onboard-mcp

Your dev environment, fixed by asking your AI assistant.

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that checks the things that silently break local development: wrong Node version, Docker not running, missing git config, missing .env keys, busy ports. Ask your AI assistant "is my environment ready?" and get a pass/fail report with the exact fix for everything that's broken.

Why

Every developer has lost an afternoon to "it works on my machine": the app fails because Node is one major version off, or the port is taken by a zombie process, or .env.local is missing a key that was added last sprint. On my team, environment setup issues cost every new developer days.

This server turns that debugging into one question in your AI chat:

You: run the doctor on my project, it needs ports 3000 and 5432

Assistant:

[PASS] node-version: Node v20.11.0 satisfies the project requirement (20).
[FAIL] docker: Docker is installed but the daemon is not running.
       Fix: Start Docker Desktop, or on Linux run "sudo systemctl start docker".
[PASS] git-config: Git is installed and user.name / user.email are configured.
[FAIL] env-files: .env.local is missing 1 key(s) from .env.example: REDIS_URL.
       Fix: Add the missing keys to .env.local. Ask a teammate or your secrets manager for the values.
[PASS] ports: All required ports are free: 3000, 5432.

2 failing, 0 warning(s). Fixes listed above.

Tools

Tool	What it checks
doctor	Runs everything below and returns one report
check_node_version	Current Node vs .nvmrc or package.json engines
check_docker	Docker CLI installed and daemon running
check_git_config	git installed, user.name / user.email set
check_env_files	.env / .env.local vs .env.example (compares keys only, never reads your values into the response)
check_ports	Whether the TCP ports your project needs are free

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or newer — required for every client, since the server runs via npx onboard-mcp. Check with node --version; install from nodejs.org if needed.

That's the only universal dependency. npx fetches the published package automatically — no clone or build required. The Claude Code steps below additionally need the claude CLI (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code); other clients do not.

Quick start

Claude Code

Requires the Claude Code CLI. Install it first if you don't have it:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Then register the server:

claude mcp add --scope user onboard -- npx -y onboard-mcp

(--scope user makes it available in every project; omit it to register for the current project only.) Verify with claude mcp get onboard.

Or clone and build locally:

git clone https://github.com/developerpankajdixit/onboard-mcp.git
cd onboard-mcp && npm install && npm run build
claude mcp add onboard -- node /absolute/path/to/onboard-mcp/dist/index.js

VS Code (GitHub Copilot agent mode)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "onboard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "onboard-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Settings → MCP → Add new global MCP server, or add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onboard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "onboard-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onboard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "onboard-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask: "Run the doctor on /path/to/my/project, it needs ports 3000 and 5432."

Any other MCP-compatible client works the same way: point it at npx -y onboard-mcp over stdio.

Design notes

• Fixes, not just failures. Every failing check returns the exact command to fix it, so the assistant can offer to run it.
• Secrets never leave your machine. The env check compares key names only. Values are never included in any tool response.
• Pure check functions. Every check is a plain async function with injectable dependencies, tested without mocking the MCP layer (23 unit tests, CI on Linux and macOS across Node 18/20/22).

Development

npm install
npm test          # vitest
npm run build     # tsc
npm run dev       # run the server from source

Roadmap

• fix_* counterpart tools that apply the suggested fixes after confirmation
• Configurable check list via an onboard.config.json in the project root
• Database connectivity checks (Postgres, Redis) behind a flag

License

MIT. Built by Pankaj Dixit, based on an internal MCP onboarding tool that cut new-developer setup from 2 weeks to under 30 minutes.