Copilot can now sandbox local MCP servers. Some developers won't be able to loosen it.
By Lior AharonovFounder, 7IT Solutions ·
On Wednesday 7 October 2026, GitHub made local sandboxing generally available in Copilot CLI, the Copilot app and VS Code sessions using Agent Host. Tools and commands Copilot starts run with restricted access to files, network and credentials. GitHub says this covers local MCP servers where supported, and enterprises can enforce policies developers cannot weaken.
Your local MCP server may now start inside a box. The folder it reads, the API it calls, the token it expects: each one sits behind a policy written by someone else, maybe the customer's security team.
If you ship a local MCP server, list every path, host and credential it needs in your README, then run it under a Copilot local sandbox before your users do.
A local server used to inherit the whole laptop. Now it gets what the policy allows. Write down what you need, or expect to get nothing.
Lior Aharonov · my takeResearched with AI tools; every fact is checked against the linked sources.