INSTALL.md

If you haven't read it already, please check "Installation" section in README.md for the recommended install methods. This file documents all of the legacy installation methods if you want to do it the hard way.

Configure codemcp in your Claude Desktop

For macOS/Linux

Create or edit your ~/.config/anthropic/claude/claude_desktop_config.json file and add the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codemcp": {
      "command": "/Users/<USERNAME>/.local/bin/uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp@prod",
        "codemcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Windows

Create or edit your %USERPROFILE%\.anthropic\claude\claude_desktop_config.json file and add the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codemcp": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\<USERNAME>\\.local\\bin\\uvx.exe",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp@prod",
        "codemcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using with WSL (recommended for Windows users)

If you're using Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can configure codemcp to run within your WSL environment. This is useful if you prefer developing in a Linux environment while on Windows.

Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codemcp": {
      "command": "wsl.exe",
      "args": [
        "bash",
        "-c",
        "/home/NameOfWSLUser/.local/bin/uvx --from git+https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp@prod codemcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace NameOfWSLUser with your actual WSL username. This configuration runs the uvx command inside your WSL environment while allowing Claude Desktop to communicate with it.

This configuration comes with the added benefit of being able to access your Linux filesystem directly. When initializing codemcp in Claude Desktop, you can use a path to your WSL project like:

Initialize codemcp with /home/NameOfWSLUser/project_in_wsl_to_work_on

Make sure you have installed Python 3.12+ and uv within your WSL distribution. You might need to run the following commands in your WSL terminal:

# Install Python 3.12 (if not already installed)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.12

# Install uv
curl -sSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

After configuring, restart Claude Desktop. The hammer icon should appear, indicating codemcp has loaded successfully.

Restart the Claude Desktop app after modifying the JSON. If the MCP successfully loaded, a hammer icon will appear and when you click it "codemcp" will be visible.

Global install with pip

If you don't want to use uv, you can also globally pip install the latest codemcp version, assuming your global Python install is recent enough (Python 3.12) and doesn't have Python dependencies that conflict with codemcp. Some users report this is easier to get working on Windows.

1. pip install git+https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp@prod
2. Add the following configuration to claude_desktop_config.json file

{
    "mcpServers": {
         "codemcp": {
               "command": "python",
               "args": ["-m", "codemcp"]
            }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop

You will need to manually upgrade codemcp to take updates using pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp@prod

Other tips

Pro tip: If the server fails to load, go to Settings > Developer > codemcp > Logs to look at the MCP logs, they're very helpful for debugging. The logs on Windows should be loaded C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Claude\logs (replace <user_name> with your username.

Pro tip: if on Windows, try using the WSL instructions instead, but if you insist on using Windows directly: if the logs say "Git executable not found. Ensure that Git is installed and available", and you just installed Git, reboot your machine (the PATH update hasn't propagated.) If this still doesn't work, open System Properties > Environment Variables > System variables > Path and ensure there is an entry for Git.

Pro tip: if you like to live dangerously, you can change prod to main. If you want to pin to a specific release, replace it with 0.3.0 or similar.

Pro tip: it is supported to specify only uvx as the command, but uvx must be in your global PATH (not just added via a shell profile); on OS X, this is typically not the case if you used the self installer (unless you installed into a system location like /usr/local/bin).