The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Failmodes listing page.
MCP server for the Fail Modes taxonomy — a machine-readable knowledge base of AI system failure modes.
Provides four tools over 100+ canonical failure mode records spanning factuality, alignment, planning, code generation, instruction following, and more.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
search_failure_modes | Search by symptom text or keyword phrase. Returns ranked matches. |
get_failure_mode | Retrieve the full structured record for a failure mode by ID slug. |
list_categories | List all taxonomy categories with descriptions and mode counts. |
list_modes | List all modes, optionally filtered by category ID. |
No installation required — run directly with npx:
Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):
Add to your MCP settings file:
A hosted Streamable HTTP version is also available — no npm package needed:
On first tool call, the server fetches current taxonomy data from failmodes.com and caches it in memory for the duration of the session. Requires internet access.
The stdio transport makes this compatible with any MCP client that supports running local processes (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.).
MIT