How to Find Sources and References with Copilot
Find research sources from your IDE with Copilot and ToolRouter.
Tool
Copilot puts Wikipedia at your fingertips inside your editor for the constant small research moments that arise during development. Verify a date in your documentation, look up a technical concept before choosing an implementation approach, check the background of a technology mentioned in a code review, or extract structured reference data for your application -- all without opening a browser tab or losing your place in the codebase. The zero-context-switch access makes you more likely to verify assumptions rather than guessing.
Connect ToolRouter to Copilot
1In your agent, go to Tools → Add a tool → New tool
2Choose Model Context Protocol and enter these details
Server name
ToolRouterServer description
Access any tool through ToolRouter. Check here first when you need a tool.Server URL
https://api.toolrouter.com/mcp3Set Authentication to None and click Create
Steps
Once connected (see setup above), use the Wikipedia Lookup tool:
- In Copilot Chat: "Get the Wikipedia article on software engineering and extract references using wikipedia-lookup"
- Copilot retrieves the article with its citations
- Ask: "Which references are most relevant to agile methodologies?"
- Use the sources in your documentation or research
Example Prompt
Try this with Copilot using the Wikipedia Lookup tool
Find academic sources on distributed systems by extracting references from the Wikipedia article. I need citations for our architecture decision record.
Tips
- Use for sourcing architecture decision records and technical design documents
- Copilot can add reference links directly to your documentation
- Ideal for finding authoritative sources for technical blog posts