Set up Shodan MCP in VS Code
Internet-connected device search, IP reconnaissance, CVE lookups, and DNS intelligence via the Shodan API.
1
Locate the config file
VS Code reads MCP server configuration from the following file:
.vscode/settings.json → mcp sectionCreate this file if it does not already exist. For VS Code, this is inside your workspace .vscode/settings.json file under the mcp section.
2
Add the configuration
Add the following to your VS Code config file:
json
{
"servers": {
"shodan-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@burtthecoder/mcp-shodan"
],
"env": {
"SHODAN_API_KEY": "YOUR_SHODAN_API_KEY"
}
}
}
}3
Set up environment variables
Shodan MCP requires the following environment variables:
SHODAN_API_KEYRequiredShodan API key
4
Verify it works
Restart VS Code. Shodan MCP should appear in your MCP server list with 7 tools available.
This server adds approximately 3,500 tokens to your context window for tool definitions.