dew/docs/features/mcp.md

Dew Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

The Dew Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server is a feature that allows AI agents to interact with your project. This enables you to integrate AI capabilities into your project management workflow, such as automated task creation, progress tracking, and more.

Package structure

The MCP feature is split across two packages to keep concerns separate:

• packages/core defines the DewToolCommand mixin. Any command that mixes it in is automatically registered as an MCP tool — the mixin derives the tool's JSON Schema directly from the command's own ArgParser, so tools and CLI commands share a single definition.
• packages/mcp implements the actual server. It reads the list of tools from CommandRegistry and serves them over stdio using the dart_mcp package. Only the cli package depends on packages/mcp; feature packages like kanban remain decoupled from the transport layer.

Configuration

The MCP server is configured under the mcp key in .project/dew.yaml. By default it runs on localhost at port 8080.

dew:
  mcp:
    host: "localhost"
    port: 8080

See the Configuration documentation for full details.

Running the server

The MCP server uses stdio transport — the MCP client launches it as a child process and communicates over stdin/stdout. Because of this, the process must have clean stdout (no decorative output). melos run pollutes stdout with its own log lines, which corrupts the JSON-RPC channel.

Step 1 — Compile to a native binary

melos run compile

This produces .project/toolchain/bin/dew (or .project/toolchain/bin/dew.exe on Windows).

Step 2 — Configure your MCP client

Point your MCP client at the compiled binary. For example, in VS Code's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dew": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/dew/.project/toolchain/bin/dew",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

The server logs its startup message to stderr so it never interferes with the JSON-RPC channel on stdout.

Available tools

The following tools are registered by the kanban package:

Tool	Description
kanban_create_ticket	Create a new kanban ticket
kanban_list_tickets	List tickets, optionally filtered by column or type
kanban_get_ticket	Get details of a specific ticket by ID
kanban_update_ticket	Update one or more fields on an existing ticket
kanban_delete_ticket	Delete a ticket permanently (also removes its attachment directory)
kanban_move_ticket	Move a ticket to a different column
kanban_search_tickets	Full-text search across ticket titles, bodies, and comments
kanban_add_comment	Append a comment to a ticket
kanban_get_config	Return the current kanban config (columns, types, prefix)
kanban_stats	Show ticket counts grouped by column and type
kanban_link_tickets	Link two tickets with a typed relationship (bidirectional)
kanban_unlink_tickets	Remove a link between two tickets (both sides)

Link types

kanban_link_tickets requires a --type argument. The inverse is written automatically on the target ticket.

Type	Inverse	Symmetric?
blocks	is_blocked_by	No
is_blocked_by	blocks	No
relates_to	relates_to	Yes
duplicates	is_duplicated_by	No
is_duplicated_by	duplicates	No
parent_of	child_of	No
child_of	parent_of	No