Development Tooling MCP server

This MCP Development Server implements the Model Context Protocol, allowing Claude to manage software development projects with full context awareness and execute code through Docker environments. It provides project management capabilities with file system operations, Git integration, and template-based project creation.

Installation

You can install the MCP server using pip or directly from the source:

# Using pip
pip install mcp-dev-server

Configuration

Claude Desktop Setup

To connect the MCP server with Claude Desktop, add the following to your configuration file:

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dev": {
      "command": "mcp-dev-server",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Usage

The MCP server provides several capabilities that Claude can utilize when developing software projects.

Available Resources

The server gives Claude access to:

• Complete project structure and file contents
• Build status information and artifacts
• Test execution results
• Docker container status information

Available Tools

Claude can use the server to:

• Initialize Projects: Create new projects from templates
• Build Operations: Compile and build projects
• Run Tests: Execute test suites
• Docker Commands: Manage Docker containers for code execution

Using Prompts

You can interact with Claude using specific prompts for:

• Project structure analysis
• Development recommendations
• Error diagnosis and troubleshooting

Requirements

Before using the MCP Development Server, ensure you have:

• Python 3.12 or higher
• Docker installed and running
• Git installed

These components are necessary for the server to function properly with all features enabled.

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.