| name | oats-debugging |
| description | Use when reproducing or diagnosing runtime behavior in the running oats desktop app — driving and inspecting its windows via the oats-desktop MCP server (execute JS, read DOM, invoke backend commands). Pairs with systematic-debugging. |
Debugging the running oats app via MCP
oats ships a Tauri MCP server (tauri-plugin-mcp) that lets you drive the live app —
list windows, screenshot, execute JS in a webview, and call backend commands. Use it to
verify a fix in the real app, not just in unit tests. Pair this with superpowers'
systematic-debugging for the methodology.
Enable the server
It is registered in .mcp.json as oats-desktop. In Claude Code, it may be
disabled by default in .claude/settings.local.json (disabledMcpjsonServers);
remove it from that list or approve the server when prompted. The app must be launched
with the MCP feature:
npm run tauri:dev:debug # = tauri dev --features mcp
Run it in the background with the sandbox disabled (cargo must compile and the GUI /
network must spawn). It's a never-exiting dev server — don't wait on it to "finish".
Windows (what you'll see)
Routes live in src/main.ts. See oats-architecture for the full map. Quick version:
settings — the settings window (pre-created hidden).library — titled "Meetings"; the main user-facing window.main — headless/blank BootstrapView; a blank screenshot of it is expected.
execute_js gotchas (these will bite you)
- Hidden WKWebViews are JS-suspended on macOS —
execute_js times out until the
window is shown and focused. Show the window first.
- Backend bridge:
window.__TAURI__ is not exposed (the app uses ESM
@tauri-apps/api). Call commands via
window.__TAURI_INTERNALS__.invoke('cmd_name', args).
- No top-level
await — make the last expression a promise; the tool resolves it.
- A blank window with no JS bridge usually means the Vue bundle failed to load —
check the vite dev log for an unresolved import (the router statically imports every
view, so one bad import breaks the whole graph).
Typical loop
- Launch
tauri:dev:debug in the background.
- List windows;
show the target window before any execute_js.
- Inspect via JS / screenshot; reproduce the issue.
- Drive the backend with
__TAURI_INTERNALS__.invoke(...) to isolate frontend vs Rust.
- Once root cause is found, fix per
oats-vue / oats-tauri and re-verify here.
