Gradle MCP server

The Gradle MCP Server provides a Model Context Protocol implementation to enable AI tools to interact programmatically with Gradle projects. It leverages the Gradle Tooling API to facilitate project information retrieval, remote task execution, and test running capabilities.

Requirements

• JDK 21 or higher

Installation

Building from Source

Build the server using the Gradle wrapper:

./gradlew build

Creating a Packaged JAR

To create a standalone JAR file with all dependencies included:

./gradlew shadowJar

This will generate a JAR file in the build/libs directory that can be run independently.

Usage

Running the Server

The MCP server can be run in different modes:

Standard Input/Output Mode (Default)

Run the server in stdio mode:

./gradlew run

This mode allows the server to communicate through standard input and output streams, making it suitable for integration with IDEs and other tools.

Server-Sent Events Mode

Run the server in SSE (Server-Sent Events) mode:

./gradlew run --args="--mode sse"

The SSE mode sets up an HTTP server that provides real-time updates using Server-Sent Events, useful for web-based integrations.

Using the Packaged JAR

If you've created a packaged JAR, you can run it directly:

java -jar build/libs/gradle-mcp-server-all.jar

To specify a mode:

java -jar build/libs/gradle-mcp-server-all.jar --mode sse

Supported Features

Project Information

Query metadata about your Gradle projects including:

• Project structure
• Dependencies
• Applied plugins
• Available tasks

Task Execution

Run any Gradle task remotely through the MCP interface:

• Build tasks
• Custom tasks
• Dependency tasks

Test Runner

Execute tests in your Gradle projects:

• Run all tests
• Run specific test classes
• Run individual test methods

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 "gradle" '{"command":"java","args":["-jar","build/libs/gradle-mcp-server-all.jar"]}'

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": {
        "gradle": {
            "command": "java",
            "args": [
                "-jar",
                "build/libs/gradle-mcp-server-all.jar"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "gradle": {
            "command": "java",
            "args": [
                "-jar",
                "build/libs/gradle-mcp-server-all.jar"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect