# README

MCP Language Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that runs a language server and provides tools for communicating with it.

Motivation

Claude desktop with the filesystem server feels like magic when working on small projects. This starts to fall apart after you add a few files and imports. With this project, I want to create that experience when working with large projects.

Language servers excel at tasks that LLMs often struggle with, such as precisely understanding types, understanding relationships, and providing accurate symbol references. This project aims to create tools that help LLMs work effectively with large codebases by leveraging the strengths of language servers.

Status

⚠️ Pre-beta Quality ⚠️

I have tested this server with the following language servers

pyright (Python)
tsserver (TypeScript)
gopls (Go)
rust-analyzer (Rust)

But it should be compatible with many more.

About

This codebase makes use of edited code from gopls to handle LSP communication. See ATTRIBUTION for details.

mcp-golang is used for MCP communication.

Prerequisites

Install Go: Follow instructions at https://golang.org/doc/install

Fetch or update this server:

go install github.com/isaacphi/mcp-language-server@latest

Install a language server for your codebase:

Python (pyright): npm install -g pyright
TypeScript (tsserver): npm install -g typescript typescript-language-server
Go (gopls): go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest
Rust (rust-analyzer): rustup component add rust-analyzer
Or use any language server

Setup

Add something like the following configuration to your Claude Desktop settings (or similar MCP-enabled client):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "language-server": {
      "command": "go",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "github.com/isaacphi/[email protected]",
        "--workspace",
        "/Users/you/dev/yourpythoncodebase",
        "--lsp",
        "/opt/homebrew/bin/pyright",
        "--",
        "--stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "DEBUG": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace:

/Users/you/dev/yourpythoncodebase with the absolute path to your project
/opt/homebrew/bin/pyright with the path to your language server (found using which command e.g. which pyright)
Any aruments after -- are sent as arguments to your language server.
Any env variables are passed on to the language server. Some may be necessary for you language server. For example, gopls required GOPATH and GOCACHE in order for me to get it working properly.
DEBUG=1 is optional. See below.

Development

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/isaacphi/mcp-language-server.git
cd mcp-language-server

Install development dependencies:

go mod download

Build:

go build -o server

Configure your Claude Desktop (or similar) to use the local binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "language-server": {
      "command": "/full/path/to/your/clone",
      "args": [
        "--workspace",
        "/path/to/workspace",
        "--lsp",
        "/path/to/language/server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "DEBUG": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Rebuild after making changes.

Feedback

Include

env: {
  "DEBUG": 1
}

To get detailed LSP and application logs. Please include as much information as possible when opening issues.

This is an early release and some of the following features are on my radar: