (Flowcharts, Sequence diagrams, Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams, Class diagrams, and State charts) using Mermaid.js syntax directly in your IDE.

Why every developer needs it

Code architecture is inherently visual. Explaining complex asynchronous workflows, microservice boundaries, or database schemas with plain text often leads to misunderstandings.

With the Mermaid MCP server:

• The AI creates accurate, syntax-validated Mermaid diagrams while drafting architecture proposals or READMEs.
• It visualizes data flows and call sequences before you write a single line of implementation code.
• It renders and exports diagrams directly in VS Code, allowing you to iterate on system design collaboratively with your AI.

Typical Use Cases

• Sequence Diagram Generation: "Analyze this authentication middleware and render a Mermaid sequence diagram showing the token validation lifecycle."
• Database ERDs: "Inspect my Prisma / TypeORM schema and generate an ER diagram for the database documentation."
• Workflow Visualization: "Generate a flowchart explaining the retry and dead-letter queue mechanism in our event consumer."

Example Config (mcp.json)

{
  "modelcontextprotocol/server-mermaid": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-mermaid"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "0.1.0"
  }
}

📦 Complete mcp.json Configuration

Here is the full consolidated mcp.json you can add directly to your VS Code MCP configuration:

{
  "microsoft/markdown": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "markdown-mcp@0.1a4"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.0.0"
  },
  "com.atlassian/atlassian-mcp-server": {
    "type": "http",
    "url": "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp",
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.1.3"
  },
  "microsoft/playwright-mcp": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "@playwright/mcp@latest"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "0.0.1-seed"
  },
  "io.github.github/github-mcp-server": {
    "type": "http",
    "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "1.9.0"
  },
  "modelcontextprotocol/server-mermaid": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-mermaid"
    ],
    "gallery": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
    "version": "0.1.0"
  }
}

🚀 Summary Matrix: How They Work Together

💡 Quick Tips for Getting the Most Out of MCP in VS Code

1. Mind Your Secrets: Always use environment variables for sensitive API tokens (GitHub PAT, Atlassian API tokens) rather than hardcoding them in shared config files.
2. Selective Tool Activation: While it is tempting to enable dozens of MCP servers, activate only the tools you need for the current task to keep tool-definition tokens lean and avoid prompt clutter.
3. Combine Servers for Compound Workflows:
   • Example: Have Atlassian Rovo pull requirements from Jira -> MarkItDown ingest the attached PDF spec -> write the code -> Mermaid generate the architecture flow -> GitHub create the PR with the diagram embedded!

💬 Over to You!

Which MCP servers have become essential in your daily coding setup? Have you built a custom MCP server for your team? Let's discuss in the comments below!