mcp-docs-service

The MCP Documentation Service is a Node.js-based MCP server that helps you read, write, and manage Markdown documents with YAML frontmatter metadata. It supports line-based edits with diff previews, document listing and searching, navigation generation, health checks for documentation quality, and features aimed at optimizing output for large language models. You can invoke its tools through MCP clients (such as Cursor or Claude Desktop) by pointing to the server and passing the appropriate commands and parameters. Typical tasks include reading and updating Markdown docs, validating metadata, and generating consolidated outputs for LLM consumption.

To use it in your workflow, mount your documentation directory and reference the server using an MCP tool wrapper (for example via npx with the proper path). Tool commands allow reading a specific document, writing new content, applying edits, listing documents, running health checks, and generating a consolidated document suitable for AI models. The service is designed to work seamlessly with Cursor and Claude Desktop, enabling natural language requests or explicit tool invocations depending on your preference.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (14+ recommended) installed on your machine
• npm (comes with Node.js) or a compatible package manager

Installation options:

1. Global installation (recommended for command-line usage):

npm install -g mcp-docs-service

2. Use directly with npx (no global install required):

npx mcp-docs-service /path/to/docs

3. Optional: Run a local server for testing with a specific path:

npx mcp-docs-service --port 3000 --docs /absolute/path/to/docs

Prerequisites recap:

• Ensure Node.js is installed and accessible from your shell
• Have a directory with your Markdown documents ready (for documentation storage)
• If using integration with tools like Cursor or Claude Desktop, know the absolute path to your docs directory and configure the MCP server accordingly

Tips and common considerations:

• Always provide absolute paths for your documentation directory to avoid path resolution issues with MCP clients.
• When using Claude Desktop Integration, you may add an env flag like MCP_NPX_WRAPPER to ensure proper wrapper behavior in some environments.
• Health checks can be run with: npx mcp-docs-service --health-check /path/to/docs
• The service supports frontmatter YAML in Markdown files, which is important for metadata-driven queries and navigation generation.
• If you encounter permission or path issues, verify that the terminal process has access to the documentation directory and that the Node.js version is compatible.
• For Cursor integration, you can reference the server in your .cursor/mcp.json using the example structure with command npx and appropriate args.
• Regularly update the mcp-docs-service package to pick up improvements and fixes that affect health checks, navigation generation, and diffing capabilities.