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How to use Daytona with VS Code

You want Daytona inside VS Code 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 VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which Daytona 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 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.

  3. Copy your gateway URL

    Every client below needs it.

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

Create a Daytona 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 Daytona tools.

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

Get started with these Daytona prompts

VS Code 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.

Ready to actually ship your agent?

Free to start. Ready for enterprise when you are.

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