Protobuf Formatter MCP server

This MCP server formats .proto files, providing clean and consistent formatting for your Protocol Buffers definitions. It integrates with the Model Context Protocol to provide formatting services.

Installation

You can install the protofmt-mcp server using Go's install command:

go install github.com/emicklei/protofmt-mcp@latest

This will download and compile the binary to your Go bin directory (typically ~/go/bin/ on Unix-like systems).

Usage

Integration with Visual Studio Code

To use protofmt-mcp with Visual Studio Code, you need to configure it in your settings:

1. Open your VS Code settings (JSON format)
2. Add the following configuration:

"protofmt-mcp": {
    "command": "/Users/yourusername/go/bin/protofmt-mcp",
    "args": []
}

Be sure to replace /Users/yourusername/go/bin/protofmt-mcp with the actual path to where the binary was installed on your system.

Running the Server

The server follows the Model Context Protocol and will automatically handle formatting requests for your .proto files when triggered through the configured editor integration.

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 "protofmt-mcp" '{"command":"/Users/ernestmicklei/go/bin/protofmt-mcp","args":[]}'

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": {
        "protofmt-mcp": {
            "command": "/Users/ernestmicklei/go/bin/protofmt-mcp",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "protofmt-mcp": {
            "command": "/Users/ernestmicklei/go/bin/protofmt-mcp",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect