@aidemd-mcp/server

MCP server that brings intent-driven development to any AI-powered IDE. Manage .aide spec files that live next to your code — the domain context that architects plan from, implementors build from, and QA validates against.

Learn more at aidemd.dev.

Features

• Project-wide spec discovery with a progressive disclosure tree that surfaces intent, research, and QA specs at every level of your codebase
• One-command project bootstrap via aide_init — wires methodology docs, pipeline commands, and this MCP server into your project in a single guided flow
• Automatic naming convention enforcement — aide_scaffold handles the .aide / intent.aide rename rules so you never create conflicting specs
• Health-check validation via aide_validate — detects orphaned specs, missing descriptions, broken links, and naming conflicts before they cause drift
• Code introspection via aide_inspect — returns JSDoc, signatures, and kind for named symbols without opening files, giving agents Tier 2 progressive disclosure for code
• Upgrade drift detection via aide_upgrade — compares your project's AIDE methodology artifacts against canonical versions and writes updates per-category
• Runtime brain entry-point via aide_brain — on-demand tool that returns ready-to-execute prose telling the agent which MCP tools to call and how to reach whatever brain backend is wired, without the agent knowing which backend it is

Installation

Quick Start (Claude Code)

The fastest path is a single npx command that wires everything up automatically:

npx @aidemd-mcp/server@latest init

This command:

• Merges the AIDE MCP server entry into .mcp.json
• Merges a placeholder brain MCP entry into .mcp.json (vault path filled in by /aide)
• Writes every pipeline slash command to .claude/commands/aide/
• Installs 9 canonical pipeline agents to .claude/agents/aide/
• Installs skills (study-playbook, brain) to .claude/skills/
• Installs the methodology docs hub to .aide/docs/
• Writes the aide-tree launcher to .aide/bin/aide-tree.mjs
• Adds an AIDE badge to README.md (appends if not present)

All operations are additive — files that already exist are never overwritten. Safe to re-run at any time.

Pass --vault-path <path> to record your brain vault location at install time, skipping the vault-path prompt when /aide first runs.

After running, open Claude Code and run /aide — the orchestrator will prompt for any setup the cli could not finish (IDE choice, vault path if not supplied).

Syncing brain.aide to .mcp.json

Run this after editing .aide/config/brain.aide — for example, when you update the vault path argument in mcpServerConfig.args or rename the brain in the name field:

npx @aidemd-mcp/server@latest sync

sync reads .aide/config/brain.aide, copies mcpServerConfig verbatim into .mcp.json under the fixed brain key, and writes the name field as the server label. Every other key in mcpServers (including your aide entry and any personal MCP integrations) is left byte-identical. If a legacy obsidian key is present it is removed in the same write. The command is idempotent — running it twice produces the same .mcp.json bytes, and the second invocation prints already in sync without touching the file. Exit code is 0 on success (including the no-change case), 1 on a missing or malformed brain.aide or invalid .mcp.json, and 2 on --help.

Example output after updating the vault path in mcpServerConfig.args:

Read .aide/brain.aide
Wrote brain MCP entry into .mcp.json
  command: npx
  args: [-y, obsidian-mcp, D:/notes/new-vault]
Done.

Manual Configuration

If you use a client other than Claude Code, or prefer to configure manually, add the server entry to your client's MCP config file.

Claude Code

claude mcp add aide npx -- -y @aidemd-mcp/server@latest

Or add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aidemd-mcp/server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE] The Quick Start command above handles this automatically for Claude Code users.

Claude Desktop

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aidemd-mcp/server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE] Claude Desktop does not inherit the terminal PATH. If you use nvm or Homebrew to manage Node, npx may not be found. Run which npx in your terminal to get the absolute path and replace "npx" with it in the config above.

Claude Desktop requires a full quit-and-reopen after any config change.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aidemd-mcp/server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "aide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aidemd-mcp/server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE] VS Code / Copilot uses "servers" as the root key, not "mcpServers". Using the wrong root key causes the server to silently fail to load.

Windsurf

Add to ~/.windsurf/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aidemd-mcp/server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

aide_discover

Scan the project for .aide spec files and return a progressive disclosure tree map showing each spec's type, location, and summary.

Inputs:

• path (string, optional): Subdirectory to drill into. When provided, the response opens with the ancestor chain — the cascading intent lineage from root to target, each ancestor showing its description and alignment status — followed by the detailed subtree with summaries and warnings. When omitted, returns a shallow project-wide map (locations and types only).

aide_read

Read an .aide spec file with full context, returning the file content, its classified type (intent/research/plan/todo), related specs in the same directory, and links found in the content.

Inputs:

• path (string, required): Path to the .aide file to read.

aide_scaffold

Create new .aide spec files with automatic naming convention enforcement. Handles the rename rules: intent specs are .aide by default but become intent.aide when research.aide exists in the same folder; creating a research.aide auto-renames any existing .aide to intent.aide.

Inputs:

• directory (string, required): Directory where the .aide file(s) will be created.
• type (string, required): Type of .aide file to create. One of: intent, research, both, todo, plan.

aide_inspect

Return the JSDoc block, signature, and kind for a named function, method, class, interface, or type alias in the workspace — Tier 2 progressive disclosure for code. Agents can understand a symbol's contract without opening the file.

Inputs:

• name (string, required): Symbol name to look up.
• file (string, optional): Restrict search to a single file (relative to project root).

aide_validate

Run a health check on .aide spec files in the project. Detects orphaned specs, missing specs, naming conflicts (.aide and intent.aide in the same folder), broken links, orphaned research files, and missing frontmatter descriptions.

Inputs:

• path (string, optional): Subdirectory to validate. Defaults to the entire project when omitted.

aide_info

Boot-time precondition reporter. Returns two independent fields the orchestrator branches on separately: outdated (an array of stale AIDE artifact keys, comparing the project's versions.json against the shipped manifest), and brain (a { status, name?, hints } object reporting whether the project's brain.aide config is wired into .mcp.json). brain.status is the four-state union ok | no-brain-aide | no-mcp-entry | mcp-drift, derived by comparing .aide/config/brain.aide against .mcp.json — no disk path validation. name is the user-declared label from brain.aide (only present on non-no-brain-aide states). hints is an array of candidate vault locations the orchestrator can surface during recovery.

Inputs:

(none)

aide_brain

On-demand brain entry-point tool. Call this when you need to reach the brain mid-task — do NOT call it on every /aide boot. Boot-time brain precondition state is already reported by aide_info.brain.status; firing aide_brain at boot duplicates that work unnecessarily.