Connect ZenMode to VS Code (MCP): ask about your campaigns from Copilot

What this integration is

ZenMode has a remote MCP server. VS Code can connect to it, so you can ask GitHub Copilot about your ZenMode account from the chat: how your campaigns are performing, who a contact is, what was said in a LinkedIn conversation.

Server address: https://www.zen-mode.io/api/mcp

The connection is tied to one of your ZenMode API keys, and VS Code only ever sees the account that key belongs to. It is the same server and the same tools as the Claude guide, which lists every tool and its limits.

The safety rule

An AI assistant cannot send a message or a connection request through ZenMode. There is no tool for it. The only way anyone gets contacted is by being added to one of your campaigns, and the campaign then works through them inside your daily and weekly limits, your business hours and your pacing.

A new API key is read only for AI assistants unless you tick Let AI assistants make changes when you create it. With a read-only key, Copilot can look at your campaigns, contacts and conversations and cannot change anything.

Before you start

1. You need a ZenMode plan of Practitioner or above (a free trial counts as the plan you are trialling). Novice accounts are told so with an upgrade link.
2. Create an API key under MCP / API in the dashboard. Leave Let AI assistants make changes unticked unless you want Copilot to be able to add people to campaigns or change targeting.
3. VS Code with GitHub Copilot. If your Copilot comes from a company or organization on Copilot Business or Enterprise, an administrator has to switch on the MCP servers in Copilot policy, which GitHub keeps off by default. Copilot Free, Pro and Pro+ are not governed by that policy.

Add ZenMode to VS Code

VS Code's MCP file is different from the one other editors use: the top-level key is servers, and the entry needs "type": "http". Open it with MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette (this keeps your key out of any project you might commit), and add:

{
  "servers": {
    "zenmode": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://www.zen-mode.io/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:zenmode-api-key}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "zenmode-api-key",
      "description": "ZenMode API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

If the file already has servers and inputs, add each entry inside the existing one. The inputs entry makes VS Code ask for the key the first time the server starts and hide what you type, so the key is not written into the file.

Then run MCP: List Servers to check zenmode is running. VS Code asks you to confirm that you trust a server the first time it starts. In the chat, Configure Tools shows the tools ZenMode provides and lets you switch individual ones off.

Things worth knowing:

• The key is a secret. Anyone who has it can read your ZenMode account the way the key allows. If it lands in a file you share by mistake, revoke it in the dashboard and create a new one.
• A workspace .vscode/mcp.json is a shared file. Teams commit it to source control. That is why the example uses an input prompt, and why we point you at the user configuration.

How this guide was checked

The setup above follows VS Code's current MCP documentation. We have not run it inside VS Code. We did check the server itself with a plain MCP client on 7 October 2026, using a read-only key: it listed 15 tools and returned results for get_account_summary and list_campaigns on three MCP protocol versions, and refused a wrong key.

Example prompts

• "Use ZenMode to show how my campaigns are doing this month. Which one has the best reply rate?"
• "Use ZenMode to find the contact Priya Shah and show where she stands."
• "Read my ZenMode conversation with Priya Shah and draft a reply I can send myself."
• "Can my ZenMode account take more people today, and if not, when does that lift?"

Limits

Each API key can make 60 tool calls a minute. If the key allows changes, they are capped at 10 a minute and 300 a day, and at most 500 people a day can be added through an assistant. These are the assistant's own call limits; your LinkedIn daily and weekly limits are separate and are applied by your campaigns, as always.

FAQ

Can Copilot send LinkedIn messages or connection requests through ZenMode?

No. No ZenMode tool does that. An assistant with a key that allows changes can add people to a campaign, and your campaign reaches them later under your own daily and weekly limits, business hours and pacing.

Which ZenMode plans include the MCP server?

Practitioner and above, the same as the ZenMode API. A free trial counts as the plan you are trialling. Novice accounts are told so with an upgrade link, and their API keys are kept so they work again as soon as the account moves up.

Why can I not add the server at work?

On Copilot Business and Enterprise, an organization administrator controls the MCP servers in Copilot policy, and it is off until they turn it on. Ask them to enable it.

How do I disconnect VS Code?

Remove the zenmode entry from mcp.json, or revoke the API key in the ZenMode dashboard. Revoking the key ends the connection straight away.

Does it need my LinkedIn password?

No. ZenMode never asks for LinkedIn credentials, and nothing in this connection touches them.