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MCP server that enables AI coding assistants to use spec-driven development practices via the GitHub Spec-Kit toolkit.
- 🎯 100% Spec-Kit Coverage: All 10 tools for complete spec-driven development
- 🚀 MCP Protocol: Full JSON-RPC 2.0 implementation for AI agents
- ⚡ High Performance: Built with Rust and Tokio for async I/O
- 🔧 Dual Installation: Install via
cargoornpx - 🛡️ Type Safe: Comprehensive type system with validation
- 📚 Comprehensive Docs: Tutorials, examples, and configuration guides
- 🌐 Multi-Editor Support: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, and more
- 🧪 Production Ready: Tested, documented, and deployed
Fast, reliable, works offline:
cargo install spec-kit-mcp
Advantages:
- ✅ Fastest startup
- ✅ Works offline
- ✅ Most reliable
- ✅ Full platform support (macOS Intel/ARM, Linux)
For Node.js users:
# Global installation npm install -g @lsendel/spec-kit-mcp # Or use with npx (downloads on first use) npx @lsendel/spec-kit-mcp
Advantages:
- ✅ Familiar for Node.js users
- ✅ Auto-downloads prebuilt binaries
- ✅ npx always uses latest version
- Python 3.11+: Required by GitHub spec-kit
- uv package manager: Required to run spec-kit (install from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)
- GitHub Spec-Kit: No separate installation needed - the MCP server uses
uvxto run spec-kit directly - Node.js 18+: Only if using npx installation method
- Git: For version control operations
Note: The spec-kit CLI is not available on PyPI. The MCP server automatically runs it via uvx --from git+https://github.com/github/spec-kit.git
Claude Code supports two ways to configure MCP servers:
First install via cargo:
cargo install spec-kit-mcp
Then configure ~/.config/claude-code/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"spec-kit": {
"command": "spec-kit-mcp",
"args": [],
"env": {}
}
}
}Advantages:
- ✅ Fastest startup (<100ms)
- ✅ Works offline
- ✅ Most reliable
- ✅ Supports all platforms (macOS Intel/ARM, Linux)
Create or edit ~/.config/claude-code/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"spec-kit": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@lsendel/spec-kit-mcp"],
"env": {}
}
}
}Advantages:
- ✅ No installation required
- ✅ Always uses latest version
- ✅ Good for trying it out
Note: First run may be slower as it downloads the binary.
-
Restart Claude Code after editing the config file
-
Test the MCP tools in Claude Code:
List all available MCP tools
You should see 10 spec-kit tools listed:
- speckit_init
- speckit_check
- speckit_constitution
- speckit_specify
- speckit_plan
- speckit_tasks
- speckit_implement
- speckit_clarify
- speckit_analyze
- speckit_checklist
- Try a simple command:
Use speckit_check to verify my development environment
Issue: Tools not appearing after restart
Solution:
- Check config file location:
cat ~/.config/claude-code/mcp.json - Verify JSON syntax:
cat ~/.config/claude-code/mcp.json | jq - Check Claude Code logs:
~/.config/claude-code/logs/ - For npx method, ensure Node.js is installed:
node --version - For binary method, verify installation:
which spec-kit-mcp
Issue: spec-kit-mcp: command not found (Method 2)
Solution:
- Use Method 1 (npx) instead, or
- Add npm global bin to PATH:
export PATH="$PATH:$(npm config get prefix)/bin"
Need help with other editors? See the Complete Configuration Guide for Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, and more.
- 📖 Comprehensive Tutorials - Step-by-step guides for all skill levels
- 💡 Examples - Real-world project examples
- ⚙️ Configuration Guide - Setup for different AI assistants
- 🚀 Usage Guide - Detailed usage documentation
New to Spec-Kit? Start here:
- Tutorial 1: Your First Spec-Kit Project (20 min)
- Todo CLI Example - Complete beginner example
- Configuration for Your Editor
Building APIs? Check out:
- Tutorial 2: Building a REST API
- Blog API Example - Production-ready API example
Working with teams?
The MCP server exposes 10 spec-kit tools for the complete workflow:
Initialize a new spec-kit project with proper structure.
{
"project_name": "my-project",
"project_path": "."
}Create project governing principles and development standards.
{
"principles": "Simplicity, Performance, Security",
"constraints": "Must support Python 3.11+",
"output_path": "./speckit.constitution"
}Define requirements and user stories (the "what").
{
"requirements": "User authentication system with OAuth2 support",
"user_stories": "As a user, I want to login with Google...",
"output_path": "./speckit.specify"
}Create a technical implementation plan (the "how").
{
"spec_file": "./speckit.specify",
"tech_stack": "Rust + Tokio",
"output_path": "./speckit.plan"
}Generate actionable task lists from the plan.
{
"plan_file": "./speckit.plan",
"breakdown_level": "medium",
"output_path": "./speckit.tasks"
}Execute implementation according to the task list.
{
"task_file": "./speckit.tasks",
"context": "Using Rust with async/await",
"output_dir": "./src"
}Request clarification on ambiguous requirements or specifications.
{
"spec_file": "./speckit.specify",
"questions": "How should we handle edge cases?"
}Analyze code for quality, compliance, and technical debt.
{
"target_path": "./src",
"check_constitution": true,
"output_format": "markdown"
}Validate that required tools are installed for spec-kit development.
{
"check_speckit": true,
"check_git": true,
"check_ai_tools": true
}Generate review checklists to verify implementation completeness.
{
"spec_file": "./speckit.specify",
"task_file": "./speckit.tasks",
"output_path": "./checklist.md"
}See all tools in action: Check out the Examples directory for complete workflows
Here's a complete workflow using Claude Code:
User: Initialize a new spec-kit project called "user-auth"
Claude: [Uses speckit_init tool]
✓ Project initialized at ./user-auth
User: Create a constitution focusing on security and simplicity
Claude: [Uses speckit_constitution tool]
✓ Constitution created at ./speckit.constitution
User: Specify requirements for OAuth2 authentication
Claude: [Uses speckit_specify tool]
✓ Specification created at ./speckit.specify
User: Create a technical plan using Rust and OAuth2 libraries
Claude: [Uses speckit_plan tool]
✓ Technical plan created at ./speckit.plan
User: Generate detailed tasks
Claude: [Uses speckit_tasks tool]
✓ Task list created at ./speckit.tasks
Found 15 actionable tasks
AI Agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.)
↓
MCP Protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio)
↓
Spec-Kit MCP Server (Rust/Tokio)
↓
Tool Registry & Dispatcher
↓
Spec-Kit CLI Integration Layer
↓
Spec-Kit Python CLI (subprocess)
↓
File System (speckit.* artifacts)
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/spec-kit-mcp.git
cd spec-kit-mcp
cargo build --releasecargo test# With default settings cargo run # With custom log level cargo run -- --log-level debug # With custom CLI path cargo run -- --cli-path /path/to/specify # With custom timeout cargo run -- --timeout 600
spec-kit-mcp/
├── src/
│ ├── main.rs # Binary entry point
│ ├── lib.rs # Library root
│ ├── mcp/ # MCP protocol implementation
│ │ ├── types.rs # JSON-RPC types
│ │ ├── protocol.rs # Protocol handler
│ │ ├── transport.rs # Stdio transport
│ │ └── server.rs # MCP server
│ ├── speckit/ # Spec-kit CLI integration
│ │ ├── cli.rs # Command execution
│ │ └── errors.rs # Error types
│ └── tools/ # MCP tools
│ ├── mod.rs # Tool registry
│ ├── init.rs # speckit_init tool
│ ├── constitution.rs # speckit_constitution tool
│ ├── specify.rs # speckit_specify tool
│ ├── plan.rs # speckit_plan tool
│ └── tasks.rs # speckit_tasks tool
├── Cargo.toml # Rust package manifest
└── README.md # This file
Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch:
git checkout -b feature/my-feature - Make your changes
- Run tests:
cargo test - Run clippy:
cargo clippy - Format code:
cargo fmt - Commit with conventional commits:
git commit -m "feat: add new feature" - Push and create a Pull Request
- ✅ All 10 spec-kit tools implemented (100% coverage)
- ✅ MCP protocol support (JSON-RPC 2.0)
- ✅ Dual distribution (cargo + npx)
- ✅ Comprehensive error handling
- ✅ Complete tutorials and examples
- ✅ Configuration guides for major editors
- ✅ Published to crates.io and npm
- Enhanced tool parameters and validation
- Configuration file support (.speckit-mcp.toml)
- Template system for common project types
- Performance optimizations and caching
- Windows platform support
- Web-based tool output visualization
- Remote MCP via Server-Sent Events (SSE)
- Web UI dashboard for project visualization
- Template marketplace integration
- Team collaboration features (shared constitutions)
- Metrics and analytics dashboard
- Plugin system for custom tools
- Cold start: <500ms
- Tool invocation: <200ms (excluding spec-kit CLI execution)
- Memory usage: <50MB baseline
- Concurrent requests: 10+
- ✅ Claude Code
- ✅ Cursor
- ✅ GitHub Copilot (with MCP support)
- ✅ Any MCP-compatible client
- ✅ macOS (Intel and ARM)
- ✅ Linux (x86_64)
- ⏳ Windows (planned)
Error: spec-kit CLI not found!
Solution: Ensure uv package manager is installed:
# Check if uv is installed uv --version # If not installed, install uv (macOS/Linux) curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh # Or using pip pip install uv # Test spec-kit access uvx --from git+https://github.com/github/spec-kit.git specify check
Note: The spec-kit CLI is not available as a standalone package. The MCP server uses uvx to run it directly from GitHub.
Solution: Upgrade to Python 3.11 or later:
# Check version python3 --version # Install Python 3.11+ (macOS with Homebrew) brew install python@3.11
Solution: Ensure the binary is executable:
chmod +x $(which spec-kit-mcp)Q: Do I need to install spec-kit separately? A: Yes, the MCP server requires the spec-kit Python CLI to be installed.
Q: Can I use this without Claude Code? A: Yes! It works with any MCP-compatible AI coding assistant.
Q: Does this work offline? A: Yes, if installed via cargo. The npx version requires internet for initial download.
Q: How does this compare to using spec-kit directly? A: This MCP server enables AI agents to use spec-kit automatically, streamlining the workflow.
This project is dual-licensed under:
- MIT License (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
- Apache License 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
You may choose either license for your use.
- GitHub Spec-Kit - The underlying spec-driven development toolkit
- Model Context Protocol - The protocol enabling AI-tool integration
- Anthropic Claude - AI assistant that inspired this integration
- Rust Community - For excellent async tooling (Tokio, Serde, etc.)
- Crates.io: https://crates.io/crates/spec-kit-mcp
- Docs.rs: https://docs.rs/spec-kit-mcp
- GitHub: https://github.com/yourusername/spec-kit-mcp
- Issues: https://github.com/yourusername/spec-kit-mcp/issues
- Spec-Kit: https://github.com/github/spec-kit
Built with Rust | Production Ready | Open Source