docs: repo premise "VS Code is not a plugin surface" is stale — VS Code now auto-discovers bundled plugin agents/skills/MCP

[devantler]

🤖 Generated by the Daily AI Engineer

Problem

The repo's docs and ADRs are built on the premise that VS Code is not a plugin surface — that plugins aren't a VS Code concept and bundled agents/MCP must be delivered to VS Code as manual per-workspace config (.github/agents/*.agent.md, hand-added MCP entries). That premise is now stale: VS Code ships agent plugins, and the official docs state "When you install a plugin, its commands, skills, agents, hooks, and MCP servers appear in chat" and "plugin-provided customizations appear alongside your locally defined ones", with agent locations read from the agents field in plugin.json (default agents/) — i.e. VS Code now auto-discovers bundled plugin agents/skills/MCP, no manual copy required.

Stale assertions currently on main (verified 2026-07-14):

• README.md — VS Code "consumes agents but does not bundle them… Copy the agent to your workspace as .github/agents/…" (agents §) and the analogous MCP note.
• plugins/vibe-coding/README.md:23-27 — "VS Code delivery step … VS Code does not — copy the companion agent…".
• docs/adr/0001-bundling-mcp-servers-and-custom-agents.md — the capability matrix rows + "VS Code is not a plugin surface" analysis.
• docs/adr/0003-vibe-coding-plugin-design.md:131-132 — the "documented VS Code delivery step — copy the companion agent".

(The automated-ai-engineer plugin README was already corrected in PR #63; this issue covers the rest of the repo.)

Proposed direction

1. Verify the full extent of VS Code agent-plugin support — agents ✅ (confirmed), and whether skills and MCP servers bundle+auto-discover the same way (the docs list them, but confirm the manifest fields VS Code honors) before rewriting the MCP delivery guidance.
2. Refresh the consumer docs (top-level README.md + plugins/vibe-coding/README.md): state that Claude Code, Copilot CLI, and VS Code all auto-load bundled plugin components on install; drop the manual .github/agents copy steps.
3. Correct the ADR record without rewriting history — ADR-0001 and ADR-0003 are point-in-time decisions; add a superseding note (or a short new ADR) recording that VS Code has since gained plugin-surface support, and update the capability matrix rather than silently editing the original analysis.

Rough size

S–M — mostly docs; the ADR-correction approach (amend-note vs new ADR) is the main judgement call, and step 1 is a short verification. Part of #38.

Acceptance criteria

• No doc/ADR on main asserts VS Code requires a manual agent/MCP copy for plugin-bundled components (except as clearly-marked historical context).
• VS Code auto-discovery of bundled agents (and confirmed-supported skills/MCP) is documented consistently across README + plugin READMEs.
• The ADR trail records the capability shift explicitly (superseding note or new ADR).

[coderabbitai]

🔗 Related PRs

#34 - docs: describe the live multi-upstream skill-sourcing model [merged]
#43 - docs(adr): decide cross-tool MCP/agent bundling design (ADR 0001) [merged]
#53 - fix: omit skills/agents path fields so plugins install in Claude Code [merged]
#55 - docs(adr): define the Automated AI Engineer plugin boundary [merged]
#58 - docs(adr): design the Vibe Coding plugin (shape, skill family, stack guardrail, voice) [merged]

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