RT MCP Server

Hosted MCP service for the Relational Tech Project — RTP methodology, neighborhood recipes, frameworks, and field references, accessible to any AI builder tool via URL.

"We are the river — carrying stories, tools, learning, and relationships across many local gardens, while honoring that each garden must be tended by those who live there."

Made in the Outer Sunset, for neighborhoods everywhere.

What This Does

The RT MCP Server is the hosted gateway to the RTP global commons — a shared library of neighborhood practice and relational tech knowledge that any MCP-compatible AI tool can query.

When you connect your AI tool to this server, you get access to 275+ canonical items (and growing as Studios across the network contribute back):

• 8 RTP methodology docs — the foundational frameworks (core principles, three layers, builder spectrum, embedded design, measurement, playbooks, challenges, network)

• 7 frameworks — cross-practice patterns like the 10 Principles of Neighboring, 5 Cs of Community, Asset-Based Community Development

• 63 neighborhood recipes — actionable how-tos with ingredients, steps, variations, and stories (block parties, mutual aid pods, repair cafes, restorative circles, skillshares, and many more)

• 197 field references — practitioners' work, organizations, books, and research (Block Party USA, Priya Parker, Dean Spade, ABCD Institute, microsolidarity, and dozens more)

As of v0.2.0 the server queries the commons live — no hardcoded knowledge — so the catalog grows automatically as items are added.

The hosted endpoint is at https://mcp.relationaltechproject.org/mcp. For a local stdio version, set RTP_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio when running the same code.

Related MCP server: Akil MCP

For Builders: Connect Your AI Tool

Point your AI tool at the MCP endpoint. No API key, no signup.

Claude Code

Add to your .mcp.json (or run claude mcp add):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "relational-tech": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcp.relationaltechproject.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, then add the same block above.

Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, anything else MCP-compatible

Point it at https://mcp.relationaltechproject.org/mcp using Streamable HTTP transport.

Once you're connected

Building a tool in your own stack? Invoke the relational-builder-stance prompt. It loads the principles and working practices that Relational Builder builds by (the first build as the core loop alive, one seeded neighbor, every post opening a path to a person, a look that comes from the place) so Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable, or a plain chat builds from the same ground. The same text is available any time through get-builder-guidance and the rtp://builder/* resources.

At a community build day with your own tools? Invoke build-day with the event code from the room's slide. Your AI sets the Builder stance, looks at what the room has shared (get-build-day-wall), pulls the city's live open data when the day has some (find-civic-data-endpoints), and when something works pins it to the room's demo wall (share-to-build-day-wall) next to the builds made in the Builder itself. Builders who would rather email can send the project to the build day inbox on the slide with the event code in the subject line, a link, and a screenshot; it lands on the same wall.

Working through a neighborhood question? Try invoking the practice-guide prompt first — it puts your AI into a Neighboring Commons practice-guide stance for the rest of the conversation: relationships-first, asset-based, citing practitioners by name, calibrating confidence honestly, inviting contribution.

Then ask things like:

• "Help me design a fix-it fair for my neighborhood"

• "I want to start a mutual aid pod on my block — where do I begin?"

• "What's microsolidarity, and how does it differ from mutual aid?"

• "How do I host a block party? What does Vanessa Elias do at Block Party USA?"

• "I'm feeling burned out from community organizing — what do practitioners recommend?"

The server will surface relevant recipes, frameworks, methodology, and practitioner references, with attribution and source URLs so you can read the full work.

What's Inside

Resources (RTP methodology)

Nine RTP methodology docs are exposed as MCP resources at stable URIs. Content is fetched live from the commons on each request — update once in the commons, see it everywhere.

Resources (Relational Builder's principles and practices)

Three more resources at rtp://builder/* carry what Relational Builder's own AI builds by. They are generated from the Builder's source on every deploy (scripts/export-builder-knowledge.mjs in the relational-builder repo) and served at relationalbuilder.org/knowledge/*.md, so this server never holds a stale copy.

Tools (commons API)

Tools (Relational Builder bridge)

These reach the Builder's own backend through its commons-bridge edge function. No key; the demo wall takes the room's event code.

Prompts (guided workflows)

Endpoints

Configuration

The server reads its commons connection from environment variables, all with sensible defaults so it works out of the box:

Deploying

Standard Node 18+ HTTP server. npm install && npm start is all you need.

Railway

1. Connect this repo at railway.app

2. Auto-detects Node.js — deploy

3. Endpoint at https://your-app.up.railway.app/mcp

Render

1. New Web Service at render.com

2. Build: npm install && npm run build

3. Start: npm start

Anywhere Node 18+

Respects PORT. No other configuration required.

How It Fits Together

                     ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                     │  RTP COMMONS (Supabase)             │
                     │  275+ canonical items               │
                     │  commons_items + embeddings +       │
                     │  full-text search RPCs              │
                     └─────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                                   │ read (anon key, RLS)
                          ┌────────▼────────┐
                          │ rt-mcp-server   │
                          │ v0.7.0          │
                          │ (this repo)     │
                          │                 │
                          │ mcp.relational  │
                          │ techproject.org │
                          └────────┬────────┘
                                   │ Streamable HTTP
                                   │
                ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
                │                  │                  │
          Claude Code           Cursor          Claude Desktop
                                                 + any MCP client

     ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
     │  RELATIONAL BUILDER (relationalbuilder.org)          │
     │  /knowledge/*.md — principles, practice, frames      │
     │  commons-bridge  — demo wall, civic endpoints, seeds │
     │                    + the build day inbox (Resend)    │
     └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 read by the rt-mcp-server bridge tools

The commons also powers Sidekick in the Relational Tech Studio. Connect your AI to this server and you have access to the same library Sidekick draws from — plus the practice-guide prompt and the methodology resources at stable URIs.

Contributing

This server is open source and part of the broader relational tech commons. PRs welcome.

The most useful contributions right now:

• Better commons content: contribute recipes, stories, or community notes via studio.relationaltechproject.org/library — the commons grows from there

• New MCP tools or prompts: if you've found a useful query pattern, propose it

• Bug reports: anything broken in how the server formats responses, handles errors, or surfaces items

• Civic commons integrations: connecting more knowledge sources beyond what's in the commons today

License

MIT — use freely, remix generously, tend your garden.

Made by the Relational Tech Project · Studio · hello@relationaltechproject.org

Builder

Josh Nesbit – co-founder of Relational Tech Project, building with neighbors in the Outer Sunset in SF. Reach me by email: josh@relationaltechproject.org