mcp-dev-server MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to solve a common challenge: the difficulty AI agents have reliably managing long-running local development tasks like servers, build watchers, or test…

Local server

What is the mcp-dev-server MCP Server?

mcp-dev-server MCP Server is an MCP project maintained in the johnlindquist/mcp-dev-server repository. The maintainer describes its purpose as “A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to solve a common challenge: the difficulty AI agents have reliably managing long-running local development tasks like servers…”. Read the project documentation for the complete scope.

Source

Project documentation · Repository · Discovery listing. This profile records the public documentation checked on 2026-10-08.

Recorded tools

Check the linked publisher documentation and your connected client's tool list. Names and availability can vary with the server version and account permissions.

ToolWhat it does
start_shell
start_shell_with_verification
check_shell
stop_shell
list_shells
stop_all_shells
restart_shell
wait_for_shellWaits for a specific process to reach a target status. (Requires label)
get_all_loglinesRetrieves the complete stored log history for a specific managed process. (Requires label)
send_inputSends text input to the stdin of a running process. (Requires label)
health_checkProvides a status summary of the process manager itself.
workingDirectorystring, required): The absolute working directory to run the command from. This setting is required. Do not use relative paths like '.' or '../'. Provide the…
labelstring, required): The label of the process to restart.
argsarray of strings, optional, default: []): Optional arguments for the command.
hoststring, optional, enum: "cursor", "claude", "chatgpt", "vscode", "windsurf", "unknown", default: "unknown"): Identifier for the client initiating the…
ai_instructionsstring, mandatory): The AI MUST always follow the instructions in this field, including running the tail_command in a background terminal and displaying all…
user_hintstring, optional): A user-facing hint about what to do next.
verification_patternstring, optional): Optional regex pattern to match in stdout/stderr to verify successful startup. e.g., 'running on port 3000' or 'localhost'.
verification_timeout_msinteger, optional, default: -1): Milliseconds to wait for the verification pattern. -1 disables the timer (default).
retry_delay_msinteger, optional): Optional delay before restarting a crashed process in milliseconds (default: 1000ms).
max_retriesinteger, optional): Optional maximum number of restart attempts for a crashed process (default: 3). 0 disables restarts.
instructionsstring, optional): If the host was specified as "cursor" and file logging is enabled, this field will contain a suggested instruction for the Cursor IDE…
log_linesinteger, optional, default: 0): Number of recent log lines to include for each process (default: 0 for none).
forceboolean, optional, default: false): Use SIGKILL to force kill the process instead of SIGTERM for graceful termination. Defaults to false.