The RFCXML MCP server provides structured analysis of RFC documents by leveraging their semantic XML structure to extract requirements, analyze dependencies, and generate implementation aids.
Core Capabilities:
Extract Normative Requirements - Identify MUST/SHOULD/MAY requirements with condition/exception structuring, filterable by level and section
Retrieve RFC Structure and Metadata - Get section hierarchies, metadata, and optionally include section content
Manage Definitions - Fetch term definitions and their scope, with search capabilities for specific terms
Analyze Dependencies - Map normative and informative references between RFCs, with optional reverse reference lookup
Identify Related Sections - Find sections within an RFC related to a specified section
Generate Implementation Checklists - Create role-based (client/server/both) Markdown checklists, configurable by specific sections
Validate Compliance - Verify if statements or implementation descriptions adhere to RFC requirements
Key Features:
Dual Format Support - Uses RFCXML v3 for modern RFCs (8650+) with high accuracy; automatically falls back to text parsing for legacy RFCs with medium accuracy
Source Transparency - All responses indicate data source (XML or text) and accuracy level
Performance Optimized - Parallel fetching from multiple sources with LRU caching for frequently accessed RFCs
BCP 14 Compliant - Recognizes all standard RFC requirement keywords
Supports the generation of structured implementation checklists and protocol documentation in Markdown format for easier display and verification.
Provides tools to parse and extract semantic information from RFCXML documents, enabling the retrieval of section hierarchies, normative requirements, and dependency graphs.
RFCXML MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for structured understanding of RFC documents.
Purpose
Unlike existing text-based RFC MCP servers, this server leverages the semantic structure of RFCXML to enable:
Normative requirements extraction (MUST/SHOULD/MAY) with structured output
RFC dependency graph construction
Definition scope management
Implementation checklist generation
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Markdown / PDF │ Display & Sharing
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Translation │ Explanation & Verification
├─────────────────────────┤
│ RFCXML MCP │ Common Understanding for AI & Humans
├─────────────────────────┤
│ RFCXML │ Single Source of Truth
└─────────────────────────┘Comparison with Existing MCPs
Feature | Existing mcp-rfc | RFCXML MCP |
RFC text retrieval | ✅ | ✅ |
Section extraction | ✅ (text-based) | ✅ (structure-based) |
MUST/SHOULD/MAY extraction | ❌ | ✅ |
Condition/exception structuring | ❌ | ✅ |
RFC dependency graph | ❌ | ✅ |
Definition scope management | ❌ | ✅ |
Implementation checklist | ❌ | ✅ |
Quick Start
Using with Claude Desktop / Claude Code
Add the following to your MCP configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"rfcxml": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@shuji-bonji/rfcxml-mcp"]
}
}
}Configuration file locations:
Claude Desktop (macOS):
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.jsonClaude Desktop (Windows):
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.jsonClaude Code:
.claude/settings.jsonor useclaude settingscommand
Installation (Optional)
For global installation:
npm install -g @shuji-bonji/rfcxml-mcp
# MCP configuration
{
"mcpServers": {
"rfcxml": {
"command": "rfcxml-mcp"
}
}
}Available Tools
Phase 1: Basic Structure
get_rfc_structure- Get section hierarchy and metadataget_requirements- Extract normative requirements (MUST/SHOULD/MAY) with structureget_definitions- Get term definitions and their scope
Phase 2: Relationships
get_rfc_dependencies- Get referenced RFCs (normative/informative)get_related_sections- Get related sections within the same RFC
Phase 3: Verification Support
validate_statement- Verify if a statement complies with RFC requirementsgenerate_checklist- Generate implementation checklist
Legacy RFC Support
RFCs published after RFC 8650 (December 2019) are available in official RFCXML v3 format. Earlier RFCs may not have XML available.
This server includes automatic fallback functionality - when XML is unavailable, it parses the text format instead.
Source Information
All responses include source information:
{
"rfc": 6455,
"sections": [...],
"_source": "text",
"_sourceNote": "⚠️ Parsed from text format. Accuracy may be lower."
}
| Description |
| Parsed from RFCXML (high accuracy) |
| Parsed from text (medium accuracy) |
Compatibility
RFC | Format | Notes |
RFC 8650+ | XML | Official RFCXML v3 support |
Before RFC 8650 | Text | Automatic fallback |
Output Samples
get_rfc_structure - Get RFC Structure
{
"metadata": {
"title": "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)",
"docName": "draft-ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis-28",
"number": 9293
},
"sections": [
{
"number": "section-1",
"title": "Purpose and Scope"
},
{
"number": "section-3",
"title": "Functional Specification",
"subsections": [
{ "number": "section-3.1", "title": "Header Format" },
{
"number": "section-3.5",
"title": "Establishing a Connection",
"subsections": [
{ "number": "section-3.5.1", "title": "Half-Open Connections and Other Anomalies" },
{ "number": "section-3.5.2", "title": "Reset Generation" }
]
}
]
}
],
"referenceCount": { "normative": 15, "informative": 85 },
"_source": "xml"
}get_requirements - Extract Normative Requirements
{
"rfc": 9293,
"filter": { "level": "MUST" },
"stats": { "total": 53, "byLevel": { "MUST": 53 } },
"requirements": [
{
"id": "R-section-3.5-5",
"level": "MUST",
"text": "A TCP implementation support simultaneous open attempts (MUST-10).",
"section": "section-3.5",
"sectionTitle": "Establishing a Connection"
},
{
"id": "R-section-3.7.1-9",
"level": "MUST",
"text": "TCP endpoints implement both sending and receiving the MSS Option (MUST-14).",
"section": "section-3.7.1",
"sectionTitle": "Maximum Segment Size Option"
}
],
"_source": "xml"
}get_rfc_dependencies - Get RFC Dependencies
{
"rfc": 9293,
"normative": [
{ "rfcNumber": 791, "title": "Internet Protocol", "anchor": "RFC0791" },
{ "rfcNumber": 2119, "title": "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" },
{ "rfcNumber": 5681, "title": "TCP Congestion Control" }
],
"informative": [
{ "rfcNumber": 793, "title": "Transmission Control Protocol" },
{ "rfcNumber": 1122, "title": "Requirements for Internet Hosts - Communication Layers" }
],
"_source": "xml"
}generate_checklist - Generate Implementation Checklist
# RFC 9293 Implementation Checklist
**Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)**
Role: Client
## Required (MUST / REQUIRED / SHALL)
- [ ] A TCP implementation support simultaneous open attempts (MUST-10). (section-3.5)
- [ ] TCP endpoints implement both sending and receiving the MSS Option (MUST-14). (section-3.7.1)
- [ ] The RTO be computed according to the algorithm in, including Karn's algorithm (MUST-18). (section-3.8.1)
## Optional (MAY / OPTIONAL)
- [ ] Implementers include "keep-alives" in their TCP implementations (MAY-5). (section-3.8.4)Text Fallback Output (Legacy RFCs)
{
"metadata": {
"title": "The WebSocket Protocol",
"number": 6455
},
"sections": [
{ "number": "1", "title": "Introduction" },
{ "number": "5", "title": "Data Framing" }
],
"_source": "text",
"_sourceNote": "⚠️ Parsed from text format. Accuracy may be lower."
}Examples
See the examples/ directory for complete checklist samples:
Example prompt for Claude:
Generate an implementation checklist for RFC 9293 (TCP).Internal Architecture
Module Structure
src/
├── index.ts # MCP server entry point
├── config.ts # Centralized configuration
├── constants.ts # BCP 14 keyword definitions
├── services/
│ ├── rfc-fetcher.ts # RFC fetching (parallel)
│ ├── rfcxml-parser.ts # RFCXML parser
│ ├── rfc-text-parser.ts # Text fallback parser
│ └── checklist-generator.ts # Checklist generation service
├── tools/
│ ├── definitions.ts # MCP tool definitions
│ └── handlers.ts # Tool handlers
├── types/
│ └── index.ts # Type definitions
└── utils/
├── cache.ts # LRU cache
├── fetch.ts # Parallel fetch utility
├── requirement-extractor.ts # Shared requirement extraction
├── section.ts # Section search utilities
├── text.ts # Text processing utility
└── validation.ts # Input validationRFC Fetch Optimization
Sends parallel requests to multiple sources (RFC Editor, IETF Tools, Datatracker) and uses the first successful response:
┌─────────────────┐
│ fetchRFCXML() │
└────────┬────────┘
│ Parallel requests
┌────┴────┬────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐
│RFC │ │IETF │ │Data- │
│Editor │ │Tools │ │tracker │
└────┬───┘ └────┬───┘ └────┬───┘
│ │ │
└────┬─────┴──────────┘
│ Promise.any (first success)
▼
┌───────────┐
│ Successful│ → Cancel other requests via AbortController
│ Response │
└───────────┘Cache Strategy
LRU (Least Recently Used) cache with memory limits:
Cache | Max Entries | Content |
XML Cache | 20 | Raw RFCXML |
Text Cache | 20 | Raw text |
Metadata Cache | 100 | RFC metadata |
Parse Cache | 50 | Parsed structure |
Development
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Development mode
npm run dev
# Build
npm run build
# Test
npm test
# Lint
npm run lint
# Format
npm run formatLicense
MIT
Related Projects
mjpitz/mcp-rfc - Text-based RFC MCP
ietf-tools/RFCXML - RFCXML schema
xml2rfc - IETF official tool