How GitHub Copilot in VS Code handles this
You write the code for a group of WordPress sites in VS Code, and Copilot chat is the quickest place to say what should happen to them all once a change ships. You ask it to purge every site and warm them again. Copilot picks purge_cache, then start_preloader, and sends each with site set to "all" to the xSpeed Hub server you added to the editor. The two calls cover every site in the workspace you connected.
The Hub runs the sites in turn, one second apart, and returns one result per site with ok, plus data or an error. Copilot can print that as a short list in the chat. If one site is unreachable, that site is reported as failed and the others stay done, and the reply should say so instead of calling the whole run good or bad. Only seven tools take "all"; for anything else Copilot names a site and calls it again for the next one.
VS Code starts in Manual permissions, so a tool call that is not auto-approved shows a confirmation, and you can allow it once, for the session, for the workspace or for all future calls. Allow all, Autopilot and global auto-approval skip those prompts, external tool calls included. The Hub adds its own instruction to the agent to confirm once with the number of sites before a fleet-wide purge, toggle, settings change or preloader call. That second one is guidance to the model, not a lock, and it does not name optimize_site, so the dialog and the scope on your connection are the things to rely on.
Set up GitHub Copilot in VS Code once
Already connected? Skip to the prompts. Alternatives and troubleshooting are on the GitHub Copilot in VS Code guide.
1Put your sites in xSpeed Hub
Sign in at app.xspeedcache.com with Google or email; the Hub is free and has no site cap. Then connect each WordPress site from its own dashboard: click Connect Hub in the xSpeed Cache top bar, then Connect via xSpeed Hub. Each site needs the free xSpeed Cache plugin.
2Add xSpeed Hub to your user mcp.json
Open the Command Palette and run MCP: Open User Configuration, then add this entry. Servers in your user profile are available in every workspace. MCP: Add Server walks you through the same thing, and the project-level .mcp.json file works too if you want the entry shared with your team; that file uses a top-level mcpServers object instead of servers.
{
"servers": {
"xspeedhub": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://app.xspeedcache.com/xspeed/mcp"
}
}
} 3Start the server and sign in
Run MCP: List Servers, pick xspeedhub and choose Start. VS Code asks whether you trust the server, then opens a browser page where you sign in to xSpeed Hub and approve access. There is no token to paste, and VS Code keeps the credentials it receives. Open the Chat view and use the Configure Tools button to see the xSpeed tools.
MCP: List Servers
Full GitHub Copilot in VS Code setup, sign-in options and FAQ
Before you send a prompt that changes something
Reads change nothing on your sites, though contact_support emails xSpeed support. Writes run once your connection allows them, so your client's approval prompt and a read-only connection (the token's Read-only everywhere switch, or a Viewer sign-in) are the gates that matter. In VS Code the default permission level is Manual permissions: a tool call that is not auto-approved shows a confirmation, and you can allow it once or for the session, the workspace or all future calls. Chat: Manage Tool Approval lists tools grouped by MCP server, so you can trust get_cache_status and the other reads while purge_cache and update_settings stay on a prompt. Allow all, Autopilot and global auto-approval skip those prompts, including for external tool calls, and then a write runs as soon as your connection allows writes. xSpeed Hub has no confirmation step of its own.
What do I ask?
Three prompts written for GitHub Copilot in VS Code. More for this job are below.
Use xSpeed Hub to purge the cache on every WordPress site in my workspace, then start the preloader on all of them.
With xSpeed Hub, benchmark all sites and show the cached and uncached response times in a table.
Ask xSpeed Hub to stop the preloader on every site, then check which ones still report a running crawl.
What happens, step by step
If you run many WordPress sites, repeating one action on each is the slow part. Through xSpeed Hub, seven tools accept every site in a workspace, or a list of handles, in a single call. The Hub runs the sites one after another and returns a result for each, so a site that fails is named instead of hidden. Everything else in the Hub works on one site per call.
01
See what you can reach
list_sites returns each site's handle, URL, status and scopes. When you have more than one workspace, list_workspaces returns each one's handle, id, your role, its site count, which one is the default, and whether this connection can reach it.
02
Choose the scope of the call
The agent passes site: "all" for every site in one workspace, or an array of handles for exactly those sites. For a workspace other than the default it also passes the workspace argument. Omit workspace and the call acts on the default workspace.
03
Confirm once
Before a purge, toggle, settings change or preloader call that touches every site, the Hub tells the agent to say "this will touch all N sites" and wait for you, then make one call. That instruction does not name optimize_site, so for it your client's prompt is the gate. It is guidance to the agent, not a lock. It is one tool call, so one approval in your client covers every site in it.
04
Run it as one call
The Hub runs the sites one after another with a one-second pause between live calls, so a fleet purge is not a burst of traffic at your servers. Revoked sites are skipped from "all". Each site's action lands in the activity log as its own row.
05
Read the result per site
The reply is a summary of targets, succeeded and failed, plus one row per site with ok and either its data or its error. Some sites failing is a partial success. Only a run where every site failed comes back as an error.
06
Follow up on the failures
The agent reports which sites failed and why, then retries just those handles with an array. Tools that read one site, such as get_cache_status and get_health, do not fan out, so a fleet-wide check means one call per site.
Reference
| Fan-out tools | purge_cache, toggle_cache, update_settings, start_preloader, stop_preloader, optimize_site, run_benchmark |
|---|---|
| Selector | site: "all", or an array of handles |
| What all covers | Every site this connection can see in one workspace, minus revoked ones |
| Pacing | One after another, with a 1 second pause between live calls |
| Result | summary (targets, succeeded, failed) and a row per site: ok, then data or error |
| Partial failure | Reported per site; the call counts as an error only when every site failed |
| Workspace argument | Optional. Omit it for the default workspace; name one by its handle or id from list_workspaces |
| Reach | Fixed when you approve the connection; list_workspaces shows reachable: false for the rest |
| Not fan-out | get_health, get_cache_status and every other tool take one site per call |
| Slow tools | optimize_site takes up to 2 minutes per site; a target_score run is capped at 12 rounds per call |
| Read-only | The connection token with Read-only everywhere on, or a Viewer sign-in, refuses every fan-out write; run_benchmark works. An OAuth sign-in gets the scopes the client asks for |
| Hub daily pass | Re-verifies sites, snapshots cache status and hit ratio, reads stored reports, alerts by Slack webhook or email |
Rules worth keeping
- Confirm once, then call once. The Hub has no confirmation step of its own, so your client's approval prompt and a read-only connection (the connection token with Read-only everywhere on, or a Viewer sign-in) are the gates that matter. The Hub's "this will touch all N sites" is an instruction to the agent for purge, toggle, settings and preloader calls, and it does not name optimize_site.
- "all" is one workspace, never every workspace. To act in another workspace, name it. A write to a non-default workspace must name it, and an array of handles is looked up only in the workspace the call names.
- Read every result per site. Treat some sites failing as a partial result, and never accept a blanket "done" from the agent.
- Try a behaviour change on one site before you send it to the fleet. toggle_cache and update_settings on every site are one call, and each site checks values against its own settings, so a Pro setting can fail on a Free site.
- optimize_site on many sites is slow, because each site can take up to two minutes inside one call. Use dry_run first, or name a short list of handles.
- The Hub has no scheduler for agent prompts. Its own daily pass and alerts run without an agent, and an agent can only act when you send a prompt or your AI client runs one on a timer.
Good to know with GitHub Copilot in VS Code
When the VS Code dialog offers to allow a tool for the session or the workspace, think about which tool you are clicking it for. Allowing purge_cache or start_preloader for the workspace also allows the all-sites form of the call, because the dialog is about the tool and not the site argument. Chat: Manage Tool Approval lists tools grouped by MCP server, so trust the reads there and leave the fan-out tools that write on a prompt. Also mind the tool budget: a chat request can enable at most 128 tools, and the 29 xSpeed Hub tools count toward that alongside every other MCP server you have enabled.
More prompts for this job
They work in any client connected to xSpeed Hub.
Use xSpeed Hub to list every site I can reach, and every workspace, and say which workspace you act in by default.
With xSpeed Hub, purge the cache on every site in my workspace and tell me which ones failed.
Use xSpeed Hub to run a benchmark on all my sites and rank them by cached response time.
Use xSpeed Hub to start the preloader on blog, shop and docs only.
With xSpeed Hub, turn page caching on for every site where it is off. Check each site first.
Use xSpeed Hub to stop the preloader everywhere. The servers are busy.
Ask xSpeed Hub to preview a safe optimize_site pass on every site with dry_run and summarize what it would change.
Use xSpeed Hub to purge every site in the client-acme workspace, not my default one.
Frequently asked questions
Keep going
Manage every site at once with other agents
More with GitHub Copilot in VS Code
Documentation
- Managing your fleet with xSpeed Hub
- Teams, roles and workspaces in xSpeed Hub
- Scoped AI connections in xSpeed Hub
- Connecting to xSpeed Hub
- How to write prompts for xSpeed Hub
- GitHub Copilot in VS Code + xSpeed
- Every AI agent that works with xSpeed
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