Dewey MCP Server

Agentic search over your Dewey document collections from any MCP-compatible client.

Local serverstdio

What is the Dewey MCP server?

Most developer tooling work still happens through a UI a human drives. Dewey MCP server moves it into the conversation instead. Agentic search over your Dewey document collections from any MCP-compatible client.

The short version

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json (or equivalent MCP client config):

The tools it exposes

The server publishes 1 tool. What each one is for:

  • Deduplication — Non-canonical documents are excluded from retrieval and contradiction detection. Requires enableDeduplication: true on the collection (set via

Getting it running

The server ships on npm as @meetdewey/mcp, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.

What it needs from you

Configuration is passed through the environment: DEWEY_API_KEY, DEWEY_COLLECTION_ID, DEWEY_API_URL. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

How it compares

This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Dewey's toolset — Deduplication — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by com.meetdewey; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.

Things to watch

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
  • Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
DeduplicationNon-canonical documents are excluded from retrieval and contradiction detection. Requires enableDeduplication: true on the collection (set via dewey_update_collection or the Dewey dashboard).

How to install the Dewey MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dewey": {
      "command": "/bin/sh",
      "args": ["-lc", "npx -y @meetdewey/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DEWEY_API_KEY": "dwy_live_...",
        "DEWEY_COLLECTION_ID": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.

Configuration

VariableDescriptionRequired
DEWEY_API_KEYCredential the server authenticates with.Yes
DEWEY_COLLECTION_IDConfiguration value read at startup.Optional
DEWEY_API_URLEndpoint or connection string the server talks to.Yes

Example prompts to try

  • Use Dewey to Deduplication.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Dewey to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 1 tool (Deduplication) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Dewey directly.