mcp-mt5

Model Context Protocol server for the MetaTrader 4/5 build pipeline. Compile MQL sources, deploy compiled EAs, run Strategy Tester, parse reports, tail logs — all driven by an LLM agent without touching the MetaTrader UI.

What this is — and what it isn't

Use case: an LLM agent edits .mq5 source → compiles → deploys → runs Strategy Tester → reads report → adjusts → repeats. No broker login, no human in the loop, no risk of real-money execution.

For runtime trading, pair this with a live-trading MCP — they target different layers and compose well.

Tools

27 tools (plus 16 deprecated aliases until 0.6.0) and 2 resource templates. Every tool carries MCP annotations (read-only / destructive hints), a typed output schema and per-parameter descriptions; failures are reported as tool errors, never as a normal result with an error key.

🔍 Discovery & terminal selection

🔨 Build & deploy

🔎 Source analysis & lint

✏️ Format & refactor

📊 Strategy Tester

📝 Logs & snapshots

📡 MCP resources

Deprecated aliases (removed in 0.6.0)

The pre-0.5.0 tool names still work in 0.5.x as thin wrappers whose descriptions start with DEPRECATED. Set MCP_MT5_LEGACY_TOOLS=0 to hide them and shrink the tool catalogue to the 27 tools above.

Quick start

Install

pip install mcp-mt5

Requires Windows + an installed MetaTrader 4 or 5 terminal.

Register with an MCP client

Most MCP clients accept a JSON entry under mcpServers. The server inherits its configuration from environment variables:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mt5": {
      "command": "mcp-mt5",
      "env": {
        "MT5_INSTALL": "C:\\Program Files\\MetaTrader 5"
      }
    }
  }
}

Refer to your client's documentation for the exact config file location.

Verify the install

Once registered, ask your agent to call env_info:

{
  "edition": "mt5",
  "install": "C:\\Program Files\\MetaTrader 5",
  "terminal_hash": "<32-char-hex-hash>",
  "metaeditor": "C:\\Program Files\\MetaTrader 5\\MetaEditor64.exe",
  "experts_dir": "C:\\Users\\<you>\\AppData\\Roaming\\MetaQuotes\\Terminal\\<hash>\\MQL5\\Experts",
  "issues": []
}

An empty issues array means everything is wired up correctly.

Configuration

Resolution priority for the MetaTrader install + data folder:

1. Explicit env vars (below)
2. Auto-scan of %APPDATA%\MetaQuotes\Terminal\*\origin.txt for a folder whose origin matches MT5_INSTALL
3. Portable mode fallback (data colocated with install dir)

Running the server from WSL

The server can run inside WSL and drive the Windows MetaTrader install through WSL interop. The install (/mnt/c/Program Files/MetaTrader 5) and the data folder (scanned under /mnt/*/Users/*/AppData/Roaming/MetaQuotes/Terminal, matched through origin.txt) are auto-detected; MT5_INSTALL / MT5_DATA override them. Paths handed to MetaEditor/terminal are translated with wslpath -w automatically. Interop must be enabled (/etc/wsl.conf [interop] enabled=true, then wsl --shutdown).

MT4 support

Set MT5_EDITION=mt4 and point MT5_INSTALL at your MT4 install. The server switches to metaeditor.exe (32-bit), terminal.exe, and the MQL4/ data tree automatically.

Example workflow

A typical LLM-driven iteration loop:

1. env_info                                          → verify paths
2. compile_and_deploy source="C:\\...\\MyEA.mq5"       → 0 errors, .ex5 deployed ✅
3. patch_tester_ini config="tester.ini" updates={
     "Tester.Symbol": "EURUSD",
     "Tester.FromDate": "2025.01.01",
     "TesterInputs.RiskPct": "1.5"
   }
4. run_backtest config="tester.ini" wait=true
5. read_tester_report path=<report_path from step 4>  → summary.net_profit = 1234.56
                                                       summary.profit_factor = 1.45
6. tail_log mode="tester" lines=200 structured=true  → diagnose journal warnings
7. <edit Signal.mqh based on findings>
8. → loop back to step 2

A sample tester.ini

; Launch: terminal64.exe /config:tester.ini
; Period codes: M1=1, M5=5, M15=15, H1=16385, H4=16388, D1=16408
; Model: 0=Every tick, 1=1 min OHLC, 4=Real ticks

[Tester]
Expert=MyEA
Symbol=EURUSD
Period=M15
Model=1
FromDate=2024.01.01
ToDate=2024.12.31
Deposit=10000
Currency=USD
Leverage=500
Visual=0
ShutdownTerminal=1     ; required so run_backtest can wait for the run to finish
Report=tester_report

[TesterInputs]
; ParamName=value||start||step||stop||(N=fixed|Y=optimize)
; RiskPct=1.0||0.1||0.1||3.0||N

A more complete sample lives at examples/tester.ini.

Development

git clone https://github.com/PHUICMT/mcp-mt5
cd mcp-mt5
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest                    # runs the test suite (no MetaTrader needed)
ruff check src tests      # lints

CI runs on Windows for Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12 against every push to main. Tagging a release (e.g. v0.2.0) triggers an OIDC publish to PyPI.

Project layout

mcp-mt5/
├── src/mcp_mt5/
│   ├── server.py        # FastMCP tool definitions
│   ├── paths.py         # Layout detection + origin.txt scan
│   ├── parsers.py       # Compile log, tester report/journal parsers, encoding helpers
│   ├── analysis.py, lint.py, formatting.py, refactor.py, ast_refactor.py
│   ├── optimization.py  # .opt cache reader (documented TesterOptCache layout)
│   ├── reports.py, snapshot.py, smoke.py, workdir.py
├── tests/               # pytest suite, no live MT5 required
├── examples/            # Sample tester.ini + client config
└── .github/workflows/   # CI + PyPI release

Limitations

• Windows-only. MetaTrader CLI binaries don't ship for Linux/macOS. Wine ports may work but are untested.
• No live broker access. This server intentionally never authenticates to a broker. Use a separate MCP server for runtime trading.
• Tester report parsing is best-effort. MetaTrader's HTML output isn't a stable schema; the raw HTML is also returned alongside the parsed structure so you can fall back to text inspection when needed.
• Optimisation caches (Tester/cache/*.opt) are parsed with the layout MetaQuotes published in MQL5 Programming for Traders. Files with an unrecognised record layout are reported as such rather than guessed.

Roadmap

All v0.3.x roadmap items shipped in v0.4.0. Future ideas:

• Real tree-sitter MQL grammar for extract_function (current implementation is brace-counting + regex)
• WebSocket transport for long-lived sessions (currently stdio only)
• Linux/Wine port for non-Windows agents

License

MIT © 2026 PHUICMT