Document Manager MCP

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for managing product documentation as markdown files. Use it from Cursor, Claude Desktop, or any MCP client to create, read, update, delete, and search documentation.

Document types

All files are stored as markdown under a configurable project root, in these categories:

A special file docs/product-vision-and-strategy.md holds the product vision and strategy. Use the product_vision_and_strategy tool to view it and create it (with a default template) if it doesn’t exist.

Related MCP server: mcp-docs

Project identity (multiple MCPs)

When you run several Document Manager MCPs (e.g. one per project), set a project name so you can tell them apart in Cursor:

• Environment variable: DOCS_PROJECT_NAME — short label for this project (e.g. my-app, backend-api).

• The server then appears in Cursor as "document-manager (my-app)" instead of just "document-manager".

Example with two projects:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-manager-my-app": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/path/to/my-app",
        "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "my-app"
      }
    },
    "document-manager-backend": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/path/to/backend",
        "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "backend-api"
      }
    }
  }
}

You’ll see two MCPs: document-manager (my-app) and document-manager (backend-api).

Project root

Set the project root so the MCP knows where to read/write files:

• Environment variable: DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT (absolute or relative path).

• If unset, the server uses the current working directory when the server starts.

Example: if DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT=/Users/you/my-product, then:

• Feature specs go in /Users/you/my-product/docs/feature-specs/

• API docs go in /Users/you/my-product/docs/api/, etc.

MCP tools

MCP resources

Docs are exposed as resources with URIs:

• Pattern: doc://{docType}/{slug}

• Examples: doc://feature-specs/auth-spec.md, doc://api/users-endpoint.md

• Product vision and strategy: doc://product-vision-and-strategy (single resource; create the file with the product_vision_and_strategy tool if needed).

Clients can list and read these resources like files (e.g. in Cursor’s MCP resource UI).

Run with npx (recommended)

No install needed. Use npx so the package is run on demand:

npx document-manager-mcp

With environment variables:

DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT=/path/to/your/project DOCS_PROJECT_NAME=my-project npx document-manager-mcp

In Cursor (or another MCP client), configure the server to run via npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-manager": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/PROJECT",
        "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "your-project"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/PROJECT with the folder that should contain the docs/ tree. DOCS_PROJECT_NAME is optional; use it when you run multiple Document Manager MCPs so you can tell them apart.

Semantic search (local embeddings)

To search by meaning (e.g. “login” matching “authentication”, “sign-in”) instead of exact text only, use a local embedding model. No API key required.

Set in your MCP server env:

• DOCS_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=local — enables semantic search using Transformers.js and the default model Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (downloaded on first use, then cached).

• DOCS_EMBEDDING_MODEL (optional) — another Hugging Face model ID for feature extraction (e.g. Xenova/all-mpnet-base-v2 for higher quality, larger download).

Example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-manager": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/path/to/your/project",
        "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "my-project",
        "DOCS_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER": "local"
      }
    }
  }
}

The first semantic search will build an index under .document-manager/embedding-index.json; later searches reuse it until docs change. You can pass mode: "keyword" to search_docs to force exact-text search, or mode: "semantic" when local embeddings are enabled.

Cursor setup

1. Configure Cursor
   In Cursor: Settings → MCP (or edit your MCP config file). Add a server entry using npx and set the project root via env:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "document-manager": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
         "env": {
           "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/PROJECT",
           "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "your-project"
         }
       }
     }
   }

   Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/PROJECT with the folder that should contain the docs/ tree (feature-specs, jtbd, user-stories, api). Use DOCS_PROJECT_NAME as a short label when you have multiple Document Manager MCPs (optional).

2. Restart Cursor (or reload MCP) so it picks up the server.

Running from source

If you develop or fork this repo and want to run the built server without npx:

git clone https://github.com/rfbatista/document-manager-mcp.git
cd document-manager-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Then in your MCP config use "command": "node" and "args": ["/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/document-manager-mcp/build/index.js"].

Claude Desktop setup

Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json and run it with npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-manager": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["document-manager-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCS_PROJECT_ROOT": "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/PROJECT",
        "DOCS_PROJECT_NAME": "your-project"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

npm install
npm run build   # build once
npm run start   # run built server (stdio)

Use stderr for logs; stdout is used for MCP JSON-RPC.

License

MIT

document-manager-mcp