VS Code Insiders Podcast The Origins & Evolution of the GitHub MCP Registry
Sep 29, 2025
In this discussion, Toby Padilla, Principal Product Manager at GitHub, sheds light on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and its significance in enhancing workflows across various platforms. He explains how MCP servers enable tools like GitHub and Playwright to interact seamlessly. Toby also delves into the importance of the GitHub MCP registry for standardization and discovery, the vision for an open-source canonical registry, and enterprise governance issues surrounding private MCP servers. Tune in for an insightful look into the future of tool integration!
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MCP Connects Models To The World
- MCP lets large language models fetch up-to-date or private data and perform actions in external systems.
- This bridges model training cutoffs by enabling real-time context and side effects.
Real Workflow: Copilot, GitHub, Playwright
- Toby uses the GitHub MCP server plus Playwright and the Copilot coding agent in real workflows.
- The coding agent opens pull requests and includes screenshots validated by Playwright.
Explosion Of Servers Created Discovery Need
- MCP adoption exploded because servers are easy to build and present functions to models.
- That growth created a discovery problem addressed by registries as a single source for publisher metadata.