# Visual Studio

Visual Studio can read your fivebar stats over MCP, and answer questions about them.

Ask it about your sites in your own words, such as why traffic jumped on Tuesday, and it answers from your figures, following fivebar’s rules about what they mean. Working in your site’s code, it can also [add fivebar to it](https://fiveb.ar/docs/coding-assistants.md) and check it’s working. Connecting is adding fivebar’s address, signing in and choosing Allow, with no key to copy.

## Before you start

Visual Studio 2022 17.14 or later, or Visual Studio 2026, with GitHub Copilot.

## Add fivebar

To add fivebar from a link, open [Add fivebar to Visual Studio](https://vs-open.link/mcp-install?%7B%22name%22%3A%22fivebar%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Ffiveb.ar%2Fapi%2Fmcp%22%7D).

Or add it yourself, to `%USERPROFILE%\.mcp.json` for every solution, or to `.mcp.json` in a solution’s folder:

```
{
  "servers": {
    "fivebar": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://fiveb.ar/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

Or, in the chat window in **Agent** mode, choose **Tools**, then **+**, and add it there.

## Sign in

Open the `.mcp.json` file. Above fivebar, choose **Authentication Required**, then **Authenticate**. That needs CodeLens on, in **Tools**, **Options**, **Text Editor**, **CodeLens**.

fivebar opens in your browser. Sign in if you need to, check that the page names Visual Studio, and choose Allow. Visual Studio can then [read the stats](https://fiveb.ar/docs/mcp.md#what-an-app-can-read) of every site on your Sites page, and changes nothing of yours unless you also tick the box to let it [change settings](https://fiveb.ar/docs/mcp.md#changing-settings).

## Try it

fivebar’s tools start switched off: switch them on under **Tools** in the chat window.

Ask Visual Studio about your sites in your own words, such as:

- Which pages did best last week, and where did their visitors come from?
- How does this month compare with last month so far?
- How many people are on my site right now?

## Removing it

Delete fivebar from the `.mcp.json` it’s in.

To stop Visual Studio reading your stats from fivebar’s side, disconnect it in [Settings](https://fiveb.ar/settings).

More in [Visual Studio’s own documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/mcp-servers).