repo-explorer-mcp

A Rust MCP server that exposes the explore_repository tool over an rmcp stdio transport, shipped for Linux (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu) and Windows (x86_64-pc-windows-msvc). It drives an internal LLM exploration loop over a codebase-memory-mcp backend and ripgrep/rtk text search.

Install (recommended: npx setup script)

The setup script detects your OS/arch, checks/installs runtime dependencies, downloads and checksum-verifies the matching release archive, installs the binary, reports PATH status, and prints a ready-to-use .mcp.json snippet.

npx github:kwitsch/repo-explorer-mcp
# After the package is published to npm:
# npx repo-explorer-mcp-setup

Flags:

• -y, --yes — non-interactive; auto-approve dependency installs.

• --force — reinstall even if an up-to-date binary is already present.

• --version <x.y.z> — install a specific release (default: latest).

• -h, --help — usage.

The script installs into ~/.local/bin (Linux) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\repo-explorer-mcp (Windows). It never edits your shell profile or system PATH — it only reports whether the install directory is on PATH. ripgrep is installed automatically via apt/dnf/pacman on Linux or winget on Windows; if none of those is available, the script warns and points at ripgrep's own install docs instead of installing it itself. rtk and codebase-memory-mcp are report-only: if missing, the script tells you and points at their upstream install docs (rtk is optional; search falls back to plain ripgrep).

Related MCP server: ast-outline-mcp

Install (manual fallback)

Build from source:

cargo build --release --workspace
# binary at target/release/repo-explorer-mcp

Or download a release archive and its checksum, verify, and place the binary on PATH (see docs/smoke-test.md for the verification commands). Release assets follow the frozen naming contract:

repo-explorer-mcp-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz (+ .sha256)
repo-explorer-mcp-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip       (+ .sha256)

from https://github.com/kwitsch/repo-explorer-mcp/releases.

Verify the version:

repo-explorer-mcp --version # prints: repo-explorer-mcp 0.1.0

Configuration

The server reads a TOML config. Path precedence: --config <path> → REPO_EXPLORER_CONFIG env var → ./repo-explorer.toml. The launch working directory is treated as the repository root to explore.

Example repo-explorer.toml:

[llm]
# Failover cooldown after a provider errors, in seconds.
cooldown_seconds = 90

# Providers are tried in file order (= failover order).
[[llm.providers]]
name = "primary"
kind = "anthropic"
api_key_env = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"   # names an env var; never the key itself
model = "claude-sonnet-4"

[[llm.providers]]
name = "secondary"
kind = "openai"
api_key_env = "OPENAI_API_KEY"
model = "gpt-4o"

# Exactly one of `command`+`args` (stdio) XOR `endpoint` (network).
[codebase_memory]
command = "codebase-memory-mcp"
args = ["--stdio"]

[search]
prefer_rtk = false        # true prefers `rtk rg`; false uses plain ripgrep
timeout_seconds = 45
# rtk_path / ripgrep_path may be set explicitly; omitted => auto-detected on PATH.

[logging]
level = "info"            # trace | debug | info | warn | error

The env var named by each api_key_env must actually be set in the environment, or config loading fails with MissingEnvVar.

.mcp.json

Installed-binary form (what the setup script prints):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "repo-explorer": {
      "command": "/home/you/.local/bin/repo-explorer-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

On Windows the command is %LOCALAPPDATA%\\repo-explorer-mcp\\repo-explorer-mcp.exe. Add "--config", "<path>" to args if your repo-explorer.toml is not at the launch cwd. The in-repo development form instead launches via cargo run --release --quiet -p repo-explorer-mcp --.

Build & test

cargo build --workspace
cargo test --workspace
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --check

Troubleshooting

Config loading fails fast with a named error:

See docs/smoke-test.md for verifying a downloaded release artifact end to end.