Package Version Check MCP Server

MCP server for checking latest stable package versions across 14 ecosystems. Supports Docker tag hints for suffix matching (e.g., 3.12-alpine), Helm OCI registries, and GitHub Actions metadata lookup with optional README inclusion.

Configuration

No authentication required for most registries. Optional GITHUB_PAT for higher GitHub API rate limits (Swift packages, GitHub Actions).

Environment Variables

Installation

Option 1: Using uvx (Recommended)

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

No additional installation needed — uvx handles dependencies automatically.

Option 2: Using pip

pip install bibliocommons-mcp-package-version-check
# or for development
pip install -e ".[dev]"

AI Client Setup

VS Code (with MCP Extension)

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "package-version-check": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "/absolute/path/to/package-version-check", "bibliocommons-mcp-package-version-check"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "package-version-check": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "/absolute/path/to/package-version-check", "bibliocommons-mcp-package-version-check"]
    }
  }
}

Kiro IDE

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "package-version-check": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "/absolute/path/to/package-version-check", "bibliocommons-mcp-package-version-check"]
    }
  }
}

Kiro CLI

Create or edit ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "package-version-check": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "/absolute/path/to/package-version-check", "bibliocommons-mcp-package-version-check"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration Notes

• Replace /absolute/path/to/package-version-check/ with the actual path to your server directory
• Set GITHUB_PAT environment variable for higher GitHub API rate limits
• After adding the configuration, restart your AI client for changes to take effect

For other AI clients (Amazon Q, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Zed, Cursor), see docs/ai-clients.md.

Docker

# Pull from Docker Hub (private)
docker pull bibliocommons/mcp-package-version-check:latest

# Run in stdio mode
docker run -i --rm \
  -v /path/to/config.json:/config.json:ro \
  bibliocommons/mcp-package-version-check:latest \
  --config /config.json

# Run in HTTP mode
docker run -d --rm \
  -v /path/to/config.json:/config.json:ro \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  bibliocommons/mcp-package-version-check:latest \
  --config /config.json --transport http --port 8000

# Run in expanded mode
docker run -i --rm \
  -v /path/to/config.json:/config.json:ro \
  bibliocommons/mcp-package-version-check:latest \
  --config /config.json --expanded

Supported Ecosystems

Examples

Check package versions

{
  "tool": "get_latest_package_versions",
  "arguments": {
    "packages": [
      {"ecosystem": "npm", "package_name": "express"},
      {"ecosystem": "pypi", "package_name": "django"},
      {"ecosystem": "docker", "package_name": "python", "version_hint": "3.12-alpine"},
      {"ecosystem": "helm", "package_name": "oci://ghcr.io/org/charts/app"},
      {"ecosystem": "terraform_provider", "package_name": "hashicorp/aws"}
    ]
  }
}

Check GitHub Actions

{
  "tool": "get_github_action_versions",
  "arguments": {
    "action_names": ["actions/checkout", "docker/login-action"],
    "include_readme": false
  }
}

Standalone MCP Server

python -m bibliocommons_mcp_package_version_check
# or with HTTP transport
python -m bibliocommons_mcp_package_version_check --transport http --port 8000

CLI Flags

Gateway Mode (Default)

By default, the server exposes 2 tools instead of individual tools:

The AI assistant calls package_version_help to discover available actions, then calls package_version_api(action="get_latest_package_versions", params={"packages": [...]}) to execute them.

To register all individual tools (previous behavior), use --expanded:

python -m bibliocommons_mcp_package_version_check --expanded

Security Notes

• No credentials required for public registries
• GITHUB_PAT is optional and only needed for higher rate limits
• All requests use HTTPS
• Docker registry auth tokens are ephemeral (per-request)