feat: MCP tool auto-approve and global auto-approve (Auto-approve Part 4)

[xinyi-gong]

Summary

Adds MCP tool auto-approve and a global auto-approve toggle, completing the auto-approve feature suite.

Changes

MCP Auto-Approve

• McpConfirmationHandler: Evaluates MCP tool confirmation requests against session and global approval lists. Supports per-tool and per-server approval at both session and global scopes.
• Trust annotations: Optional auto-approve for read-only/closed-world tools (readOnlyHint=true + openWorldHint=false) via a "Trust MCP Tool Annotations" toggle.
• McpAutoApproveSection: Preference page UI with a live tree of MCP servers/tools, loading state to prevent empty-list flash, and correct tree expand-before-setChecked to ensure ChatView "Always Allow" selections sync to the preference page.
• McpConfigService: Exposes MCP server/tool collections to the preference section.
• ConfirmationService wired to dispatch to McpConfirmationHandler.

Global Auto-Approve

• GlobalAutoApproveSection: Preference UI for the global YOLO toggle, with a confirmation dialog on enable and a warning label.
• ConfirmationService short-circuits all tool confirmations when global auto-approve is enabled.

Tests & Docs

• McpConfirmationHandlerTests: 24 unit tests covering global list evaluation (case-insensitive), trust annotations logic, session approval caching/clearing, and buildContent action structure.
• Manual test plans: test-plans/mcp-auto-approve/mcp-auto-approve.md (TC-001–006) and test-plans/global-auto-approve/global-auto-approve.md (TC-001–003).
• Testing Trust Annotations (read-only tool auto-approve)

To test the "Trust MCP Tool Annotations" feature, use the GitHub MCP server — its get_me tool has readOnlyHint=true and openWorldHint=false, making it eligible for annotation-based auto-approve.

Add the following to your MCP config (settings.json or mcp.json):

"io.github.github/github-mcp-server": {
  "type": "http",
  "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
  "requestInit": {
    "headers": {}
  },
  "x-metadata": {
    "registry": {
      "api": {
        "baseUrl": "https://api.mcp.github.com",
        "version": "v0.1"
      },
      "mcpServer": {
        "name": "io.github.github/github-mcp-server",
        "version": "1.0.4"
      }
    }
  }
}

Preference page:

No servers and tools registered:

Global approve confirm dialog:

Chat view confirm dialog:

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR completes the tool auto-approve feature suite by adding (1) MCP tool auto-approve (per-tool/per-server, session/global) and (2) a global “auto-approve everything” (YOLO) toggle, wiring both into confirmation evaluation and preferences UI.

Changes:

• Added MCP-specific confirmation evaluation + preference UI (server/tool tree + optional trust of MCP annotations).
• Added global auto-approve (YOLO) preference UI and a short-circuit in ConfirmationService.
• Added unit tests for MCP confirmation behavior and manual SWTBot test plans.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/messages.properties	Adds preference UI strings for MCP + global auto-approve sections.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/Messages.java	Exposes new NLS keys for the added preference strings.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/McpAutoApproveSection.java	New preference section implementing MCP server/tool approval tree + trust-annotations toggle.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/GlobalAutoApproveSection.java	New preference section implementing global auto-approve (YOLO) toggle with warning dialog.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/CopilotPreferenceInitializer.java	Initializes default values for new auto-approve preferences.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/AutoApprovePreferencePage.java	Adds the new MCP + global sections to the Tool Auto Approve preference page and binds MCP config service.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/McpConfigService.java	Exposes MCP server/tool collections to the auto-approve section via a side-effect binding.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/messages.properties	Adds MCP confirmation dialog/action strings.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/Messages.java	Exposes new MCP confirmation dialog/action NLS keys.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/confirmation/McpConfirmationHandler.java	New handler implementing MCP confirmation evaluation + session/global persistence + trust annotations.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/confirmation/ConfirmationService.java	Wires MCP handler and adds global YOLO short-circuit before classification.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/confirmation/McpConfirmationHandlerTests.java	Adds unit tests for MCP confirmation evaluation, caching, and content/action structure.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/test-plans/mcp-auto-approve/mcp-auto-approve.md	Manual end-to-end test plan for MCP auto-approve scenarios.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/test-plans/global-auto-approve/global-auto-approve.md	Manual end-to-end test plan for global auto-approve scenarios.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/Constants.java	Adds new preference keys for MCP auto-approve and global auto-approve.