Quickstart

Install and run Coding Tools MCP locally or through stdio.

Quickstart

This page gets a local Coding Tools MCP server running with the package defaults verified from the current codebase.

Requirements

• Python >=3.11
• An MCP client that can connect by stdio or Streamable HTTP
• A workspace directory you are comfortable exposing to coding tools

Run over HTTP

Install or run the package with your preferred Python tool, then start the command from the workspace you want to expose:

python -m pip install coding-tools-mcp
cd /path/to/workspace
coding-tools-mcp

By default the server listens on:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

You can set the workspace explicitly:

coding-tools-mcp --workspace /path/to/workspace

Run over stdio

For clients that launch MCP servers as subprocesses, use --stdio:

coding-tools-mcp --stdio --workspace /path/to/workspace

The stdio transport reads newline-delimited JSON-RPC from stdin and writes responses to stdout.

Smoke test HTTP metadata

The HTTP transport exposes metadata at /mcp and well-known server-card endpoints. A basic local check is:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

The response should include the server name, protocol version, active tool profile, and tool names.

First client call

After the client initializes the MCP session, call tools/list. In the default full profile, the server exposes file, search, patch, command, Git, permission, and image tools. In read-only, mutating tools such as apply_patch, exec_command, write_stdin, kill_session, set_default_cwd, and request_permissions are hidden.

Remote binding requires auth

The server allows unauthenticated local loopback usage. If you bind to a non-loopback host, the implementation requires one of these options:

coding-tools-mcp --host 0.0.0.0 --auth-token "$CODING_TOOLS_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN"

coding-tools-mcp --host 0.0.0.0 --oauth-mode

An explicit no-auth remote mode exists through CODING_TOOLS_MCP_AUTH_MODE=noauth, but it should only be used behind a trusted network boundary.

Next steps

• Use Installation & Configuration for every CLI flag and environment variable group.
• Use Client integration to wire the server into an MCP client.
• Use Troubleshooting if the client cannot connect, list tools, run commands, or apply patches.