MiniZinc MCP Server

An MCP server that exposes MiniZinc constraint solving and optimization to LLM clients such as opencode, Claude Desktop, and Cursor. It lets an agent parse, type-check, and solve MiniZinc models directly from a chat session.

Built with the MCP Python SDK v2 and the MiniZinc Python binding.

Demo

Related MCP server: Google OR-Tools server

Install it

1. Prerequisites

Only two things need to be installed, once per machine:

• uv — curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

• MiniZinc 2.6+ with the minizinc executable on PATH (includes a default solver, Gecode)

Everything else is fetched automatically by uv — there is no clone, no venv setup, and no manual pip install on your side.

2. Install the server (pick one)

From PyPI (recommended)

Install the latest released version globally (best if you use it in several projects):

uv tool install minizinc-mcp

Or run the latest released version on demand, with nothing installed:

uvx minizinc-mcp

From GitHub (latest development version)

To run the latest development version directly from the repository, use:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/carban/minizinc-mcp minizinc-mcp

To install that development version globally instead:

uv tool install --from git+https://github.com/carban/minizinc-mcp minizinc-mcp

The GitHub installation tracks the repository's main branch; PyPI provides released versions.

3. Wire it into your MCP client

The server runs over stdio. Tell your MCP client to launch it:

opencode — project level (add this to opencode.jsonc in your project):

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "minizinc": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uvx", "minizinc-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

opencode — global (add the same mcp.minizinc block to ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "minizinc": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uvx", "minizinc-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "minizinc": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["minizinc-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If you are using the GitHub installation instead, replace ["uvx", "minizinc-mcp"] in the opencode configuration with ["uvx", "--from", "git+https://github.com/carban/minizinc-mcp", "minizinc-mcp"], and replace the Claude Desktop arguments with ["--from", "git+https://github.com/carban/minizinc-mcp", "minizinc-mcp"].

4. Verify it works

Restart your client. Eight tools should now be available, prefixed with minizinc_:

• minizinc_list_tools

• minizinc_list_solvers

• minizinc_validate_model

• minizinc_solve_model

• minizinc_compare_solvers

• minizinc_solve_model_by_path

• minizinc_get_model_info

• minizinc_get_flatzinc

Quick sanity check — ask your client: "list the available MiniZinc solvers". You should see gecode, chuffed, highs, and anything else installed on the machine.

Using the MiniZinc skill with opencode

The skills/minizinc/ folder contains an opencode skill that steers an agent through constraint programming, combinatorial, and optimization work: modeling problems with MiniZinc, type-checking models, running or comparing solvers, and rendering results as Markdown tables (instead of raw JSON).

The skill lives in a top-level skills/ folder so it is visible in the repo, but opencode does not auto-discover it from there — you must install it first.

1. Prerequisite

Register the MCP server as shown in the Wire it into your MCP client section above.

2. Install the skill (pick one)

Copy it into a project where you want it active (auto-discovered by opencode, no config needed):

cp -r skills/minizinc <your-project>/.opencode/skills/

Or install it globally so it is available in every project:

cp -r skills/minizinc ~/.config/opencode/skills/

Or point opencode at this repo's skills/ folder (scanned recursively for SKILL.md) by adding to opencode.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "skills": {
    "paths": ["/path/to/minizinc-mcp/skills"]
  }
}

Claude Code users can copy the folder to ~/.claude/skills/minizinc/ instead of ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

3. Use it

Restart your client, then simply describe a problem. For example:

• "Solve this knapsack as a MiniZinc model."

• "Optimize a production schedule with MiniZinc."

• "Compare the available solvers on this model and recommend one."

• "Write a MiniZinc model for this timetabling problem and check it."

The skill activates automatically and drives the minizinc_* tools — modeling, validating, solving, comparing solvers, and presenting results as tables.

What it does

solve_model arguments

compare_solvers arguments

compare_solvers calls solve_model once per requested solver and returns each result under results, keyed by solver name. A solver error is retained in that solver's result without stopping the remaining runs. The shape is:

{
  "results": {
    "gecode": {
      "status": "OPTIMAL_SOLUTION",
      "objective": 1700,
      "statistics": { "time": 0.01, "nodes": 12 }
    },
    "chuffed": {
      "status": "OPTIMAL_SOLUTION",
      "objective": 1700,
      "statistics": { "time": 0.02, "nodes": 8 }
    }
  }
}

The solve_model result is a JSON object like:

{
  "status": "OPTIMAL_SOLUTION",
  "objective": 9,
  "solution": { "objective": 9, "x": 9, "y": 1 },
  "statistics": { "time": 0.204, "nodes": 3, ... }
}

status is one of SATISFIED, OPTIMAL_SOLUTION, ALL_SOLUTIONS, UNSATISFIABLE, UNKNOWN, or ERROR. validate_model, solve_model, and each individual compare_solvers run never raise in normal operation — errors are returned inside the result dict.

The tool descriptions also instruct the client agent to present solving results, solver comparisons, and model info to you as Markdown tables instead of raw JSON, so solve_model and compare_solvers answers read like tables even though the tools themselves always return structured JSON.

Developing locally

Clone the repo, then:

uv sync          # create the environment and install mcp + minizinc

The server speaks the MCP stdio transport, so it is launched as a subprocess by an MCP client. Run it with the SDK inspector:

uv run mcp dev server.py

that opens the MCP Inspector in the browser where every tool can be called interactively. A minimal programmatic smoke test:

uv run python -c "
import asyncio
from mcp import Client
from mcp.client.stdio import StdioServerParameters

async def main():
    params = StdioServerParameters(command='uv', args=['run', 'python', 'server.py'], cwd='.')
    async with Client(params) as client:
        result = await client.call_tool('solve_model', {
            'model_code': 'var 1..10: x; var 1..10: y; constraint x + y = 10; solve maximize x;'
        })
        print(result.content[0].text)

asyncio.run(main())
"

Running the tests

Install the test dependencies, then run the suite:

uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest -q

The tests in tests/ launch the server end-to-end over stdio and call every tool through the MCP protocol, solving the example model in example/. They need a working MiniZinc install (the same prerequisite as for developers).

Notes and limitations

• params follows JSON representation: JSON arrays map to MiniZinc arrays; numbers, strings, and booleans map to their native MiniZinc types. Exotic types like sets and enums are not fully expressible this way.

• Do not combine all_solutions with max_solutions; the MiniZinc driver rejects the combination.

• MiniZinc requires a solver that supports the model (e.g. chuffed/gecode for CP, highs/cbc for MIP models). Use list_solvers to see what is installed.

• Solutions are returned inline in the tool result; read_only_hint is set on all tools, so they do not modify your files or system.