using-the-mcp-server

<!-- AI-RULEZ :: GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT Content-Hash: blake3:4c8c2a57d4c5fa03c6ff57dee5175b3229dcc0af0338d8e31901473b2d46a542 Source-Hash: blake3:70559811033def67b9afc84aff0b0dd18329e8b04263cffeca7336545e95ab3c Schema-Version: v1 --> # Using the MCP Server The `tree-sitter-language-pack` MCP server exposes `ts-pack`'s parsing and code-intelligence capabilities as MCP tools, so an MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) can parse source, extract structure, and detect languages directly, with no CLI invocation or glue code. ## How it runs in this plugin The plugin auto-registers the server. Its command is the bundled launcher `scripts/mcp-launch.sh`, which execs `ts-pack mcp`. On first run the launcher resolves a `ts-pack` binary: it reuses one already on `PATH` or cached in the plugin's `bin/`, then tries `npx`/`uvx`, then Homebrew, then downloads a prebuilt from the tool's latest GitHub release. Override the channel with `TS_PACK_LAUNCHER=auto|npx|uvx|brew|download`. The `mcp` subcommand ships in a recent release of the tool. If an older `ts-pack` is already on `PATH`, it may not expose `mcp` yet — upgrade the binary (`brew upgrade`, re-download, or rebuild) to pick it up. To run it manually: ```bash ts-pack mcp # for Claude Code / Claude Desktop (stdio) ``` ## The tools **Parsing and code intelligence:** - **parse** — syntax tree from `source`; requires an explicit `language`, with optional `format` (`sexp` or `json`). It does not detect language from a path — use `detect_language` first if you only have a path. - **process** — code intelligence: structure, imports, exports, symbols, docstrings, comments, diagnostics, chunks. Use `all` flag to enable all features. - **detect_language** — identify language by `path` or `content` (those are the only two parameters; extension detection is implicit in `path`). **Language and cache management:** - **list_languages** — available, downloaded, or manifest languages; optional filter by name. - **info** — show language availability and cache status. - **download** — prefetch parsers: specific languages, language groups, all, or fresh updates. - **cache_dir** — return the cache directory path. - **clean_cache** — remove all cached parsers. ## Resources - `ts-pack://languages` — catalog of all known languages. - `ts-pack://languages/downloaded` — currently cached languages. - `ts-pack://language/{name}` — per-language metadata template. ## Prompt and completions - **analyze-code** — code-analysis prompt (args: `language`, optional `focus`). - **Language-name autocomplete** — available language names in completions. ## When to prefer MCP over the CLI or SDK - **Prefer MCP** inside an agent session: the agent calls parsing directly as a tool, with no shell-out and no process management. - **Prefer the CLI** for one-shot parsing/extraction and shell/CI pipelines. - **Prefer the SDK** when embedding parsing in application code or running custom tree-sitter queries.