Use AfterLaunch with VS Code

Connect

Add this to your .vscode/mcp.json, which is per workspace. A profile-level mcp.json applies it everywhere. Since version 1.102 MCP servers no longer live in settings.json, so an older snippet that nests them there is silently ignored.

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

VS Code prompts for the key the first time the server starts and keeps it in the editor secret storage, so it never lands in the committed file.

No key yet? Read the agents page or hand your agent /llms.txt, and it can run the onboarding flow: it submits your site and email, you approve with one click by email, and nothing runs until you do.

What VS Code can do

The 55 tools are the same whichever agent calls them. Once connected, VS Code can:

• Read the ranked Feed of growth moves, each with its full draft body, plus the product run, its automated loops and every drafted output. All read-only and free.
• Act on a move: ship it, skip it with structured feedback, redraft the body before it goes out, or archive it. Free, on the act scope every self-serve key carries. Shipping stays the founder's decision; reporting it back the moment the work is live is the agent's, and it is what the engine measures the next ranking against.
• Run the engine on demand: refresh an AI Visibility scan, top up the Feed, or run a single loop. These spend money, so they run on the write scope every key already carries and are metered: charged once per logical event, replayed on a repeat, and capped per tenant per day and per month.
• Set the dials: a loop autonomy rung and its cadence. Both need the config scope and Founder tier, and social channels never accept full autonomy, so publishing stays review-and-post by a human.
• Mint a Founder checkout link when the founder wants to upgrade. The link is always bound to the product run the key owns.
• Write the Growth section into the repository it works in, the same block shown below, so the setup teaches the next session too.

In practice

In the VS Code Copilot chat in agent mode, you check discoverability without leaving the editor.

Illustrative. The tool names in brackets are the real read and act tools the agent calls.

Good to know for VS Code

• The top-level key is servers, not mcpServers, and the transport type is http. Those two names are the usual reason a config copied from another editor does nothing here.
• The server starts lazily. The log stays empty until a chat needs it, so silence right after you save the file is what success looks like.
• The AfterLaunch tools appear in the Copilot chat tools picker in agent mode. Copilot caps a session at 128 MCP tools and refuses past that rather than trimming, so keep an eye on the total if you run several servers at once. AfterLaunch contributes 55.

Honest posture

VS Code reads AGENTS.md natively, so the Growth section below teaches Copilot which tools to reach for. The server is remote, so nothing runs on your machine.

The AfterLaunch MCP server is remote and bearer-authenticated. There is no local process to install and nothing to execute on your machine: a config only points the agent at an HTTPS endpoint and attaches your key.

A key you mint yourself, or one an agent obtains through onboarding, carries the read, act and write scopes. Reading the Feed and shipping, skipping, redrafting or archiving moves work straight away. The metered pulls run on that same write scope, bounded by the product run credits and the per-tenant caps, and the autonomy dials need the config scope and Founder tier. Access opens in waves, so a refused key means your wave has not opened yet.

AfterLaunch drafts. A human approves and posts. It never claims to have posted to a social channel on its own.

Reporting back is part of the loop, not an extra step. When the founder confirms a move is live the agent calls ship_move, and when they decide against it the agent calls skip_move with the real reason. AfterLaunch measures what happens after a move ships, so an unreported ship is work the record never sees.

Questions

Teach VS Code to use it

The move that compounds. Add the Growth section to your repository AGENTS.md, the file VS Code reads at the start of every session, and it knows which growth, SEO and AI visibility tools to reach for, and which ones cost money. It is served raw as markdown, so one line prints it:

curl https://afterlaunch.io/agents/snippet.md

Read it, then paste it into your repository CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md yourself. Nothing writes to your files on your behalf.

Or read the Growth section in your browser.

Using a different client?

• Using Claude Code instead? →
• Using Cursor instead? →
• Using ChatGPT instead? →

Browse all agent guides, see the agents overview, or run a free growth tool first.