OpenOCD MCP Server

Debug microcontrollers directly from Claude. This is an MCP server that drives OpenOCD, letting Claude flash firmware, control execution, and inspect a running target — and read your variables and peripheral registers by name instead of raw addresses.

Description

Once connected to a target through a debug probe (ST-Link, J-Link, CMSIS-DAP, …), Claude can:

• Flash firmware — program and verify .elf / .bin / .hex images

• Control execution — halt, resume, single-step, reset

• Inspect state — read/write CPU registers and memory

• Set breakpoints — add/remove/list hardware & software breakpoints

• Read variables by name — from your firmware's .elf symbols (e.g. read_variable uart_rx_count)

• Read peripheral registers by name — from a CMSIS-SVD file, decoded into named bitfields (e.g. RCC.CR, GPIOA.MODER)

The server is chip-agnostic — it works with any target OpenOCD supports; you point it at your chip's config and (optionally) SVD/ELF. It can also start OpenOCD for you and download OpenOCD automatically for your platform, so there's nothing else to install by hand.

Related MCP server: dbgprobe-mcp-server

Installation

Prerequisites: Python 3.10+, Claude Code, and a debug probe connected to your target.

Clone and install the package into a virtual environment:

git clone https://github.com/microhenrio/openocd-mcp
cd openocd-mcp
python -m venv .venv

Install it (creates the openocd-mcp command):

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\python -m pip install -e .

# macOS / Linux
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -e .

Register the server with Claude Code (user scope makes it available in every project):

# Windows
claude mcp add --scope user openocd -- "%CD%\.venv\Scripts\openocd-mcp.exe"

# macOS / Linux
claude mcp add --scope user openocd -- "$PWD/.venv/bin/openocd-mcp"

Windows shortcut: instead of the steps above you can just run setup.bat, which creates the environment, installs the package, and registers it.

Then restart Claude Code so it loads the server. Verify with:

claude mcp list      # openocd: ... ✓ Connected

OpenOCD is obtained automatically: a build for your OS/architecture is downloaded and cached on first connect (checksum-verified). You can also fetch it ahead of time with openocd-mcp install-openocd, or use an existing install by setting the OPENOCD_BIN environment variable.

How to work with it

1. Point it at your chip

Each firmware project tells the server which target it's debugging. Create an openocd-mcp.json in your project root (a template is in openocd-mcp.example.json):

{
  "target_cfg": "target/stm32g0x.cfg",
  "svd_file": "path/to/STM32G0B0.svd",
  "elf_file": "path/to/build/firmware.elf"
}

• target_cfg / interface_cfg — OpenOCD configs (relative to its scripts dir). Defaults to an ST-Link probe; set target_cfg for your chip.

• svd_file — CMSIS-SVD file for the chip (enables peripheral registers by name).

• elf_file — your firmware build output (enables variables by name).

Or simply tell Claude the chip you're using and it will configure the session for you. show_config reports the active settings at any time.

2. Talk to Claude

With the board plugged in, describe what you want — Claude picks the right tools:

You don't call tools by name — describe the goal and Claude maps it to the underlying tools.

The target must be halted to read registers, memory, or variables — Claude halts first when needed. The first connect of a session starts OpenOCD automatically.