Engineer MCP

Engineer MCP is a Model Context Protocol server for mechanical-engineering calculations. It gives coding agents verified answers for beams, bolts, springs, shafts, bearings, stress, sections, and units. Every result shows the formula, the method, and the source.

What it provides

Use Engineer MCP inside an AI coding agent. The agent calls a tool and receives a complete engineering answer. The answer includes numbers, units, assumptions, and citations.

The release covers these domains:

• Beam bending stress and deflection.
• Bolt tensile design to ISO 898.
• Helical compression spring design.
• Shaft torsion and first critical speed.
• Bearing rating life to ISO 281.
• von Mises equivalent stress.
• Cross-section properties.
• Dimension-safe unit conversion.
• Material property lookup.

How results stay trustworthy

Each result carries its provenance. The envelope lists the method, the formula, and the notes. It also lists the cited standards and texts.

Units are checked at every step. The unit layer knows the dimension of every unit. It rejects a conversion between incompatible quantities. For example, it rejects a torque-to-energy conversion.

Safety factors appear only when you provide a yield strength. The tool never hides an assumption. Warnings surface when a method uses an approximation.

Tools

Tool	What it does
beam_bending	Bending stress, deflection, and safety factor.
section_properties	Area, inertia, and section modulus of a shape.
bolt_strength	Stress area, preload, and capacity of a bolt.
spring_design	Spring rate, shear stress, and safety factor of a compression spring.
shaft_analysis	Torsion stress, twist, and critical speed.
bearing_life	ISO 281 rating life in revolutions and hours.
von_mises	Equivalent stress and yield safety factor.
unit_convert	Conversion between compatible units.
material_lookup	Curated mechanical properties of materials.

See docs/mcp-tools.md for the full reference.

Architecture

Engineer MCP keeps the math separate from the server. Pure engine functions take SI numbers and return plain objects. The server layer adds unit conversion, material lookup, and provenance. The database seeds from JSON files on first start.

flowchart LR
  Agent[AI coding agent] -->|MCP over stdio| Server[MCP server]
  Server --> Tools[Tools layer]
  Tools --> Engines[Calculation engines]
  Tools --> Units[Unit layer]
  Tools --> Db[SQLite data]
  Engines --> Provenance[Method and references]

Key directories:

Path	Role
src/engine/	Pure calculation functions.
src/units/	Dimension-safe unit conversion.
src/db/	SQLite schema and seeding.
src/handlers.ts	Tool orchestration and result envelopes.
data/	Material, fastener, and reference data.

Quick start

1. Install Node.js 22.13 or newer.
2. Clone or copy this repository to your machine.
3. Run npm install to install dependencies.
4. Run npm run build to compile the server.
5. Run npm run demo to see the demo output.

The demo prints results for every tool. It runs against an in-memory database. It needs no API keys and no network access.

Run as an MCP server

Run the server over standard input and output.

node dist/index.js

Add it to your MCP client configuration. See examples/mcp-config.example.json for a template. Set ENGINEER_MCP_DB or pass --db <path> to choose the database file. The default database file is engineer-mcp.sqlite in the working directory.

Sample output

A call to beam_bending with a 20 kN point load on a 3 m S355 I-beam:

Maximum bending moment                  15 kN·m
Maximum bending stress               25.36 MPa
Maximum deflection                  0.6039 mm
Bending safety factor                    14

Method: Euler-Bernoulli beam theory
Formula: simply supported, point: M = FL/4, delta = FL^3/(48EI)
References:
  - Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain (Eighth edition, 2011)
  - Mechanics of Materials (Euler-Bernoulli beam theory)

A call to spring_design for a steel spring under 2 kN with squared and ground ends:

Spring index                              5
Wahl factor                            1.31
Total coils                               6
Solid height                             48 mm
Spring rate                           158.6 N/mm
Deflection at load                    12.61 mm
Working length                        77.39 mm
Maximum shear stress                  521.4 MPa
Spring safety factor                  1.342

Method: Helical compression spring design
Formula: C = D/d, K_w = (4C-1)/(4C-4) + 0.615/C, tau = K_w 8FD/(pi d^3), k = G d^4/(8 D^3 Na), delta = F/k, Ls = d Nt
References:
  - Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design (Tenth edition, 2015)
  - Machinery's Handbook (Thirty-first edition)

A call to unit_convert with a torque-to-energy request fails safely:

Error: Category mismatch: N·m is torque, J is energy.
Use a unit of the same quantity.

Development

Command	Purpose
npm run typecheck	Run the TypeScript compiler.
npm test	Run the deterministic test suite.
npm run build	Emit dist/ from src/.
npm run demo	Run the end-to-end demo.
npm run dev	Start the server from source.

Test status

The test suite is deterministic and offline. It covers the engines, the unit layer, the database, and the tools.

• 98 tests across 10 files.
• All tests pass on Node 22 and Node 24.
• The CI workflow runs typecheck, tests, build, demo, and a package check.

Run npm test to reproduce the results.

Limitations

• The beam theory applies to small elastic deflections.
• The material table covers common engineering grades only.
• The bolt tables cover coarse metric threads from M5 to M36.
• The bearing factors are typical values for deep-groove ball bearings.
• The critical speed is a first-mode approximation.
• The spring design covers static round-wire springs only. It does not estimate fatigue life for cyclic loads.
• The built-in SQLite module of Node.js is still experimental.

Check the cited sources for exact values.

Roadmap

The server grows in independent releases. Each release stays useful on its own.

Complete

• Helical compression spring design. The spring_design tool reports the spring rate, the shear stress, and the safety factor.

Remaining

• Add fatigue analysis for cyclic loads.
• Add press-fit and interference-fit calculators.
• Add more unit categories, including viscosity and thermal conductivity.
• Add HTTP transport.
• Add a catalog of ISO and DIN standard sections.

See docs/integration.md for the EngineerKit plan.

EngineerKit

Engineer MCP is part of the EngineerKit family. The family shares conventions for calculations, units, and provenance. Other EngineerKit servers can import @engineerkit/engineer-mcp/engine and @engineerkit/engineer-mcp/units. Read the boundary rules in docs/integration.md.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.