Update Night MCP

MCP server for the Update Night catalog. Gives AI assistants tools to search and explore AI dev tools, agent frameworks, skills, and MCP servers.

Install

Option 1 — cargo-binstall (pre-built binary, fastest)

cargo binstall updatenight-mcp

Installs the pre-built binary for your platform. Get cargo-binstall from cargo-bins/cargo-binstall if you don't have it.

Option 2 — Download binary

Go to Releases and grab the archive for your platform:

macOS / Linux:

# Replace <target> with your platform (e.g. aarch64-apple-darwin)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/amajorai/updatenight-mcp/releases/latest/download/updatenight-mcp-<target>.tar.gz \
  | tar xz -C /tmp
sudo mv /tmp/updatenight-mcp /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp

Windows (PowerShell):

# Run as Administrator
$target = "x86_64-pc-windows-msvc"
$url = "https://github.com/amajorai/updatenight-mcp/releases/latest/download/updatenight-mcp-$target.zip"
Invoke-WebRequest $url -OutFile "$env:TEMP\updatenight-mcp.zip"
Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\updatenight-mcp.zip" -DestinationPath "$env:TEMP\updatenight-mcp-bin"
Move-Item "$env:TEMP\updatenight-mcp-bin\updatenight-mcp.exe" "C:\Windows\System32\updatenight-mcp.exe"

Option 3 — Build from source

git clone https://github.com/amajorai/updatenight-mcp
cd updatenight-mcp
cargo build --release
# binary at target/release/updatenight-mcp (or .exe on Windows)
sudo mv target/release/updatenight-mcp /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp

Related MCP server: agentalmanac-mcp

Updating

Re-run whichever install method you used. For cargo-binstall:

cargo binstall updatenight-mcp

Tools

search — search the catalog by query string. Optionally filter by kind (tool, skill, mcp) and set a result limit. Returns entries with name, tagline, pricing, and install snippets.

get_entry — fetch a single catalog entry by kind and slug. Returns full details including description, pricing, install snippet, and homepage URL.

list_by_category — list entries by kind and category slug (e.g. agent-framework, llm, rag, vector-db). Returns entries sorted by publish date.

list_news — fetch recent news items from the Update Night news timeline. Accepts a days parameter (default 7). Returns titles, summaries, sources, and timestamps.

Authentication

On first run the server starts a device authorization flow, prints a verification URL and code to stderr, and opens your browser. Once approved, the token is saved and subsequent runs start immediately.

Token location: ~/.config/updatenight/mcp-config.json (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\updatenight\mcp-config.json (Windows).

Installation by host

Replace /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp with the actual path to your binary in all configs below.

Claude Desktop

Config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

• Linux: ~/.config/claude-desktop/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Quit and relaunch Claude Desktop after editing.

Claude Code

claude mcp add updatenight /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp

To add it at project scope (committed to .mcp.json for team sharing):

claude mcp add --scope project updatenight /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp

Cursor

Config file:

• Project: .cursor/mcp.json

• Global: ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Quit and reopen Cursor after editing.

Windsurf

Config file:

• macOS/Linux: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Config file: .vscode/mcp.json in your project root (commit to share with your team).

Note: VS Code uses servers not mcpServers, and requires an explicit "type" field.

{
  "servers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

MCP tools are only available in Agent mode in VS Code Copilot Chat.

Cline (VS Code extension)

Open the Cline panel, click the MCP Servers icon, go to the Configure tab, and click "Configure MCP Servers". Add to the JSON that opens:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Continue.dev

Config file: ~/.continue/config.yaml (macOS/Linux) or %USERPROFILE%\.continue\config.yaml (Windows).

mcpServers:
  - name: Update Night
    command: /usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp
    type: stdio

Or drop a JSON file at .continue/mcpServers/updatenight.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Zed

Config file:

• macOS: ~/.zed/settings.json

• Linux: ~/.config/zed/settings.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Zed\settings.json

• Project: .zed/settings.json

Note: Zed uses context_servers not mcpServers.

{
  "context_servers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Amazon Q Developer

Config file:

• Global: ~/.aws/amazonq/mcp.json

• Project: .amazonq/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

Config file:

• Global: ~/.gemini/settings.json

• Project: .gemini/settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

OpenAI Codex CLI

Config file: ~/.codex/config.toml (global) or .codex/config.toml (project).

Note: Codex uses TOML, not JSON.

[mcp_servers.updatenight]
command = "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
args = []

Raycast

Open Raycast, run "Manage MCP Servers", press Cmd+N to add a new server, or open the config file directly at ~/Library/Application Support/com.raycast.macos/extensions/EvanZhouDev.mcp/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

UPDATENIGHT_API_URL — API host to connect to. Defaults to https://server.updatenight.com if not set.

For local development, set it to your local server (port 3000 by default). You can do this in the .env file next to the binary, or pass it via your host's MCP env config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "updatenight": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/updatenight-mcp",
      "env": {
        "UPDATENIGHT_API_URL": "http://localhost:3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

The binary also loads a .env file from the working directory at startup if one is present.

Related

• Update Night CLI — terminal UI for browsing the catalog

• Update Night Skill — Claude Code skill for browsing the catalog from any AI agent