Rhino MCP Server

A custom element wrapped rich text editor

Local serverstdioGo

What is the Rhino MCP server?

A custom element wrapped rich text editor. That is what the rhino mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.

The short version

Getting up and running locally is hopefully quite painless. We have a test suite using Ruby on Rails and is intended to provide a good demonstration of how this package can hook into ActionText.

Getting it running

Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at pnpm on npm and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.

The tools it exposes

The server publishes 2 tools. What each one is for:

  • Prerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server
  • Installation — Run the following commands in the bash to setup dependencies:

What it needs from you

  • Ruby 3.1.2 - Rails 7.0.4 - PNPM (npm install -g pnpm) - Playwright (npm install -g playwright) - Node >= 16 - Docker (Used to run a simulated S3 server) - A Docker virtualizer (Orbstack or Docker Desktop) - Overmind (Preferred, not needed gem install overmind)

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.
  • 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. Rhino's toolset — Prerequisites, Installation — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by GitHub Actions; 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
PrerequisitesThe Prerequisites tool exposed by this server.
InstallationRun the following commands in the bash to setup dependencies:

How to install the Rhino MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rhino": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "pnpm"]
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

  • Ruby 3.1.2 - Rails 7.0.4 - PNPM (npm install -g pnpm) - Playwright (npm install -g playwright) - Node >= 16 - Docker (Used to run a simulated S3 server) - A Docker virtualizer (Orbstack or Docker Desktop) - Overmind (Preferred, not needed gem install overmind)

Example prompts to try

  • Use Rhino to Prerequisites.
  • Use Rhino to Installation.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Rhino to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 2 tools (Prerequisites, Installation) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Rhino directly.