The Ref MCP server provides tools for accessing and managing technical documentation in a token-efficient way:
- Search Documentation: Use
ref_search_documentation
to search for technical documentation across public APIs, libraries, private repos, or the web. Ideal for finding facts, code snippets, or detailed information about frameworks, services, and databases. - Read URLs: Use
ref_read
to fetch content from a URL and convert it to markdown for easy reading, particularly useful with search results. - Web Search: Use
ref_search_web
as a fallback when other tools don't yield the desired results.
Allows access to npm package documentation through the ref_search_documentation tool, enabling AI agents to look up and retrieve information about npm packages, their APIs, and usage.
Ref MCP
A ModelContextProtocol server that gives your AI coding tool or agent access to documentation for APIs, services, libraries etc. It's your one-stop-shop to keep your agent up-to-date on documentation in a fast and token-efficient way.
For more see info ref.tools
Setup
There are two options for setting up Ref as an MCP server, either via the streamable-http server (experimental) or local stdio server.
This repo contains the legacy stdio server.
Streamable HTTP (recommended)
stdio
As of April 2025, MCP supports streamable HTTP servers. Ref implements this but not all clients support it yet so the most reliable approach is to use mcp-remote
as a local proxy. If you know your client supports streamable HTTP servers, feel free to use https://api.ref.tools/mcp directly.
Note for former alpha users: REF_ALPHA
config is still supported. You'll be notified if you need to update.
Tools
Ref MCP server provides all the documentation related tools for your agent needs.
ref_search_documentation
A powerful search tool to check technical documentation. Great for finding facts or code snippets. Can be used to search for public documentation on the web or github as well from private resources like repos and pdfs.
Parameters:
query
(required): Query to search for relevant documentation. This should be a full sentence or question.keyWords
(optional): A list of keywords to use for the search like you would use for grep.source
(optional): Defaults to 'all'. 'public' is used when the user is asking about a public API or library. 'private' is used when the user is asking about their own private repo or pdfs. 'web' is use only as a fallback when 'public' has failed.
Note: When source
is set to 'web', this tool will perform web search to find relevant information online.
ref_read_url
A tool that fetches content from a URL and converts it to markdown for easy reading with Ref. This is powerful when used in conjunction with the ref_search_documentation tool that returns urls of relevant content.
Parameters:
url
(required): The URL of the webpage to read.
Development
Running with Inspector
For development and debugging purposes, you can use the MCP Inspector tool. The Inspector provides a visual interface for testing and monitoring MCP server interactions.
Visit the Inspector documentation for detailed setup instructions.
To test locally with Inspector:
Or run both the watcher and inspector:
Local Development
- Clone the repository
- Install dependencies:
- Build the project:
- For development with auto-rebuilding:
License
MIT
hybrid server
The server is able to function both locally and remotely, depending on the configuration or use case.
Ref
Related MCP Servers
- TypeScript
- -securityAlicense-qualityFirebase Realtime DatabaseLast updated -11TypeScriptMIT License
- GoMIT License
- Go