Second Opinion (Code Assistant) MCP server

The Second Opinion MCP Server provides AI-powered assistance for coding problems by combining insights from Google's Gemini AI, Stack Overflow accepted answers, and Perplexity AI analysis to deliver comprehensive solutions for your programming challenges.

Setup

To install and configure the MCP server:

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. Build the server:

npm run build

3. Configure environment variables in MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "second-opinion": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/second-opinion-server/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key",
        "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-perplexity-api-key",
        "STACK_EXCHANGE_KEY": "your-stack-exchange-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Required Environment Variables

• GEMINI_API_KEY: Google's Gemini AI API key
• PERPLEXITY_API_KEY: Perplexity AI API key
• STACK_EXCHANGE_KEY: Stack Exchange API key (optional, uses anonymous access if not provided)

Usage

The server provides a single tool called get_second_opinion that delivers AI-powered insights and solutions for coding problems.

Input Schema

{
  "goal": "string (required) - What you're trying to accomplish",
  "error": "string (optional) - Any error messages you're seeing",
  "code": "string (optional) - Relevant code context",
  "solutionsTried": "string (optional) - What solutions you've already tried",
  "filePath": "string (optional) - Path to the file with the issue"
}

Example Usage

Here's an example of how to use the tool:

{
  "goal": "Fix React useEffect cleanup error",
  "error": "React Hook useEffect has a missing dependency: 'socket'. Either include it in the dependency array, or remove the dependency array  react-hooks/exhaustive-deps",
  "code": "useEffect(() => {\n  socket.on('message', handleMessage);\n  return () => socket.off('message');\n}, []);",
  "solutionsTried": "I tried adding socket to the dependency array but then it causes infinite re-renders"
}

Features

When using the Second Opinion MCP Server, you'll benefit from:

• Detailed solutions for coding problems with context from multiple AI and knowledge sources
• Automatic language detection from file extensions
• Code snippet extraction and formatting
• Markdown report generation for solutions
• Git-aware file context gathering for more accurate assistance

The server will analyze your input, gather relevant information from multiple sources, and return a comprehensive response with explanations, code examples, and best practices to help solve your programming issue.

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 "second-opinion" '{"command":"node","args":["/path/to/second-opinion-server/build/index.js"],"env":{"GEMINI_API_KEY":"your-gemini-api-key","PERPLEXITY_API_KEY":"your-perplexity-api-key","STACK_EXCHANGE_KEY":"your-stack-exchange-key"}}'

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": {
        "second-opinion": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/second-opinion-server/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-perplexity-api-key",
                "STACK_EXCHANGE_KEY": "your-stack-exchange-key"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "second-opinion": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/second-opinion-server/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key",
                "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY": "your-perplexity-api-key",
                "STACK_EXCHANGE_KEY": "your-stack-exchange-key"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect