Hound MCP Server

The dependency bloodhound for AI coding agents. Sniffs out vulnerabilities, license risks, and health issues in your dependencies — free, no API keys.

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What is the Hound MCP MCP server?

Most developer tooling work still happens through a UI a human drives. Hound MCP MCP server moves it into the conversation instead. The dependency bloodhound for AI coding agents. Sniffs out vulnerabilities, license risks, and health issues in your dependencies — free, no API keys.

The short version

Hound MCP Deployment Diagram

Getting it running

hound-mcp on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.

The tools it exposes

The server publishes 11 tools. What each one is for:

  • hound_score — 0–100 Hound Score (vulns + scorecard + recency + license) with letter grade
  • hound_compare — Side-by-side comparison of two packages with a recommendation
  • hound_preinstall — GO / CAUTION / NO-GO verdict before installing a package
  • hound_upgrade — Find the minimum safe version upgrade that resolves all known vulns
  • hound_license_check — Scan a lockfile for license compliance against a policy
  • hound_vulns — All known vulnerabilities for a package version, grouped by severity
  • hound_inspect — Full package profile — license, vulns, scorecard, stars, dep count
  • hound_tree — Full resolved dependency tree with transitive deps
  • hound_typosquat — Detect typosquatting variants of a package name
  • hound_advisories — Full advisory details by GHSA, CVE, or OSV ID
  • hound_popular — Scan popular packages for known vulnerabilities

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.
  • With 11 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Hound MCP.
  • Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

How it compares

Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Hound MCP's toolset — hound_score, hound_compare, hound_preinstall and 8 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by tiluckdave; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
hound_score0–100 Hound Score (vulns + scorecard + recency + license) with letter grade
hound_compareSide-by-side comparison of two packages with a recommendation
hound_preinstallGO / CAUTION / NO-GO verdict before installing a package
hound_upgradeFind the minimum safe version upgrade that resolves all known vulns
hound_license_checkScan a lockfile for license compliance against a policy
hound_vulnsAll known vulnerabilities for a package version, grouped by severity
hound_inspectFull package profile — license, vulns, scorecard, stars, dep count
hound_treeFull resolved dependency tree with transitive deps
hound_typosquatDetect typosquatting variants of a package name
hound_advisoriesFull advisory details by GHSA, CVE, or OSV ID
hound_popularScan popular packages for known vulnerabilities

How to install the Hound MCP MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hound": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hound-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Example prompts to try

  • Use Hound MCP to hound score.
  • Use Hound MCP to hound compare.
  • Use Hound MCP to hound preinstall.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Hound MCP to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 11 tools (hound_score, hound_compare, hound_preinstall, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Hound MCP directly.