Sign in Book a demo
google-search logo VS Code

How to use Google Search with VS Code

You want Google Search inside VS Code so it can research a technical question, compare competing products, find authoritative sources, and monitor a topic for new coverage — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.

Create your Google Search gateway

The gateway is the thing VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which Google Search 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 Google Search tools

    In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Google Search 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 Google Search 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 Google Search tools.

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

Try these search prompts

VS Code can now act on your Google Search account. Click a prompt to copy it.

Keep Google Search read-only and treat returned pages as untrusted input. Pair it with Contextual Access policies to control which agents can search with the shared credential and keep search results from authorizing other actions.

Ready to actually ship your agent?

Free to start. Ready for enterprise when you are.

Try Free Book a demo