mdnlookup

A tool to fetch and summarize developer documentation from MDN Web Docs.

MDNlookup is a developer productivity tool that streamlines access to MDN Web Docs documentation directly from your development environment. Designed for seamless integration with MCP-compatible clients and editors like VS Code, mdnlookup enables developers to quickly search for and retrieve concise, relevant documentation summaries for web APIs, JavaScript methods, and other web technologies—without leaving their workflow.

By exposing an MCP-compatible tool server over stdio, mdnlookup makes it easy to automate documentation lookups and integrate them into custom toolchains or editor extensions. This helps developers save time, reduce context switching, and stay focused on coding.

Features

• Search MDN for documentation using a query string.

• Returns a summary (first paragraph) and a link to the full documentation.

• Exposes an MCP-compatible tool server over stdio.

Available Tools

mdnlookup

• Description: Fetches and summarizes developer documentation from MDN based on a search query.

• Parameters:

  • query (string): The search term or API/method name you want documentation for.

Installation

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/mdn-lookup.git
cd mdn-lookup
npm install

Usage

This tool is designed to be used as an MCP tool server. You can run it directly using Node:

node index.js

It will start an MCP server over stdio, ready to accept requests.

Example: Configure in MCP Client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "SmartDeveloperAssistant": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "</absolute/path/to>/mdn-lookup/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code (.vscode/settings.json)

"mcp": {
        "servers": {
            "mdnlookup": {
                "type": "stdio",
                "command": "node",
                "args": ["</absolute/path/to>/mdn-lookup/index.js"]
            }
        },
        "inputs": []
    },

Run with Docker

You can use Docker to run the mdnlookup MCP server without installing Node.js or dependencies locally or using https://hub.docker.com/r/babymanisha/mdnlookup

Pull the Docker image from Docker Hub:

docker pull babymanisha/mdnlookup:latest

Or build the Docker image locally:

docker build -t mdnlookup .

Run the server:

docker run -i babymanisha/mdnlookup:latest

or, if you built locally:

docker run -i mdnlookup

This will start the MCP server over stdio inside the container, ready to be used by any MCP-compatible client or editor (such as VS Code).

To configure VS Code to use the Dockerized server, set the command to:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mdnlookup": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "mdnlookup"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Example: Using the Tool

You can use the mdnlookup tool by sending a request from any MCP-compatible client:

{
  "tool": "mdnlookup",
  "params": {
    "query": "Array.prototype.map"
  }
}

The response will look like:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "The map() method creates a new array populated with the results of calling a provided function on every element in the calling array.\n\nMore info: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/map"
    }
  ]
}

Example Results

Below are screenshots of the tool in action for various queries:

Promises

Async/Await

Node.js

OAuth

Configuration

No additional configuration is required. The tool uses the MDN public API and fetches documentation in English.

License

ISC

See Also

• mdn-lookup listing on MCP.so

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Thanks

Happy Coding!!

Baby Manisha Sunkara 👩🏻‍💻