swarm-mcp

An MCP stdio server that exposes Swarm's read + reconcile facts to agent clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor) — so an agent mid-task can ask Swarm "what's my scope?", "what evidence is missing?", "what should the reviewer not miss?" — without being allowed to declare itself done.

What it is — and what it is not

swarm-mcp is a thin adapter over the swarm CLI's --json contract. It spawns swarm <cmd> --json with fixed arguments and reshapes the output into MCP tools, resources, and prompts. It does not import swarm-cli's internals, run a model loop, write durable artifacts, or issue a verdict.

• Reconcile-only. Every tool result carries noVerdictIssued: true; resources serve the CLI's --json data verbatim (also no verdict, just unwrapped). swarm-mcp surfaces facts (coverage gaps, out-of-scope changes, empty-evidence Pass rows, self-report mismatches) and a derived human-attention list; a human or an independent reviewer owns the Pass / Fail / Unverified / Blocked result. An empty or weak Evidence cell reads Unverified regardless of a clean reconcile.

• Root-confined. It only reads inside a configured workspace root; every client-supplied input is validated before any subprocess runs. File paths are realpath-confined (no .., no absolute escapes, no symlink escapes); ids/stems must be a single safe segment; a git base must be a flag-free ref.

• Many libraries, not a framework. It couples to swarm-cli only through the public --json interface, so swarm-cli keeps its minimal footprint and each piece stays useful on its own.

Related MCP server: hivelaw

Run it

// Claude Desktop / Cursor MCP config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swarm": {
      "command": "swarm-mcp",
      "args": ["--workspace", "/path/to/your/swarm-workspace"]
    }
  }
}

Config: --workspace <path> / SWARM_WORKSPACE (the workspace root); --swarm-bin <path> / SWARM_BIN (the swarm binary, default swarm on PATH). Requires the swarm CLI installed.

The swarm-mcp command above resolves to this package's bin. To install from source until a published build is available:

git clone https://github.com/jcosta33/swarm-mcp && cd swarm-mcp
pnpm install && pnpm build && npm link   # exposes `swarm-mcp` on PATH (runs the built dist/)

Node: a published/built install needs Node ≥ 18.18; running from a source checkout (no dist/) needs Node ≥ 22.6 (it strips types at runtime).

v0 surface (read-only)

• Tools (10). Reconcile/check: swarm_get_status, swarm_check_workspace, swarm_check_file, swarm_scan_task, swarm_reconcile_review, swarm_validate_review_packet. Parsed-artifact loaders: swarm_get_task, swarm_get_spec, swarm_get_review, swarm_get_checks.

• Resources (7). Fixed: swarm://workspace, swarm://status, swarm://checks. Templated: swarm://tasks/{id}, swarm://specs/{id}, swarm://reviews/{id}, swarm://findings/{id}.

• Prompts (5). swarm_task_briefing, swarm_before_done (the implementer — may not approve its own work), swarm_review_assistant (an independent reviewer — falsify, don't trust), swarm_evidence_rule, swarm_finding_candidate. The before-done / review-assistant asymmetry is deliberate: no prompt grants verdict authority.

Develop

pnpm install
pnpm gate   # typecheck + lint + coverage (thresholds enforced) + build

Status: v0 — the full read + reconcile surface over the swarm CLI's --json contract. It couples to swarm-cli only through that public contract (recorded in swarm ADR-0085), so swarm-cli keeps its minimal footprint and each piece stays useful on its own.