mcp-server-dev-docs

An MCP server that provides live, clean, LLM-ready markdown documentation for popular fullstack technologies — and any custom documentation URL.

It fetches pages through https://r.jina.ai/ under the hood to strip navigation, ads, and boilerplate, returning clean markdown. No API key or authentication required.

Features

• Built-in presets for React 19, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Zustand, TanStack Query v5, Node.js, Prisma, and Express.
• Fetch any arbitrary documentation URL as clean markdown.
• Find documentation website URLs by technology (and optional version) via DuckDuckGo HTML, then return clean markdown for the top results through Jina Reader.
• Detect dependency versions from the current project's package.json.
• Automatic truncation of very large pages (> 25,000 characters) to keep responses LLM-friendly.
• Zero configuration and no API keys.

Tools

list_supported_presets

Lists the built-in preset keys, their target URLs, and descriptions. Takes no arguments.

get_fullstack_docs

Fetches clean markdown documentation. Provide exactly one of:

Argument	Type	Description
preset	string	A built-in preset key (see below), e.g. react.
customUrl	string	Any documentation URL to fetch as clean markdown.

detect_project_versions

Reads package.json from the current working directory (process.cwd()) and returns a JSON summary of dependencies and devDependencies with their declared versions. Takes no arguments.

find_docs_urls

Finds documentation website URLs for a technology via DuckDuckGo HTML, then returns clean markdown for up to the top 2 results (fetched in parallel via Jina Reader).

Argument	Type	Required	Description
query	string	yes	Terms used to find docs URLs, e.g. useActionState.
technology	string	yes	Technology name, e.g. react, nextjs, tailwind.
version	string	no	Optional version scope, e.g. 19 or 15.

URL discovery behavior:

1. Primary query (when the technology has a known docs domain):
   site:<domain> <technology> <version?> <query>
   Example: site:react.dev react 19 useActionState
2. Fallback if the primary query returns no links:
   <technology> <version?> docs <query>
3. Extract up to two result URLs, fetch markdown for both with Promise.all, and return them as:

--- Result 1: <url> ---

...

--- Result 2: <url> ---

...

Mapped domains include react → react.dev, nextjs/next → nextjs.org, tailwind/tailwindcss → tailwindcss.com, and zustand → zustand-demo.pmnd.rs.

Note: DuckDuckGo HTML may rate-limit or challenge automated searches after many requests. If URL discovery fails intermittently, wait and retry, or use get_fullstack_docs with a preset/customUrl.

Supported presets

Key	Documentation
react	React 19 reference
nextjs	Next.js docs (App Router, rendering, routing)
typescript	TypeScript handbook
tailwind	Tailwind CSS docs
zustand	Zustand state management
tanstack-query	TanStack Query v5 (React)
nodejs	Node.js API
prisma	Prisma ORM
express	Express 4.x API reference

Installation & Usage

The server runs over stdio and is intended to be launched by an MCP client. The easiest way is via npx (no global install needed):

npx mcp-server-dev-docs

Cursor

Add the server to your Cursor MCP config at ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dev-docs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-dev-docs"]
    }
  }
}

Then reload Cursor. The tools list_supported_presets, get_fullstack_docs, detect_project_versions, and find_docs_urls will be available to the agent.

Claude Desktop

Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dev-docs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-dev-docs"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to load the server.

Local Development

Requires Node.js >= 18 and Yarn.

git clone https://github.com/Orel-Toledano/mcp-server-dev-docs.git
cd mcp-server-dev-docs
yarn install
yarn build      # compiles TypeScript to ./build and marks the entry executable
yarn start      # runs the compiled server over stdio

To point an MCP client at your local build, use an absolute path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dev-docs": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-dev-docs/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Smoke test

You can exercise the JSON-RPC handshake without a full client:

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0.0"}}}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}' \
  | node build/index.js

Or use the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js

Publishing

This package builds automatically before publish via the prepare script.

# Inspect the tarball contents first (dry run)
yarn pack

# Authenticate with the npm registry
yarn login

# Publish (public access for unscoped/public packages)
yarn publish --access public

Only the compiled build/ directory is published (see the files field in package.json).

How it works

• get_fullstack_docs resolves a target URL (from a preset or customUrl) and requests https://r.jina.ai/<target-url> with X-Return-Format: markdown.
• find_docs_urls discovers candidate documentation URLs via DuckDuckGo HTML, then fetches each through the same Jina Reader path.
• Large pages are truncated at 25,000 characters to keep responses LLM-friendly.

Project structure

src/
  index.ts                 # MCP server entry (stdio)
  presets.ts               # Built-in documentation presets
  fetchDocs.ts             # Jina Reader fetch + truncation
  search.ts                # Domain map, DDG query/parse helpers
  tools/
    index.ts               # Registers all tools
    listSupportedPresets.ts
    getFullstackDocs.ts
    detectProjectVersions.ts
    findDocsUrls.ts

License

MIT