Dash MCP server

The Dash MCP server provides tools for accessing and searching documentation directly from Dash, the macOS documentation browser. It allows you to list installed docsets, perform searches across documentation and code snippets, and enable full-text search capabilities through a Model Context Protocol interface.

Requirements

• macOS (required for Dash app)
• Dash 8 installed
• Python 3.11.4 or higher
• uv package manager

Installation

Install uv

You'll need to install the uv package manager first:

brew install uv

Add to Claude Desktop Configuration

Add the Dash MCP server to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
      "dash-api": {
          "command": "uvx",
          "args": [
              "--from",
              "git+https://github.com/Kapeli/dash-mcp-server.git",
              "dash-mcp-server"
          ]
      }
  }
}

Add to Claude Code

Alternatively, you can add the server through Claude Code using the following command:

claude mcp add dash-api -- uvx --from "git+https://github.com/Kapeli/dash-mcp-server.git" "dash-mcp-server"

Using the Dash MCP Server

The Dash MCP server provides three main tools for interacting with Dash documentation:

List Installed Docsets

Use this tool to get a list of all documentation sets installed in your Dash application:

list_installed_docsets

This will return an array of all available docsets that you can search through.

Search Documentation

Search across all your Dash docsets and code snippets:

search_documentation

This tool accepts search parameters to help you find specific documentation across your installed docsets.

Enable Full-Text Search

Enable full-text search capabilities for a specific docset:

enable_docset_fts

This enhances search functionality for a particular documentation set, allowing more comprehensive search results.

Example Usage

When using the Dash MCP server with Claude, you can perform actions like:

• Ask Claude to "List all my installed Python documentation sets"
• Request "Search for useState in the React documentation"
• Ask to "Enable full-text search for the Swift docset"

Claude will use these MCP tools to interact directly with your local Dash application and return the relevant documentation information.

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 "dash-api" '{"command":"uvx","args":["--from","git+https://github.com/Kapeli/dash-mcp-server.git","dash-mcp-server"]}'

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": {
        "dash-api": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from",
                "git+https://github.com/Kapeli/dash-mcp-server.git",
                "dash-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "dash-api": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from",
                "git+https://github.com/Kapeli/dash-mcp-server.git",
                "dash-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect