Local MCP Server (Git & File Reader)

A local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that turns your AI client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Continue/Cline, etc.) into a power user of your local git repositories. Clone repos, browse code, hunt symbols, trace references, and inspect commit history — all without burning API tokens on remote fetches.

v4.0 ships 24 tools + MCP Resources + curated Prompts across repo management, git inspection, file/code exploration, and code navigation.

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✨ Features at a Glance

Repo management

Tool	Purpose
add_repo	Clone a public repo locally (supports tree/<branch>, commit/<sha>, releases/tag/<tag> URLs; optional depth)
add_local_folder	Register a folder already on disk (git or non-git) as a tracked entry
sync_repo	git pull one repo or all of them (skips local-folder entries)
list_repos	List tracked repos, with filter substring + sort by name/lastSync/branch
remove_repo	Untrack & delete (or keep files with keep_files=true); local folders never get deleted

Git inspection

Tool	Purpose
git_log	Commit history; filter by file or since ("2 weeks ago")
git_show	Full details/diff of one commit by SHA
git_diff	Diff between refs (branches, tags, commits); stat_only for big diffs
git_blame	Per-line author/commit annotation (optional line range)
git_status	Working-tree status (useful for local-folder entries you edit)
git_grep	Fast text search honoring .gitignore (5-10× faster than search_code on big repos)
list_branches	Local branches (or all incl. origin/* with include_remote)
list_tags	Tags/releases sorted newest-first

File & code exploration

Tool	Purpose
list_files	Recursive listing with ext + size + depth filters + pagination (offset / limit / hasMore)
read_file	Full / line-range / around_line window / function_at_line enclosing-block extraction; negative start_line for tail-style reads
search_code	Text/regex grep; binary-skip; group=true to bucket by file; format="json"
get_tree	Visual ASCII directory tree
find_docs	Smart README / docs discovery, ranked + previewed
batch_read	Read many files in one call (capped per-file)
find_files	Find by glob name (e.g. **/*Config*.ts) with pagination
find_symbol	Locate DEFINITIONS across TS/JS, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, C#, PHP, Ruby, Swift — kinds incl. function/method/class/interface/trait/type/enum/struct/impl/const; reports enclosing scope
find_references	Locate callers/usages of an identifier; optional comment/string stripping and exclude_definitions
search_all_repos	Run a query across every tracked repo at once

MCP Resources & Prompts

• Resources — every tracked repo is exposed as localrepo://<repo> (metadata blob) plus localrepo://<repo>/<path> (file template). Clients can @-mention files without a tool call.
• Prompts (slash-commands) — explore-repo, find-impl, find-callers, changes-since, debug-symbol. Each one packages a multi-step workflow into one shot.

Why this beats raw "ask AI to read a remote repo"

• No API token cost for fetching files.
• Faster: glob + grep on local disk vs. round-tripping GitHub.
• Branch / commit / tag aware: pin a specific version (tree/5.x, commit/<sha>, releases/tag/v1.4).
• Symbol-aware: find_symbol jumps to definitions, find_references enumerates callers.
• AI-friendly errors: every error returns [CODE] message + optional hint — easy to branch on.

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📋 Prerequisites

• Bun v1.0+
• Git on PATH

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🚀 Install

git clone https://github.com/az-ka/my-local-mcp.git
cd my-local-mcp
bun install
bun run build       # produces server.exe (Windows) or server (macOS/Linux)

For development without rebuilding:

bun run start       # runs src/index.ts directly
bun run typecheck   # tsc --noEmit
bun run test.ts     # 74 integration tests (auto-clones the test repo on first run)

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🔧 Environment variables

Var	Default	Purpose
MCP_DEBUG	unset	When 1 / true / yes, logs each tool call + duration to stderr
MCP_GITHUB_TOKEN / GITHUB_TOKEN	unset	Token injected into HTTPS GitHub URLs at clone time (never stored in settings.json)
MCP_CLONE_DEPTH	0 (full history)	Default shallow-clone depth applied when add_repo doesn't pass an explicit depth
MCP_MAX_REPO_BYTES	2 GB	Warn threshold after add_repo; informational only, doesn't fail

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🔌 Connecting Your AI Client

Replace the example path with the absolute path to your server.exe (Windows) or server binary.

Claude Desktop

Edit:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-docs": {
      "command": "D:/Ngoding/Bun/my-local-mcp/server.exe",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "MCP_GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_xxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

On Windows JSON, escape backslashes (\\) or use forward slashes. Restart the app after saving.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add local-docs "D:/Ngoding/Bun/my-local-mcp/server.exe"
claude mcp list   # verify

Cursor

Settings → Features → MCP → + Add New MCP Server

• Name: local-docs
• Type: command
• Command: D:/Ngoding/Bun/my-local-mcp/server.exe

VS Code — Cline / Roo Code

Open the MCP Servers panel in the sidebar → Edit MCP Settings → add the same JSON shape as Claude Desktop.

Verify it loaded

On startup the server logs to stderr:

Local MCP Server v4.0.0 running on StdIO — 24 tools + resources + prompts loaded

Claude Desktop logs are at %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp-server-local-docs.log (Windows). If tools don't appear: check the path is absolute, run server.exe manually to confirm it boots, and restart your client.

Updating the binary: clients hold the executable open. To install a new build, close the client first, then bun run build, then reopen.

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💬 Example Prompts

"Add https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte."
"Add https://github.com/filamentphp/filament/tree/5.x as filament-v5."
"Add https://github.com/joho/godotenv/releases/tag/v1.4.0 — only that tag."
"Register C:/projects/my-app as a local folder named my-app."

"Sync all my local repositories."

"Where is `useAuth` defined in better-auth-docs?"          → find_symbol
"Who calls `useAuth`?"                                     → find_references with exclude_definitions
"Read the function around line 142 of src/auth.ts."        → read_file with function_at_line=142
"Show me 10 lines around line 80 of config.go."            → read_file with around_line=80, context_lines=5

"Who last touched lines 40-60 of godotenv.go?"             → git_blame
"What's the status of my-app working tree?"                → git_status
"git_grep 'rate_limit' in convex-backend."                 → git_grep

"Diff v1.5.0 vs v2.0.0 in drizzle-orm — stat only."        → git_diff with stat_only=true
"Show me last 10 commits to src/index.ts in atlas."        → git_log with file filter

"Find all files matching **/test_*.py under src/."         → find_files
"Search for 'rate limit' across all my repos."             → search_all_repos
"Read the last 100 lines of CHANGELOG.md in effect."       → read_file with start_line=-100

Slash-commands surfaced by the server (run in clients that support prompts):

• /explore-repo <name> — bootstrap a tour
• /find-impl <symbol> — locate + read the implementation
• /find-callers <symbol> — enumerate usages
• /changes-since <ref> — summarise recent changes
• /debug-symbol <symbol> — definition + callers + recent history walkthrough

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🌿 Branch / Commit / Tag URLs

add_repo accepts any of:

{ "url": "https://github.com/filamentphp/filament", "name": "filament-v5", "branch": "5.x" }
{ "url": "https://github.com/filamentphp/filament/tree/5.x", "name": "filament-v5" }
{ "url": "https://github.com/joho/godotenv/commit/aabbccdd1122", "name": "godotenv-pinned" }
{ "url": "https://github.com/joho/godotenv/releases/tag/v1.4.0", "name": "godotenv-1.4" }

Branch URLs clone with --single-branch to save space and speed. Commit/tag URLs check out the requested ref (commit = detached HEAD).

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🗒️ Per-repo .mcpignore

Drop a .mcpignore file at the root of any cloned repo to add extra ignore patterns (merged with built-in defaults like node_modules/, target/, lockfiles):

# example .mcpignore
bazel-bin/
generated/
fixtures

Plain folder names are auto-wrapped to **/<name>/**. Glob patterns are used as-is. Cached for 60 s; deleting the file is picked up after the cache expiry or after sync_repo.

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🛡️ Security & Safety Notes

• Path-traversal blocked: every file op resolves under the repo root via path.relative and rejects with [PATH_TRAVERSAL] errors.
• Binary files skipped in search_code / find_references (extension blocklist + null-byte sniff in first 4 KB).
• Identifier validation: find_symbol and find_references reject anything that isn't [A-Za-z_$][A-Za-z0-9_$]*.
• SHA validation: git_show and commit/<sha> URLs only accept 4-40 hex chars — no shell injection surface.
• Diff truncation: oversized diffs/files are truncated with a clear [WARNING: ...] marker.
• Token never stored: MCP_GITHUB_TOKEN is injected only at clone URL build time; settings.json keeps the public URL.
• No write access to your code: the server clones, pulls, and reads. It does not modify cloned repos or your local-folder entries.

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🗂️ Project Structure

my-local-mcp/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts        # MCP server entry — registers tools, resources, prompts
│   ├── config.ts       # settings.json + env var resolution
│   ├── shared.ts       # ToolError, debug log, TTL cache, ignore loader, path guards
│   ├── resources.ts    # Resource templates (localrepo://...)
│   ├── prompts.ts      # Curated slash-commands
│   └── tools/
│       ├── git.ts      # repo + history + blame/status/grep
│       └── files.ts    # file + symbol + references + cache invalidation
├── storage/            # cloned repos live here (gitignored)
├── settings.json       # auto-generated tracked-repo registry (gitignored)
├── test.ts             # 74 integration tests (self-bootstraps test repo)
├── server.exe          # compiled binary (after bun run build)
└── package.json

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🧪 Tests

bun run test.ts

The suite self-bootstraps: if godotenv isn't already in storage/, it clones it on first run. Covers all 24 tools end-to-end:

• URL normalization for tree, commit, releases/tag, and tag URLs
• File listing / reading / searching with every flag (pagination, format=json, group)
• read_file modes: full, range, negative tail, around_line window, function_at_line block extraction
• Path-traversal rejection, invalid-regex rejection, binary-file skip
• find_symbol happy + invalid-identifier + scope-aware JSON output paths
• find_references with exclude_definitions and exclude_comments_and_strings
• git_log / git_show / git_diff / git_blame / git_status / git_grep / list_branches / list_tags
• add_local_folder happy + missing-path rejection
• .mcpignore extra patterns applied at scan time
• Structured ToolError payloads (describeError, formatErrorText)

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🛠️ Tech

• Bun — runtime + bundler + standalone-binary compiler
• Model Context Protocol SDK
• simple-git — wraps system git
• fast-glob — quick file globbing
• zod — input schema validation

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🙏 Credits

• Inspired by better-context for local context management.
• Built on the official Model Context Protocol SDK.

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📜 License

MIT