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PICO-8 MCP Server

An MCP server for working with PICO-8 game carts, built on top of shrinko8.

Features

Code Analysis Tools

  • count_tokens - Count tokens, characters, and compressed size

  • analyze_cart - List functions, globals, and code metrics

  • validate_cart - Validate cart with token limits and linting

  • search_code - Search for code patterns across carts

  • compare_carts - Compare two cart versions with diff

Cart Manipulation

  • read_cart - Read cart sections (code, gfx, map, sfx, music)

  • minify_cart - Minify carts to reduce token count

  • list_carts - List all carts in a directory with metadata

Documentation Resources

  • add_documentation - Fetch and save PICO-8 documentation from URLs

  • Resources - Saved documentation is available as MCP resources (e.g., pico8://docs/api)

Installation

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.8+

  • uv package manager

Setup

  1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/pico8-mcp-server.git cd pico8-mcp-server
  1. Initialize the shrinko8 submodule:

git submodule update --init --recursive
  1. Install dependencies:

uv sync

For Claude Code (VSCode)

Add the server using the Claude CLI:

cd /Users/ebonura/Desktop/repos/pico8-mcp-server claude mcp add pico8 --scope project -- uv run server.py

Or manually create a .mcp.json in your project root:

{ "mcpServers": { "pico8": { "command": "uv", "args": ["run", "/Users/ebonura/Desktop/repos/pico8-mcp-server/server.py"] } } }

For Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{ "mcpServers": { "pico8": { "command": "uv", "args": ["--directory", "/Users/ebonura/Desktop/repos/pico8-mcp-server", "run", "server.py"] } } }

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can ask Claude:

  • "Count the tokens in my horizon-glide cart"

  • "Analyze the code structure of v0.16.p8"

  • "Search for all uses of 'terrain' in my carts"

  • "Compare v0.15.p8 and v0.16.p8"

  • "List all carts in the horizon-glide directory"

  • "Validate my cart and show any errors"

Adding Documentation

You can fetch and save PICO-8 documentation:

"Fetch the PICO-8 API reference from https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/APIReference and save it as 'api'"

Once saved, Claude can automatically reference the documentation when helping with PICO-8 code.

License

MIT (inherits from shrinko8)

-
security - not tested
F
license - not found
-
quality - not tested

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