Home · Setup · VS Code

MCP Mileage Log in VS Code

Mileage log for deductible driving: trips, effective-dated rates, summaries and CSV export. You log each drive the moment it happens - the date, where from and to, the distance in miles or km, the purpose and the category (business, medical, moving, charitable, personal) - and it comes back with a TR-YYYY-NNNN id, a future date refused because the trip cannot have been driven yet. rate_set records what one mile or km is worth for one category in one jurisdiction from a date forward, an effective-dated series rather than one global number, and each trip earns the rate in force on the day it was driven, rounded half-up to the cent, with totals summed from the rounded per-trip amounts so the CSV reconciles line by line with the summary. Distances in miles and in km are kept apart and never added together; a trip whose unit differs from the rate's is converted first, 1 mile = 1.609344 km exactly. Trips with no applicable rate are listed with the reason, never silently dropped, and the export refuses while any non-personal trip in the window is unpriced, so an accountant never receives a log with silent gaps. No rate ships with the server and none of it is tax advice: the rates you set are your own figures to verify.

In agent mode the arithmetic must come from the server: a trip's amount is its distance times the rate in force on its day, rounded half-up to the cent, and totals are sums of those rounded amounts, so an agent totaling distances by hand is composing an estimate the summary already gives exactly.

What you get in VS Code

The contract suite asserts the arithmetic over real stdio: 12.5 miles at 0.70 USD is 875 cents in the list and in the summary total, the twenty-first trip in one calendar month is refused with nothing written while a trip dated in another month logs, the second effective-dated rate is the Pro series while overwriting stays free, and the only files written are trips.json, rates.json and counter.json.

Install it in VS Code

The file is .vscode/mcp.json, and the key inside it is servers.

If you also run Claude Desktop, the shortest path there is one click: mileage-log.mcpb from the latest release opens as an extension, with no JSON and no terminal. VS Code reads its own config, so here it is:

// .vscode/mcp.json  (the key is "servers")
{
  "servers": {
    "mileage-log": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-servers/servers/mileage-log/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Or from a terminal:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"mileage-log","command":"node","args":["/absolute/path/to/mcp-servers/servers/mileage-log/dist/index.js"]}'

The node command above wants a built file. From a clone, once:

git clone https://github.com/theluckystrike/mcp-servers.git
cd mcp-servers && npm install
npm run build -w packages/mcp-license -w servers/mileage-log

That writes servers/mileage-log/dist/index.js, and its absolute path is the one argument the config needs.

The npm packages are not published yet, so the form below returns a 404 today. It is here because it is what the entry becomes the day the publish lands, with nothing else changed:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"mileage-log","command":"npx","args":["-y","@theluckystrike/mcp-mileage-log"]}'

VS Code asks you to confirm you trust the server and its capabilities before it starts. Nothing runs until you answer.

Nothing is published to npm yet, so the working install paths are the ones above: the .mcpb bundle from the latest release, a clone and build, or the hosted URL.

No install: the hosted endpoint

The same server runs at https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/mileage-log over MCP streamable HTTP, no install. Mint a free token with curl https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/token, or use a Pro key. It has no filesystem, so a file comes back as a one-hour download link.

{
  "servers": {
    "mileage-log": {
      "url": "https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/mileage-log",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <token>" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code notes worth knowing first

The top-level key is "servers", not "mcpServers". A config pasted from a Claude Desktop or Cursor README parses cleanly, contributes no servers, and gives you no error to read, which makes it the most expensive one-word mistake here. Alongside it an "inputs" array holds secrets. The newer Agent Host reads a workspace .mcp.json instead.

Free: Twenty trips per calendar month, counted on the month of the trip date, so reconstructing last year's log at tax time does not consume this month's allowance. The trip list and the summary are never metered, and one rate per jurisdiction and category is free, overwriting it included. Pro is $19 once, verified offline.

Questions

Why does my mcp.json do nothing?

The key is servers, not mcpServers. A config copied from a Claude Desktop README parses cleanly and contributes nothing. Rename it. On the newer Agent Host, use a workspace .mcp.json instead.

Do I have to edit the file at all?

No. code --add-mcp takes the server object on the command line, and MCP: Add Server in the palette asks whether the target is Workspace or Global.

Where do the MCP Mileage Log tools show up?

In Chat, behind the tools picker, once the server has started. Adding or changing one raises a prompt asking you to confirm you trust it; if the picker is empty, that prompt is usually still waiting.

Related

MCP Mileage Log in detail · The same server in Cursor and Windsurf · Every server in VS Code · Guides · VS Code docs · Buy Pro