MCP server

What it does#

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets an agent call tools on a server. The Context Atlas MCP server gives your agent three read-only tools over the whole catalog:

• search: find tools by name, role or detection signal, such as database, auth or turbo.json
• get_topic: every source of one tool, with its role and detection signals
• list_topics: the whole catalog in short form, for proposing a stack

With it, an agent can work out which llms.txt, docs, MCP servers, skills and CLIs fit the project in front of it, without you pasting links. See MCP tools for inputs and example answers.

Why use it#

• Current sources instead of training data. Vendors change APIs faster than models are retrained. The catalog points to what the vendors maintain themselves.
• The agent picks what it needs. Instead of loading a large file into context, it searches and fetches only the topics of your stack.
• No setup cost. No account, no key, no local install. The server is stateless, so deploys never drop your session.

Server details#

Setting	Value
URL	https://contextatlas.dev/mcp
Transport	Streamable HTTP (JSON responses, no sessions)
Auth	None
Tools	search, get_topic, list_topics, all read-only

Clients that still use the older SSE transport cannot connect. Use the HTTP or "streamable-http" type in their config, or the stdio bridge.

Connect a client#

Pick your client. After adding the server, start a new session or reload the client so it picks up the tools, then check with the steps in Verify the connection.

Claude Code#

claude mcp add --transport http contextatlas https://contextatlas.dev/mcp

This adds the server for the current project on your machine. Add --scope user to use it in every project, or --scope project to write it to .mcp.json and share it with your team through the repository:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Codex#

codex mcp add contextatlas --url https://contextatlas.dev/mcp

Or add it to ~/.codex/config.toml by hand:

[mcp_servers.contextatlas]
url = "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"

Cursor#

Add the server to .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or to ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "url": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code#

For GitHub Copilot in agent mode, add the server to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Or add it to your user profile from the terminal:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"contextatlas","type":"http","url":"https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"}'

Gemini CLI#

gemini mcp add --transport http contextatlas https://contextatlas.dev/mcp

Or in ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "httpUrl": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Windsurf#

In ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "serverUrl": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

OpenCode#

In opencode.json in your project, or ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop and claude.ai#

Add a custom connector in the settings under Connectors, with the URL https://contextatlas.dev/mcp.

Clients with stdio only#

Clients that can only start local MCP servers can reach the remote server through mcp-remote, which needs Node.js:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextatlas": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://contextatlas.dev/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Other clients#

Any client that supports remote MCP servers over Streamable HTTP works. Use the URL https://contextatlas.dev/mcp, no headers and no auth. Config keys differ between clients; look for url, httpUrl or serverUrl and a type such as http or streamable-http.

Verify the connection#

In the client:

• Claude Code: claude mcp list in the terminal, or /mcp inside a session.
• Codex: codex mcp list, or /mcp inside a session.
• Others: the MCP or tools panel should list contextatlas with three tools.

From a terminal, without any client. This lists the tools and is the fastest way to rule out network problems:

curl -sS https://contextatlas.dev/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

The answer is JSON with "name": "search", "name": "get_topic" and "name": "list_topics". If it is not, see Troubleshooting.

Next#

• MCP tools: inputs, example prompts and example answers
• Workflows: detect a stack, fetch a vendor's llms.txt, propose a stack