# swift-patterns-mcp
[](https://lobehub.com/mcp/efremidze-swift-patterns-mcp)
An MCP server providing curated Swift and SwiftUI best practices from leading iOS developers — with intelligent search, persistent memory, and optional premium integrations.
## Want an Agent Skill?
If you want a **lightweight, portable Swift/SwiftUI best-practices package** without runtime tooling, check out:
**[swift-patterns-skill](https://github.com/efremidze/swift-patterns-skill)**: Designed as a portable Agent Skill focused on Swift/SwiftUI patterns, architecture guidance, and decision-making frameworks.
**Key difference:**
- **swift-patterns-skill** = Static guidance (portable, no runtime)
- **swift-patterns-mcp** = Dynamic tooling (search, retrieval, premium features)
**Note:** This repo is an MCP server only. It does **not** ship an Agent Skill (`SKILL.md`) or skill references.
## What does this MCP provide?
**swift-patterns-mcp** delivers runtime tools for accessing Swift/SwiftUI best practices:
- 🔎 **Search & retrieval** across curated sources
- 🧠 **Persistent memory** with cross-session recall
- 🔄 **Auto-refreshing content** from RSS feeds and GitHub
- 🎯 **Intelligent filtering** by quality and relevance
- 🔐 **Premium integrations** (optional Patreon support)
### Ideal for:
- **Active Development**: "How do I implement pull-to-refresh in SwiftUI?" answered instantly without leaving your IDE
- **Architecture Decisions**: Compare MVVM vs. TCA patterns with concrete examples from trusted sources
- **Staying Current**: Access the latest patterns and best practices as they're published by leading iOS developers
- **Team Standards**: Build a searchable reference of approved patterns for your organization
- **AI-Powered Workflows**: Enable agents to query "Show me Sundell's approach to dependency injection" with consistent, quality responses
## 🌟 Features
- 🎓 **Expert Knowledge Base**: Patterns from Swift by Sundell, Antoine van der Lee, Nil Coalescing, and more
- 🔍 **Intelligent Search**: Query by topic, pattern, or specific iOS concept
- 💾 **Persistent Memory**: Cross-session recall with Memvid storage
- 🧠 **Semantic Search**: Optional AI-powered fallback for better conceptual matches
- 📚 **Multiple Sources**: Aggregates knowledge from trusted educators
- 🔄 **Auto-Updates**: Content refreshes automatically from RSS feeds
- ⚡ **Fast Performance**: Efficient caching and indexed search
## Content Sources
### Free Sources
These sources are publicly available but benefit from MCP's fetching, caching, and search capabilities:
| Source | Content Type | Updates |
|--------|--------------|---------|
| **Swift by Sundell** | Articles, patterns, best practices | Weekly |
| **SwiftLee** | Tutorials, tips, deep dives | Weekly |
| **Nil Coalescing** | SwiftUI patterns, Swift tips | Weekly |
| **Point-Free** | Open-source libraries, patterns | On release |
### Premium Sources
Premium content requires OAuth authentication and active subscriptions:
| Source | What You Get | Authentication |
|--------|--------------|-------|
| **Patreon** | Premium content from supported creators | OAuth 2.0 |
Access exclusive content from top iOS educators: **Kavsoft**, **SwiftUI Codes**, **sucodee** and many more. Get tutorials, code samples, and expert guidance directly from creators you support.
## 📋 Prerequisites
- **Node.js** 18.0.0 or higher
- **MCP-Compatible AI Assistant**: Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code with Copilot, or Claude Code
## 🚀 Quick Start
### Run Setup
```bash
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest
```
In an interactive terminal, this opens the setup wizard.
When launched by an MCP client (non-interactive stdio), it runs as the MCP server automatically.
### Interactive Setup Wizard
```bash
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup
```
If installed globally, you can also run:
```bash
swift-patterns-mcp setup
```
The wizard helps you choose:
- Config scope (local project vs global)
- MCP client (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, VS Code)
- Optional Patreon setup prompt
### Non-interactive Setup (CI/Scripts)
```bash
# Cursor
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --cursor --global
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --cursor --local
# Claude Code
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --claude --global
# Windsurf
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --windsurf --global
# VS Code
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --vscode --local
# All clients
npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest setup --all --global
```
Use `--global` (`-g`) or `--local` (`-l`) to skip the location prompt.
Use `--cursor`, `--claude`, `--windsurf`, `--vscode`, or `--all` to skip the client prompt.
### Configure Your AI Assistant
#### Cursor
[](https://cursor.com/en-US/install-mcp?name=swift-patterns&config=eyJjb21tYW5kIjoibnB4IC15IHN3aWZ0LXBhdHRlcm5zLW1jcEBsYXRlc3QifQ%3D%3D)
Or manually add to **Cursor Settings** → **Tools** → **MCP Servers**:
`.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"swift-patterns": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "swift-patterns-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
```
Alternatively, add to `~/.cursor/mcp.json`. See [Cursor documentation](https://docs.cursor.com) for details.
#### Claude Code
Run in your terminal:
```bash
claude mcp add swift-patterns -- npx -y swift-patterns-mcp@latest
```
Or manually add to `.mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"swift-patterns": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "swift-patterns-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
```
Restart Claude Code and run `/mcp` to verify. See [Claude Code MCP documentation](https://docs.claude.ai/claude-code) for details.
#### Windsurf
Add to `.windsurf/mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"swift-patterns": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "swift-patterns-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
```
Restart Windsurf to activate. See [Windsurf MCP documentation](https://docs.windsurf.com) for details.
#### VS Code
Add to `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"swift-patterns": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "swift-patterns-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
}
```
Open `.vscode/mcp.json` and click **Start** next to the swift-patterns server. See [VS Code MCP documentation](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/mcp) for details.
### Test It Out
Try these queries:
```
"Show me SwiftUI animation patterns"
"What does Sundell say about testing?"
"Explain navigation patterns in SwiftUI"
```
## 🔧 Configuration
Configuration is automatically created at `~/.swift-patterns-mcp/config.json`:
```json
{
"sources": {
"sundell": { "enabled": true },
"vanderlee": { "enabled": true },
"nilcoalescing": { "enabled": true },
"pointfree": { "enabled": true },
"patreon": { "enabled": false, "configured": false }
},
"prefetchSources": true,
"semanticRecall": {
"enabled": false,
"minLexicalScore": 0.35,
"minRelevanceScore": 70
},
"memvid": {
"enabled": true,
"autoStore": true,
"useEmbeddings": false,
"embeddingModel": "bge-small"
}
}
```
Note: `configured` only applies to premium sources. Free sources are treated as configured by default.
### Persistent Memory with Memvid
Memvid provides persistent semantic memory that improves recall across sessions. Unlike in-memory caching, Memvid stores patterns in a single-file database that persists between server restarts.
**Features:**
- 💾 **Persistent Storage**: Patterns stored in `~/.swift-patterns-mcp/swift-patterns-memory.mv2`
- 🔁 **Cross-Session Recall**: Find patterns from previous searches after server restart
- 🧠 **Semantic Search**: Optional embedding-based similarity search
- 🚀 **Automatic Storage**: Patterns stored during searches
- ⚡ **Fast Retrieval**: Built-in BM25 + optional vector search
**Configuration:**
```json
{
"memvid": {
"enabled": true, // Enable Memvid persistent memory
"autoStore": true, // Automatically store patterns during searches
"useEmbeddings": false, // Use semantic embeddings (requires model download)
"embeddingModel": "bge-small" // Options: "bge-small", "openai-small"
}
}
```
**When to enable:**
- You want patterns to persist across server restarts
- You frequently search for similar topics
- You need cross-session semantic memory
**Note:** Memvid complements MiniSearch (fast in-session search) and semantic recall (in-session fallback). All three work together:
1. **MiniSearch**: Fast lexical search within current session
2. **Semantic recall**: Activates for poor lexical results (in-session)
3. **Memvid**: Cross-session persistent memory and recall
### Semantic Recall (Optional AI Enhancement)
Semantic recall provides AI-powered semantic search as a fallback when keyword search returns poor results. It uses transformer embeddings to understand query intent and find conceptually similar patterns.
**Features:**
- 🧠 Automatically activates when keyword search scores are low
- 🎯 Uses sentence transformers to understand meaning beyond keywords
- 📊 Quality filtering to index only high-relevance patterns
- ⚡ Efficient embedding caching
**Configuration:**
```json
{
"semanticRecall": {
"enabled": false, // Enable semantic recall
"minLexicalScore": 0.35, // Activate when keyword search < 0.35
"minRelevanceScore": 70 // Only index patterns with score >= 70
}
}
```
**When to enable:**
- Your queries use conceptual terms that don't match exact keywords
- You want more intelligent, context-aware search results
- You're okay with slightly slower first-time searches (embeddings need to compute)
**Note:** Requires downloading a ~50MB transformer model on first use. Embeddings are cached for performance.
### Environment Variables (Optional)
#### Patreon
All three variables are required for Patreon content fetching:
| Variable | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `PATREON_CLIENT_ID` | OAuth client ID from your Patreon app |
| `PATREON_CLIENT_SECRET` | OAuth client secret from your Patreon app |
| `YOUTUBE_API_KEY` | Enables searching YouTube videos from Patreon creators. [Get API key](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials) |
Add to your MCP client config:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"swift-patterns": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "swift-patterns-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"PATREON_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
"PATREON_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret",
"YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your_youtube_api_key"
}
}
}
}
```
## 💡 Usage Examples
### Basic Queries
```
"How can I use lazy var in @Observable classes?"
"Show me modern SwiftUI animation best practices using symbolEffect (with button + state examples)"
"Explain common SwiftUI navigation patterns (NavigationStack, NavigationPath, enum routing) and when to use each"
```
### Advanced Queries
```
"Build a coordinator-style architecture for SwiftUI: MVVM + dependency injection + type-safe routing"
"Give me a clean infinite scrolling implementation: pagination, dedupe, cancellation, and loading states"
"Explain how @Observable improves SwiftUI performance vs ObservableObject, then refactor my view model to @Observable"
```
### With Patreon Integration
```
"Build a SwiftUI parallax + sticky header screen like a profile page (include reusable component version)"
"Show me how to build a photo editor flow: PhotosPicker -> crop -> filters -> export/share"
"Give me 5 advanced SwiftUI micro-interactions (toasts, sheets, draggable cards, haptics) with production-ready code"
```
## 🔐 Premium Integration (Optional)
### Patreon Setup
Access premium content from iOS creators you support:
```bash
swift-patterns-mcp patreon setup
```
Follow the interactive wizard to:
1. Verify environment variables are configured
2. Complete OAuth authentication
3. Fetch and verify content from your subscriptions
📖 **Detailed Guide**: [Patreon Setup Documentation](docs/PATREON_SETUP.md)
#### Requirements
- Active Patreon account with at least one iOS creator subscription
- Patreon Creator account (free - no need to launch a creator page)
- 10 minutes for one-time OAuth setup
#### Why Creator Account?
Patreon requires OAuth apps to be registered by creators. You don't need to launch a creator page or become an active creator - just register as one to create an OAuth app for personal use.
#### What You Get
- ✅ Access to premium tutorials and patterns from creators you support
- ✅ Automatic extraction of code from downloadable content
- ✅ Quality filtering and advanced search
- ✅ Multi-creator support
- ✅ Private, secure authentication
## ⚙️ Commands
```bash
# List all content sources and status
swift-patterns-mcp sources
# Interactive onboarding/configuration wizard
swift-patterns-mcp setup
# Patreon integration
swift-patterns-mcp patreon setup # Connect your Patreon account
swift-patterns-mcp patreon status # Check connection status
swift-patterns-mcp patreon reset # Clear authentication data
```
## 🗃️ How It Works
```mermaid
graph LR
A[AI Assistant] --> B[swift-patterns-mcp Server]
B --> C[Free Sources]
B --> D[Premium Sources]
C --> E[Swift by Sundell RSS]
C --> F[Antoine van der Lee RSS]
C --> G[Nil Coalescing RSS]
C --> H[Point-Free GitHub]
D --> I[Patreon API]
```
1. **Query**: Receives a query through the MCP protocol
2. **Processing**: Searches enabled sources based on the query
3. **Content Retrieval**: Fetches and parses content from RSS feeds, APIs, and cached data
4. **Quality Filtering**: Applies configurable quality thresholds
5. **Response**: Returns formatted, relevant patterns and examples
## 🔧 Troubleshooting
### Common Issues
**Node version incompatible**
```bash
node --version # Should be >= 18.0.0
```
**Sources not returning results**
```bash
swift-patterns-mcp sources
ls ~/.swift-patterns-mcp/config.json
```
### Patreon Integration Issues
**OAuth redirect not working**
- Ensure redirect URI is exactly: `http://localhost:3000/patreon/callback`
- Check no other process is using port 3000
- Verify OAuth credentials are correctly set
**No premium content showing**
- Confirm you have active Patreon subscriptions to iOS creators
- Check status: `swift-patterns-mcp patreon status`
- Re-authenticate: `swift-patterns-mcp patreon setup`
## 🗺️ Roadmap
### Current (v1.x)
- [x] Core MCP server
- [x] Swift by Sundell RSS
- [x] Antoine van der Lee RSS
- [x] Nil Coalescing RSS
- [x] Patreon OAuth
- [x] Point-Free GitHub
- [ ] Advanced filtering
### Future (v2.x)
- [ ] Additional premium sources
- [ ] More free sources
- [ ] Code validation
## 🤝 Contributing
We welcome contributions! See our [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
## 📄 License
MIT License - Copyright (c) 2026 Lasha Efremidze
## 🙏 Credits
**Created by** [Lasha Efremidze](https://github.com/efremidze)
**Content Sources**
- [John Sundell](https://swiftbysundell.com) - Swift by Sundell
- [Antoine van der Lee](https://www.avanderlee.com) - SwiftLee
- [Nil Coalescing](https://nilcoalescing.com) - SwiftUI patterns and Swift tips
- [Point-Free](https://www.pointfree.co) - Advanced Swift education
**Built with** [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io)
**Made with ❤️ for the Swift community**
[⭐ Star this repo](https://github.com/efremidze/swift-patterns-mcp) • [🐛 Report Bug](https://github.com/efremidze/swift-patterns-mcp/issues) • [✨ Request Feature](https://github.com/efremidze/swift-patterns-mcp/issues)
