Configure the server

Most users can leave server settings unset. Configure environment variables on the MCP server process, not just Visio or an unrelated terminal. Save intended work before restarting the server to apply changed settings: retained drawing IDs belong to the previous session.

Reference	Contents
Runtime and discovery	Output root, visibility, index refresh, custom-content locations
Logging and diagnostics	File logging, log rollover, locations, telemetry distinction

The server reads three user-facing settings: VISIO_MCP_ROOT, VISIO_APP_VISIBLE, and VISIO_MCP_LOCAL_LOG_ENABLED. Other VISIO_MCP_* variables from earlier previews, such as log level, log retention, locale, caching, and index refresh overrides, are ignored; remove them from your configuration.

Tool arguments such as options.autoLayout, export dpi, and overwrite are per-request settings, not environment variables. Find them in the tool reference.

Complete VS Code example

Put this in .vscode\mcp.json, preserving any other configured servers. Environment values are strings. Replace the sample folder with your approved writable destination; don’t assume %VARIABLE% placeholders are expanded inside every client’s JSON environment values.

{
  "servers": {
    "visio-local": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dnx",
      "args": ["Microsoft.Visio.Mcp", "--prerelease"],
      "env": {
        "VISIO_MCP_ROOT": "C:\\VisioOutput",
        "VISIO_APP_VISIBLE": "true",
        "VISIO_MCP_LOCAL_LOG_ENABLED": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

For another client, put the same env object inside that client’s server entry; don’t replace its surrounding schema with VS Code’s servers wrapper.

Output location

The default is %USERPROFILE%\Documents\VisioMcp. An explicit save without a destination generates a path there for an unsaved drawing; use the actual returned path. VISIO_MCP_ROOT changes that default, not Windows permissions, client approvals, app-data paths, or a trusted-folder boundary. See runtime settings.

Local diagnostic files

Logs, stencil snapshots, and the search database live under the fixed %LOCALAPPDATA%\VisioMcp app-data root, separately from diagrams. See exact paths and logging controls. Changing output folders doesn’t relocate these files.

Boolean parsing isn’t uniform. VISIO_APP_VISIBLE shows Visio only for 1, true, yes, or on, while VISIO_MCP_LOCAL_LOG_ENABLED turns off disk logging only for 0, false, or off. Read accepted values before changing a setting, and remove an override to restore its default.

Related: Setup | Privacy and control | Troubleshooting.