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Task Master MCP server

Provides task management capabilities for development workflows with PRD parsing, task CRUD operations with dependency management, complexity analysis, and context-based organization across project phases.
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Setup instructions
Provider
Eyal Toledano
Release date
Apr 07, 2025
Language
Go
Stats
22.5K stars
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Taskmaster is a powerful task management system designed for AI-driven development that works seamlessly with various AI chat interfaces. It helps organize your development workflow by breaking down projects into manageable tasks, tracking progress, and facilitating implementation with AI assistance.

Installation

MCP Installation (Recommended)

MCP (Model Control Protocol) lets you run Taskmaster directly from your editor.

Editor Configuration

Depending on your editor, add your MCP config to the appropriate location:

Editor Linux/macOS Path Windows Path
Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json
Windsurf ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json
VS Code <project_folder>/.vscode/mcp.json <project_folder>\.vscode\mcp.json

Configuration for Cursor & Windsurf

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "task-master-ai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "task-master-ai"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
        "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
        "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
        "GROQ_API_KEY": "YOUR_GROQ_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
        "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
        "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration for VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "task-master-ai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "task-master-ai"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
        "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
        "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
        "GROQ_API_KEY": "YOUR_GROQ_KEY_HERE",
        "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
        "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
        "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
      },
      "type": "stdio"
    }
  }
}

Enable Taskmaster (Cursor Only)

  1. Open Cursor Settings (Ctrl+Shift+J)
  2. Click on the MCP tab on the left
  3. Enable task-master-ai with the toggle

Command Line Installation

If you prefer using the command line:

# Install globally
npm install -g task-master-ai

# OR install locally within your project
npm install task-master-ai

Using Taskmaster

Initialization

In your editor's AI chat pane, type:

Initialize taskmaster-ai in my project

Or via command line:

# If installed globally
task-master init

# If installed locally
npx task-master init

Setting Up Your PRD

Create a Product Requirements Document (PRD) at .taskmaster/docs/prd.txt or in scripts/prd.txt. An example PRD template will be available after initialization in .taskmaster/templates/example_prd.txt.

Configuring Models

To change which AI models are used:

Change the main, research and fallback models to <model_name>, <model_name> and <model_name> respectively.

For example, to use Claude Code (no API key required):

Change the main model to claude-code/sonnet

Common Chat Commands

Use these commands in your AI assistant chat:

  • Parse requirements: Can you parse my PRD at scripts/prd.txt?
  • Plan next step: What's the next task I should work on?
  • Implement a task: Can you help me implement task 3?
  • View multiple tasks: Can you show me tasks 1, 3, and 5?
  • Expand a task: Can you help me expand task 4?
  • Research: Research the latest best practices for implementing JWT authentication with Node.js
  • Research with context: Research React Query v5 migration strategies for our current API implementation in src/api.js

Command Line Interface

# Parse a PRD and generate tasks
task-master parse-prd your-prd.txt

# List all tasks
task-master list

# Show the next task to work on
task-master next

# Show specific tasks
task-master show 1,3,5

# Research with project context
task-master research "What are the latest best practices for JWT authentication?"

# Move tasks between tags
task-master move --from=5 --from-tag=backlog --to-tag=in-progress

# Generate task files
task-master generate

Claude Code Support

Taskmaster supports Claude models through the Claude Code CLI without requiring an API key:

  • Uses models: claude-code/opus and claude-code/sonnet
  • Requires Claude Code CLI to be installed
  • No API key needed as it uses your local Claude instance

Troubleshooting

If task-master init doesn't respond, try running it with Node directly:

node node_modules/claude-task-master/scripts/init.js

Or clone the repository and run:

git clone https://github.com/eyaltoledano/claude-task-master.git
cd claude-task-master
node scripts/init.js

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 "taskmaster-ai" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","--package=task-master-ai","task-master-ai"],"env":{"ANTHROPIC_API_KEY":"YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE","PERPLEXITY_API_KEY":"YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE","OPENAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE","GOOGLE_API_KEY":"YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE","MISTRAL_API_KEY":"YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE","OPENROUTER_API_KEY":"YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE","XAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE","AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY":"YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE","OLLAMA_API_KEY":"YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"}}'

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": {
        "taskmaster-ai": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "--package=task-master-ai",
                "task-master-ai"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
                "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
                "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
                "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
                "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
                "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "taskmaster-ai": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "--package=task-master-ai",
                "task-master-ai"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY_HERE",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENAI_KEY_HERE",
                "GOOGLE_API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY_HERE",
                "MISTRAL_API_KEY": "YOUR_MISTRAL_KEY_HERE",
                "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY_HERE",
                "XAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_XAI_KEY_HERE",
                "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY": "YOUR_AZURE_KEY_HERE",
                "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "YOUR_OLLAMA_API_KEY_HERE"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect

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