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Publish a changelog in VS Code

The agent that wrote the change already knows what changed. With the Nordva Launch MCP server connected, it can publish the release note to your hosted changelog at the end of the session, schedule it for later, or check what has already been posted.

VS Code's agent mode (GitHub Copilot Chat) loads MCP servers from .vscode/mcp.json. Inputs keep the key out of the file.

Setup

You need a secret key (nv_live_…) from Dashboard → API keys.

01Add the server to the workspace

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "nordva-key",
      "description": "Nordva Launch secret key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "nordva": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.nordva.dev",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:nordva-key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code prompts for the key the first time the server starts and stores it in its secret storage, so this file is safe to commit. Note that the top-level property is servers, not mcpServers.

02Check the connection

Run MCP: List Servers from the Command Palette and start nordva. In the Chat view, switch to Agent mode and check that the nordva tools are listed under the tools button. Ask it to run setup_check.

Then ask VS Code

  • Publish a changelog entry for what we just shipped. Category: fix.
  • Draft an entry for the new export feature and schedule it for Monday 09:00 UTC.
  • What did we publish on the changelog this month?
  • Archive the entry about the beta importer, it went out by mistake.

For “Publish a changelog entry for the CSV export fix we just merged.” VS Code calls publish_changelog_entry with:

{
  "title": "CSV export no longer drops rows with commas in the name",
  "body_markdown": "Names containing a comma were split into two columns, which shifted every field after them. Values are now quoted.\n\nAffects exports made since 2 September. Re-export to get a correct file.",
  "category": "fix",
  "version": "v1.8.2"
}

Returned: The entry id, its status (published or scheduled) and the public URL of the entry on the hosted changelog page.

Changelog tools and arguments

publish_changelog_entry

Publish or schedule a changelog entry

titlerequiredstring, max 200User-facing headline.
body_markdownrequiredstring, max 50,000Full description in Markdown.
categoryrequired"feature" | "fix" | "improvement" | "security" | "breaking"Use 'breaking' only when customers must change code/config.
versionoptionalstring, max 64Free-form version string. Not validated as semver.
scheduled_atoptionalstringISO 8601 timestamp. If set, entry is scheduled, not published.

list_changelog_entries

Read-only

List recent changelog entries

limitoptionalnumber, 1–50
categoryoptional"feature" | "fix" | "improvement" | "security" | "breaking"
statusoptional"draft" | "published" | "scheduled" | "archived"
sinceoptionalstring

archive_changelog_entry

Confirms first

Remove a changelog entry from public view

entry_idrequiredstringThe id of the changelog entry to archive (e.g. ce_01hwxyz...).

Behaviour worth knowing

  • Without scheduled_at the entry is public immediately. With it, the entry stays in scheduled status until a cron that runs every minute publishes it.
  • Archiving is a soft delete: the entry leaves the public page and feed at once but is not destroyed.
  • On the Free plan the eleventh published entry is refused with PLAN_LIMIT_REACHED. The tool description tells the agent to show the upgrade link and stop rather than retry.
  • Published entries are emailed to confirmed subscribers on plans that include subscribers.
  • MCP tools are only available in Agent mode, not in Ask or Edit mode.