Zig MCP server

The Zig MCP Server is a powerful Model Context Protocol server that provides comprehensive Zig language assistance with modern build system support, code optimization, and best practices guidance for developers working with the Zig programming language.

Installation Options

Installing via Smithery

To install Zig MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically:

npx -y @smithery/cli install zig-mcp-server --client claude

Manual Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone [repository-url]
cd zig-mcp-server

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the server:

npm run build

4. Configure environment variables:

# Create a GitHub token for better API rate limits
# Required scope: public_repo
GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token_here

5. Add to MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zig": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/zig-mcp-server/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your_token_here",
        "NODE_OPTIONS": "--experimental-vm-modules"
      },
      "restart": true
    }
  }
}

Using the Server

Build System Tools

Build System Generation

Generate modern build.zig files with Zig 0.12+ patterns that include cross-compilation support, dependency management, and test integration.

Build System Analysis

Analyze existing build files to get modernization recommendations for deprecated patterns and best practices.

Dependency Management

Generate build.zig.zon files for modern package management with guidance on popular packages and version management.

Code Tools

Code Optimization

Use this tool to optimize your Zig code with recommendations for different build modes:

const result = await useMcpTool("zig", "optimize_code", {
  code: `
    pub fn fibonacci(n: u64) u64 {
        if (n <= 1) return n;
        return fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);
    }
  `,
  optimizationLevel: "ReleaseFast"
});

Compute Units Estimation

Estimate computational complexity and resource usage of your Zig code:

const result = await useMcpTool("zig", "estimate_compute_units", {
  code: `
    pub fn bubbleSort(arr: []i32) void {
        var i: usize = 0;
        while (i < arr.len) : (i += 1) {
            var j: usize = 0;
            while (j < arr.len - 1) : (j += 1) {
                if (arr[j] > arr[j + 1]) {
                    const temp = arr[j];
                    arr[j] = arr[j + 1];
                    arr[j + 1] = temp;
                }
            }
        }
    }
  `
});

Code Generation

Generate Zig code from natural language descriptions:

const result = await useMcpTool("zig", "generate_code", {
  prompt: "Create a thread-safe counter struct",
  context: "Should use atomic operations and handle overflow"
});

Code Recommendations

Get improvement suggestions for your existing code:

const result = await useMcpTool("zig", "get_recommendations", {
  code: `
    pub fn main() !void {
        var list = std.ArrayList(u8).init(allocator);
        var i: u32 = 0;
        while (true) {
            if (i >= 100) break;
            try list.append(@intCast(u8, i));
            i += 1;
        }
    }
  `,
  prompt: "performance"
});

Available Resources

The server provides access to several reference resources:

1. Language Reference (zig://docs/language-reference) - Official Zig language documentation with syntax and features guide
2. Standard Library Documentation (zig://docs/std-lib) - Complete std library reference with function signatures and usage examples
3. Popular Repositories (zig://repos/popular) - Top Zig projects on GitHub for community examples and real-world implementations

These resources can be accessed through the MCP interface to provide contextual information while developing Zig applications.

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 "zig" '{"command":"node","args":["/path/to/zig-mcp-server/build/index.js"],"env":{"GITHUB_TOKEN":"your_token_here","NODE_OPTIONS":"--experimental-vm-modules"},"restart":true}'

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": {
        "zig": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/zig-mcp-server/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your_token_here",
                "NODE_OPTIONS": "--experimental-vm-modules"
            },
            "restart": true
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "zig": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/zig-mcp-server/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your_token_here",
                "NODE_OPTIONS": "--experimental-vm-modules"
            },
            "restart": true
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect