GitHub Copilot How to use Daytona with GitHub Copilot
You want Daytona inside GitHub Copilot so it can provision isolated environments for testing, review repository changes before committing, apply a controlled code change and verify it, and run and monitor a long-lived development service — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.
Create your Daytona gateway
The gateway is the thing GitHub Copilot connects to, and it is where you decide which Daytona tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.
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Create an Arcade account
Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.
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Create an MCP Gateway and select your Daytona tools
In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Daytona tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.
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Copy your gateway URL
Every client below needs it.
https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>
Connect the gateway to GitHub Copilot
JetBrains IDEs do not support remote MCP servers with Dynamic Client Registration — configure the gateway as “Arcade Headers” in the dashboard first. Setup also differs on Visual Studio, Eclipse and Xcode; check the docs for yours.
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In VS Code
Copilot picks up MCP servers configured in VS Code automatically, so follow the VS Code steps and you are done.
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In JetBrains IDEs
Copilot icon → Open Chat → Agent mode → tools icon → “+ Add More Tools…”, which opens mcp.json.
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Add the gateway with Arcade Headers
{ "servers": { "mcp-arcade": { "url": "https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>", "requestInit": { "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer {arcade_api_key}", "Arcade-User-ID": "{arcade_user_id}" } } } } }
Full GitHub Copilot guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13
Get started with these Daytona prompts
GitHub Copilot can now act on your Daytona account. Click a prompt to copy it.
Use tool permissions and approval gates to limit what the agent can do. Pair it with Contextual Access policies so an agent can run code and edit files without being able to delete a sandbox or push changes.
