How-to: serve the index over MCP

kuda mcp exposes the index as tools to MCP-capable agents (Devin, Cursor, Claude Code, Zed, …). It is a stdio JSON-RPC server — no ports, no daemon.

Run

cd your-repo
kuda mcp

Tools

tool	query
repo_card	L0 blob — the always-load summary
module_card	L1 card + freshness for one module
find	symbol -> file:line
dependents	reverse dep edges (impact analysis)
refs	code + docs/comments mentions
status	provenance drift vs HEAD

Register with your agent

stdio servers are declared in the client's MCP config — the shape varies, but it is always "command + args":

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kuda": { "command": "kuda", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

Run it from a repo that has been kuda sync'd — the tools read .kuda/ at call time, so a re-sync is picked up without restarting the server.

Verify the handshake

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"find","arguments":{"name":"IndexStore"}}}' \
  | kuda mcp

Two replies: the initialize result, then a content[0].text body like crates/kuda-store/src/lib.rs:9 Trait kuda-store.

Trust model

Cards are hypotheses. Every module_card response includes the verify: file list — agents should open those files before acting on card content, and status tells them whether the whole index has drifted. See architecture.

See also: ACP surface — same index, the other wire protocol.