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How to use Customer.io with VS Code

You want Customer.io inside VS Code so it can investigate a customer delivery issue, sync lifecycle data for a customer, trigger a targeted customer message, and honor a data-removal request — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.

Create your Customer.io gateway

The gateway is the thing VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which Customer.io tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.

  1. Create an Arcade account

    Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.

  2. Create an MCP Gateway and select your Customer.io tools

    In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Customer.io tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.

  3. Copy your gateway URL

    Every client below needs it.

    https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>

Create a Customer.io gateway Opens the gateway builder in your Arcade dashboard.

Connect the gateway to VS Code

  1. Add the server

    VS Code 1.107.0 or higher. Command Palette → MCP: Add Server… → choose HTTP, paste your gateway URL, and name it something like mcp-arcade.

  2. Start it and authenticate

    Click Start next to the server in mcp.json or under Extensions → MCP Servers - Installed, then approve the Arcade sign-in and consent screens.

  3. Try it out

    Open the chat pane, switch to Agent mode, and ask it to use one of your Customer.io tools.

Full VS Code guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13

Get started with these Customer.io prompts

VS Code can now act on your Customer.io account. Click a prompt to copy it.

Use scoped credentials and tool permissions to control which Customer.io actions an agent can take. Pair it with Contextual Access policies to require approval before an agent triggers a broadcast, sends transactional email, or deletes a person record.

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