Why Won't AI for VS Code

The Why Won't AI integration for VS Code is a remote MCP server for Copilot's agent mode. The agent can check a site's robots.txt for 17 search and AI crawlers, run a full AI visibility scan, and read the issues back to you in the editor.

What you can do

• check_robots No key

  Which of 17 search and AI crawlers a site's robots.txt allows, with the rule that decides each one.

• scan_site API key

  Starts a full AI visibility scan of a site on your plan.

• get_scan API key

  Score, category scores, technical health, Domain Rating and top issues. Can wait for the scan to finish.

• list_issues API key

  Every issue from a scan, most severe first, with example URLs.

• list_scans API key

  Your recent scans.

Set it up

VS Code reads MCP servers from .vscode/mcp.json. The example below asks for your key once and stores it securely, so the key never sits in the file.

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "whywontai-key",
      "description": "Why Won't AI API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "whywontai": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.whywontai.com/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:whywontai-key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

1. Create a free account, open your dashboard, and choose MCP & API to create a key. The key is shown once, so copy it before you close the box.
2. Save the block above as .vscode/mcp.json in your project.
3. Start the server from the file or the MCP view. VS Code asks for your key the first time.
4. Open Chat, switch to agent mode, and check that the whywontai tools are turned on.

Check that it works

Ask the agent: "Use whywontai to check robots.txt for example.com." Then: "Scan my site with whywontai and list anything marked critical or high."

Limits

• Without a key, check_robots allows 30 checks a day.
• Scans use your plan's scan and page limits, the same as scans you start on the website.
• A scan takes about 1 to 5 minutes. The tools read your public pages only and do not change your site.

Questions