Connect Visual Studio to Relay

1. Get your connection link

1. Sign in to Relay with Google. It's free during the beta.
2. Open Integrations, click Set up on Visual Studio, then Generate connection URL. Copy it straight away: it's shown only once.
3. Below, YOUR-KEY stands for your link. The dashboard shows the same steps with your link already filled in.

2. Add Relay to Visual Studio

1. Create or open %USERPROFILE%\.mcp.json (for all solutions) or .mcp.json in your solution folder, and add (note: servers and "type": "http"):

   {
     "servers": {
       "relay": {
         "type": "http",
         "url": "https://mcp.relaymemory.app/mcp/YOUR-KEY"
       }
     }
   }

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2. Restart Visual Studio, open GitHub Copilot Chat in Agent mode, and enable the Relay tools.

3. Test it

Send this in Visual Studio. It should answer from your Relay memory:

Load my latest plan from Relay.

Make it save on its own

1. In a Visual Studio session, send this once:

   In every conversation, store our work in Relay: save new plans, add progress updates as we go, and keep it up to date.

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2. Visual Studio asks permission to use Relay. Choose Always allow from the Continue button's dropdown, so it saves as you work. Deleting always asks you first.
3. To keep it on in new sessions, add the same sentence to .github/copilot-instructions.md.

Using Relay in Visual Studio every day

• Use Copilot Chat in Agent mode, and check that Relay's tools are enabled in the tools list.
• Approve Relay's tools when asked; you can allow them for the session or always.
• Make it automatic: add this line to .github/copilot-instructions.md, and it checks Relay on its own.

  At the start of a task, check Relay for the latest plan for this project. When you finish, add a progress update to Relay.

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Things to say in Visual Studio:

Save this plan to Relay for the project "My project".

Pick up my latest plan from Relay and continue it.

Add a progress update to Relay for this work.

Review the latest work in Relay and add your review.

Remember in Relay that I prefer short answers.

What's waiting for me in Relay?