tpu-mcp -- encoding-safe file I/O for Copilot
This extension bundles the tpu-mcp
MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and registers it with VS Code so that
GitHub Copilot Chat (and any other MCP consumer) can use it for
encoding-aware file operations: read, write, replace, search, validate,
edit, and more.
tpu-mcp correctly handles UTF-8, UTF-16LE/BE, Windows-1252, and Shift-JIS
files; preserves the file's original line endings (CRLF / LF / CR); writes
atomically with a .bak backup; and refuses to introduce mojibake.
Use it in place of Get-Content / Set-Content / cat / shell
redirection from Copilot to avoid encoding corruption.
Installation
Install from the VS Code Marketplace:
code --install-extension MikeGrierTools.tpu-mcp
or search for tpu-mcp in the Extensions view.
The extension auto-registers itself as an MCP server on startup; no
.vscode/mcp.json editing is required.
After install, reload the window (Command Palette \u2192 Developer: Reload
Window) and the tpu-mcp server will appear under
MCP: List Servers.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Purpose |
tpu-mcp.verifyDelayMs |
100 |
Delay (ms) after a write before re-reading file metadata, to detect Windows Defender minifilter reverts. Set to 0 once a Defender exclusion is in place. |
tpu-mcp.binaryPath |
"" |
Override the bundled binary path (developer use, against a locally-built tpu-mcp). |
tpu-mcp.extraArgs |
[] |
Extra CLI args appended to the server invocation. |
Commands
- tpu-mcp: Copy bundled server binary path -- puts the absolute path
on the clipboard, useful for VS proper / external clients.
- tpu-mcp: Show bundled server version -- displays the version of the
bundled
tpu-mcp binary.
The full list and JSON schemas are documented in the
tpu-mcp README.
A short summary:
| Tool |
Description |
tpu_read_file, tpu_read_head, tpu_read_tail |
Read text with optional line-range / line numbers. |
tpu_read_file_binary, tpu_read_file_escaped |
Binary or escaped-text reads. |
tpu_write_file, tpu_append_file |
Encoding-preserving writes. |
tpu_replace_in_file, tpu_edit_file |
Regex and targeted edits, CRLF-transparent. |
tpu_find, tpu_count_file, tpu_validate_file |
Search, counting, pre-edit validation. |
tpu_stat_file |
Cheap metadata stat for write verification. |
License
MIT -- see LICENSE.
