MSBuild MCP server

The Binlog MCP Server provides a Model Context Protocol Server that allows you to analyze MSBuild binlogs through MCP-compatible applications like Claude or Visual Studio Code. It exposes specialized tools and prompts for working with MSBuild binary log files.

Installation

To get started with the Binlog MCP Server:

1. Build the project using the .NET SDK:

dotnet build

2. The executable will be created in the bin/Debug/net9.0/ directory.

Configuration

Setting Up with Claude

To configure Claude to use the Binlog MCP Server, add the following to your Claude configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "msbuild": {
      "command": "C:\\path\\to\\binlog.mcp\\bin\\Debug\\net9.0\\binlog.mcp.exe"
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace the path with the actual location of the executable on your system.

Setting Up with Visual Studio Code

If you already have Claude configured, you can tell VS Code to use the same settings by adding this to your settings.json:

"chat.mcp.discovery.enabled": true,

Alternatively, you can configure the server directly in VS Code:

{
    "mcp": {
        "inputs": [],
        "servers": {
            "msbuild": {
                "command": "C:\\path\\to\\binlog.mcp\\bin\\Debug\\net9.0\\binlog.mcp.exe",
                "args": [],
                "env": {}
            }
        }
    }
}

Testing and Debugging

To locally test and debug the MCP server, you can use the Model Context Protocol inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector ./bin/Debug/net9.0/msbuild.mcp

This tool helps you inspect and verify the functionality of your MCP server implementation.

Usage

After configuration, launch your preferred MCP-compatible application (Claude or VS Code). The Binlog MCP Server will be available as a tool for analyzing MSBuild binary log files.

You can now use the specialized prompts and tools exposed by the server to examine and troubleshoot MSBuild binlogs within your AI assistant interface.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "msbuild" '{"command":"binlog.mcp\\bin\\Debug\\net9.0\\binlog.mcp.exe"}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "msbuild": {
            "command": "binlog.mcp\\bin\\Debug\\net9.0\\binlog.mcp.exe"
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "msbuild": {
            "command": "binlog.mcp\\bin\\Debug\\net9.0\\binlog.mcp.exe"
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect