How do I get a Cohere API Key?

Log in to the [**Cohere Dashboard**](https://dashboard.cohere.com/api-keys), go to **API Keys** and click **Create API Key**. Copy the key immediately — it starts with a random string and won't be shown again. Free tier includes trial access with rate limits.

What models are available?

Use the `list_models` tool to see all available Cohere models. Key models include command-r-plus (most capable, 128K context), command-r (efficient, 128K context), command-r7b (lightweight, 128K context), embed-v4 (embeddings) and rerank-v3.5 (reranking).

Can I send multi-turn conversations?

Yes! Pass a messages array with alternating 'user', 'assistant' and 'system' roles. Each message has a 'role' and 'content' field. Command models support function calling and will return tool_calls when appropriate.

What is reranking and when should I use it?

Reranking reorders a set of documents by their relevance to a query. Use it after an initial search to improve result quality. The rerank tool takes a query, list of documents and returns them ranked by relevance score. Cohere's rerank models are industry-leading for search applications.

Cohere MCP Server for VS Code Copilot 6 tools — connect in under 2 minutes

Name: Cohere
Availability: InStock
Author: Vinkius

code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/chat/mcp-servers

Built by Vinkius GDPR 6 Tools IDE

GitHub Copilot in VS Code is the most widely adopted AI coding assistant, embedded directly into the world's most popular code editor. With MCP support in Agent mode, Copilot can access external data and APIs to generate context-aware code grounded in real-time information.

Get MCP Server for AI Agents

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Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude Open in Perplexity

Vinkius supports streamable HTTP and SSE.

RecommendedModern Approach — Zero Configuration

Vinkius Desktop App

The modern way to manage MCP Servers — no config files, no terminal commands. Install Cohere and 2,500+ MCP Servers from a single visual interface.

Download Free Open SourceNo signup required

Classic Setup·json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cohere": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Fully ManagedVinkius Servers

60%Token savings

High SecurityEnterprise-grade

IAMAccess control

EU AI ActCompliant

DLPData protection

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Ed25519Audit chain

<40msKill switch

Stream every event to Splunk, Datadog, or your own webhook in real-time

* Every MCP server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS - a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts optimized for native MCP execution. See our infrastructure

About Cohere MCP Server

Connect your Cohere account to any AI agent and leverage enterprise-grade AI models through natural conversation.

GitHub Copilot Agent mode brings Cohere data directly into your VS Code workflow. With a project-scoped config, the entire team shares access to 6 tools. Copilot queries live data, generates typed code, and writes tests from actual API responses, all without leaving the editor.

What you can do

Model Discovery — List all available Cohere models with their names, capabilities and context lengths
Chat API — Send conversations to Command models (command-r-plus, command-r, command-r7b) and receive responses with citations and tool call support
Embeddings — Generate vector embeddings for semantic search with multiple embedding types (float, int8, uint8, binary)
Reranking — Rerank documents by relevance to a search query using Cohere's industry-leading reranking models
Tokenization — Tokenize and detokenize text for estimating token counts and debugging

The Cohere MCP Server exposes 6 tools through the Vinkius. Connect it to VS Code Copilot in under two minutes — no API keys to rotate, no infrastructure to provision, no vendor lock-in. Your configuration, your data, your control.

How to Connect Cohere to VS Code Copilot via MCP

Follow these steps to integrate the Cohere MCP Server with VS Code Copilot.

Create MCP config

Create a .vscode/mcp.json file in your project root

Add the server config

Paste the JSON configuration above

Enable Agent mode

Open GitHub Copilot Chat and switch to Agent mode using the dropdown

Start using Cohere

Ask Copilot: "Using Cohere, help me...". 6 tools available

Why Use VS Code Copilot with the Cohere MCP Server

GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio Code provides unique advantages when paired with Cohere through the Model Context Protocol.

VS Code is used by over 70% of developers. adding MCP tools to Copilot means your team can leverage external data without leaving their primary editor

Project-scoped MCP configs (`.vscode/mcp.json`) let you commit server configurations to your repository, ensuring the entire team shares the same tool access

Copilot's Agent mode integrates MCP tools seamlessly with file editing, terminal commands, and workspace search in a single agentic loop

GitHub's enterprise compliance and audit features extend to MCP tool usage, providing visibility into how AI interacts with external services

Cohere + VS Code Copilot Use Cases

Practical scenarios where VS Code Copilot combined with the Cohere MCP Server delivers measurable value.

Live API integration: Copilot can query an MCP server, inspect the response schema, and generate typed API client code in the same step

DevSecOps workflows: security teams can give developers access to domain intelligence tools directly in their editor for real-time vulnerability assessment during code review

Data pipeline development: Copilot fetches sample data via MCP and generates transformation scripts, validators, and test fixtures from actual API responses

Documentation generation: Copilot queries available tools and auto-generates README sections, API reference docs, and usage examples

Cohere MCP Tools for VS Code Copilot (6)

These 6 tools become available when you connect Cohere to VS Code Copilot via MCP:

chat

Requires the model ID (e.g. "command-r-plus", "command-r", "command-r7b") and messages array in JSON format. Each message must have a "role" ("user", "assistant", "system" or "tool") and "content" (text or array of content blocks). Optionally set max_tokens, temperature (0-1), p (nucleus sampling 0-1) and tools array for function calling. Returns the model's response with text, citations and tool calls. Send a chat message to a Cohere model

detokenize

Requires the token IDs array. Returns the reconstructed text. Useful for debugging and verifying tokenization. Detokenize token IDs back to text using Cohere

embed

Requires the model ID (e.g. "embed-v4", "embed-v3"), texts array and input_type ("search_document", "search_query", "classification", "clustering"). Returns embedding vectors for each input text. Useful for semantic search, similarity comparison and vector database storage. Generate embeddings using Cohere

list_models

Each model returns its name (e.g. "command-r-plus", "command-r", "embed-v4", "rerank-v3.5"), endpoint compatibility, context length and tokenization info. Use this to discover which models are available and their capabilities. List all available Cohere models

rerank

Requires the model ID (e.g. "rerank-v3.5", "rerank-english-v3.0"), query text and documents array. Optionally set top_n to return only the top N results. Returns ranked documents with relevance scores. Rerank documents by relevance to a query

tokenize

Requires the text to tokenize and optionally the model. Returns the list of token IDs and token strings. Useful for estimating token counts before sending to chat or embed endpoints. Tokenize text using Cohere

Example Prompts for Cohere in VS Code Copilot

Ready-to-use prompts you can give your VS Code Copilot agent to start working with Cohere immediately.

"Send a message to Command R+ asking 'What is the capital of Brazil?'"

"Rerank these documents for the query 'machine learning models': ['Neural networks are inspired by biological neurons.', 'Python is a popular programming language.', 'Transformers use attention mechanisms for sequence processing.']"

"Generate embeddings for these texts: ['The weather is nice today.', 'I love programming in Python.'] using embed-v4."

Troubleshooting Cohere MCP Server with VS Code Copilot

Common issues when connecting Cohere to VS Code Copilot through the Vinkius, and how to resolve them.

MCP tools not available

Ensure you are in Agent mode in Copilot Chat. MCP tools only appear in Agent mode.

Cohere + VS Code Copilot FAQ

Common questions about integrating Cohere MCP Server with VS Code Copilot.

Which VS Code version supports MCP?

MCP support requires VS Code 1.99 or later with the GitHub Copilot extension. Ensure both are updated to the latest version. Older versions of Copilot may not expose the Agent mode toggle.

How do I switch to Agent mode?

Open the Copilot Chat panel and look for two mode options: "Ask" and "Agent". Click "Agent" to enable autonomous tool calling. In Ask mode, Copilot provides conversational answers but cannot invoke MCP tools.

Can I restrict which MCP tools Copilot can access?

Yes. VS Code shows a tool consent dialog before any MCP tool is invoked for the first time. You can also configure tool access policies at the organization level through GitHub Copilot settings.

Does MCP work in VS Code Remote or Codespaces?

Yes. MCP servers configured via .vscode/mcp.json work in Remote SSH, WSL, and GitHub Codespaces environments. The MCP connection is established from the remote host, so ensure the server URL is accessible from that environment.