Give Your Agent More Tools with MCP

MCP servers turn your agent from a text generator into an active participant that can read, fetch, and act.

:dart: What You'll Do

You'll add an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server to your workflow's frontmatter, giving the AI agent access to a new set of tools it can call at runtime. By the end, your daily-status workflow will be able to do more than just generate text — it can interact with live data sources using structured tool calls.

:clipboard: Before You Start

• You have installed the gh-aw extension in Install the gh-aw CLI Extension.
• You have a working daily-status workflow from Build: Daily Repo Status Workflow.
• You're comfortable editing the YAML frontmatter section at the top of your workflow file.

Steps

Understand what MCP adds

MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects external tool servers to the agent so it can call structured operations — like listing issues or fetching commits — and weave the live results into its output. Without MCP, the agent only knows what you wrote in the brief; with MCP, it can go out and look things up itself.

Add an MCP server to your workflow

In the terminal that is already open in your Codespace, run:

gh copilot

In Copilot CLI, send this prompt:

/agentic-workflows update .github/workflows/daily-status.md to add a `tools:` block
with `github: mode: gh-proxy, toolsets: [default]` to the frontmatter, and update
the task brief to tell the agent to use GitHub tools to fetch the last 5 commits and
all open issues labelled `bug`, then write a daily summary and post it as a new issue.

The skill adds the tools: block and updates the brief. Review the diff before committing.

Here is the tools: block the skill will add:

---
name: Daily Status Report
on:
  workflow_dispatch: {}
  schedule: daily on weekdays
permissions:
  contents: read
tools:
  github:
    mode: gh-proxy
    toolsets: [default]
---

:desktop_computer: Terminal path

Open your daily-status workflow file (.github/workflows/daily-status.md) and find the YAML frontmatter at the top. Add a tools block with the content shown above, then run gh aw compile.

Reference the tools in your task brief

Below the frontmatter, update the task brief to tell the agent it can use the MCP tools:

You have access to GitHub tools via MCP. Use them to:
1. Fetch the last 5 commits on the default branch.
2. List all open issues labelled `bug`.
3. Write a concise daily summary combining both.
Post the summary as a new issue titled "Daily Status — {today's date}".

The agent will read this brief, decide which MCP tool calls to make, and weave the results into its final output — all without you scripting each API call manually.

Push and trigger a run

The /agentic-workflows skill recompiles the lock file automatically. Commit both files and push:

git add .
git commit -m "feat: add MCP tools to daily status workflow"
git push

Watch the agent reason

Open the run log in Actions. You'll see the agent interleaving tool calls with its reasoning — it fetches data, processes it, then produces the summary. That's the agentic loop in action.

:white_check_mark: Checkpoint

• Your frontmatter has a tools: block with github: mode: gh-proxy
• Your task brief mentions what the agent should do with the tools
• The source and compiled workflow files are committed and pushed
• A manual run completes and the log shows at least one MCP tool call
• The workflow output reflects live data retrieved via MCP, not just static text

Next: Share and Reuse Your Agentic Workflows