Pre-release

This release is a pre-release and may not be stable for production use.

Qualcoder MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects an MCP host (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, LM Studio, and others) to Qualcoder, enabling AI-assisted qualitative data analysis.

What is this?

This MCP server lets an AI assistant directly access and analyse your Qualcoder projects. Claude Desktop is the primary worked example throughout these docs, but any MCP host works (see "Choosing your AI host" below). The assistant can:

📊 Read your codes, categories, and coding structure
📝 Access coded text segments and original source documents
📖 Analyse complete transcripts with coding context
🔍 Search through your qualitative data
📈 Generate coding frequency reports
💭 Analyse themes and patterns
🔗 Discover co-occurrence patterns between codes
📋 Compare codes and cases
👥 Query by demographics/attributes (age, gender, etc.)
🎯 Create case-code matrices for comparative analysis
🗒️ Search every memo and note outside QualCoder's saved graphs: memos, coding memos, annotations, journal entries and the project memo
🤖 AI-assisted coding: suggest → review → approve → apply: nothing is written until an item is marked approved. The server records the approval the assistant reports and cannot tell whether you gave it; your host asking before each decision or write ("allow once") and your own reading of the counts are the safeguard (see "Who approves" below)
🏷️ Codebook editing: create, rename, recolour, merge, move, and delete codes and categories
💾 Memo & journal writing: annotate codes, files, codings, and cases; keep a research journal
↩️ Undo & restore: delete a coding, list backups, and restore a whole project to an earlier state
📥 Import transcripts, link files to cases, and rename cases and files the way QualCoder's Manage Cases and Manage Files do (rename_case, rename_file)
🔄 REFI-QDA export (.qdpx) for interchange with NVivo, ATLAS.ti, and MAXQDA: deprecated, removed in v0.15, because it files every coding under the AI coder name and leaves out cases, annotations, journals and media; QualCoder's own export (Project, Export, REFI-QDA Project export) keeps them
📤 Report exports: codebook, coded segments, code frequencies and case-code matrix as CSV, txt or Markdown files
🕵️ Pseudonymisation that keeps the coding (pseudonymise_source): replace the names you list, as whole words, in the stored text of one text source per call, moving every coding, annotation and case link with the text; a preview and a residue report come first, a mandatory backup is taken, and what the tool does not rewrite is counted rather than left to be discovered, and the names left in every file's text are counted, both readings; with rewrite_memos the public part of every note and journal entry is rewritten too, and a mapping you type must be saved into the project's own pseudonyms.json or attested as kept before a run goes ahead
⚖️ Coder comparison (compare_coders): per-code agreement between two coders, with QualCoder's own coefficient and Cohen's kappa side by side
🤝 QualCoder 4.0 conventions: ##### private memo sections are never shown to the AI, reads follow QualCoder's per-coder visibility (on projects with that capability: QualCoder 3.8.2 and 4.0, schema v14 and later), and AI work is written under one coder name that you choose per project (see "Working alongside QualCoder 4.0" below)

You can work with read-only analysis OR use write-enabled tools. The database is opened read-only by default; every write is preceded by an automatic backup, verified against QualCoder's format, and refused while a released QualCoder version (3.x) has the project open, which its lock file signals. QualCoder 4.0 (the 4.0-Beta pre-release) writes no lock file, so for it the server can only warn on best-effort heuristics; never write while any QualCoder window has the same project open (see "Supported QualCoder versions" below).

Support & Feedback

This is an experimental alpha built by one researcher. Feedback, bug reports, and feature ideas are genuinely wanted and actively shape what gets built next.

Everything goes through GitHub Issues: bug reports, questions, and feature requests alike. Issues are public and searchable, so every answer helps the next researcher who hits the same thing.

Please don't email support requests. The author's email address in the package metadata is an authorship signature, not a support channel; support requests sent by email will not receive a reply. GitHub Issues is where everything is read and tracked.

See SUPPORT.md for the full policy.

Data Flow & Privacy: read this before using research data

The server runs entirely on your machine and adds no telemetry, no analytics, and no cloud path of its own. But everything a tool returns (coded segments, interview excerpts, file contents, memos, frequencies) enters your AI conversation, and conversation content is transmitted to whichever AI provider your host uses (Anthropic for Claude hosts; no external provider at all with a fully local host) and processed like any other chat/API content. Reading a transcript through this tool sends the returned portions of that transcript to that provider. Backups, exports and session files stay local. Which provider, and under which terms, is decided by your host and account, not by this server: see "Choosing your AI host" below.

Your participants may not have consented to third-party AI processing. It is the researcher's responsibility to check what this flow means for your consent language, data-management plan, ethics/IRB approvals and (for EU/UK researchers) GDPR position. This tool makes the flow explicit precisely so you can make that decision; many AI integrations don't.

Read PRIVACY.md for the full disclosure: what to check with your Claude plan and your institution's DPO, why pseudonymised data is not automatically safe to send, and practical mitigations.

Choosing your AI host: data-governance options (Experimental)

This server is host-agnostic stdio MCP. Which AI processes your data, and under which terms, is decided by the host you run and the account you sign into, not by this server. The terms attach to the account and product line, not to the client application. Three routes, from easiest to most private:

Route	What it means	Where to read more
Claude consumer plans (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code with a Free/Pro/Max login)	The easiest path. Check your own Model Improvement setting at claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls; do not assume a default.	PRIVACY.md, rung 1
Anthropic commercial-terms routes (Claude Code with a Console API key; Team/Enterprise accounts)	Same Claude capability; different terms attach to the traffic. Institutions should prefer organisational accounts.	PRIVACY.md, rungs 2 and 3; INSTALL.md API-key recipe
Fully local models (LM Studio and similar MCP hosts)	Participant data is never sent to any AI provider. The trade is capability: local models are markedly weaker on many-tool work, and we have not yet evaluated any local model with this server (evaluation pending; that is why this is Experimental). Requires the reduced core toolset.	PRIVACY.md, rung 4; INSTALL.md LM Studio recipe

The multi-host support (the core toolset and the two recipes) is Experimental: written from official documentation, functionally tested at the server level, but not yet exercised end to end on every host and not capability-evaluated on local models.

Prerequisites

macOS (or Linux/Windows with appropriate paths)
Python 3.10 or higher (not with the Claude Desktop extension, which fetches its own)
An MCP host: Claude Desktop is the most common (download here); see "Choosing your AI host" above for alternatives
QualCoder (download here), recommended, and needed to import documents (Word, PDF, audio, video; this server imports only text given in the conversation) and to see the coding in the text. With the Claude Desktop extension, or the lifecycle tool set, a new project can be started in the conversation; otherwise at least one project made in QualCoder is needed

Supported QualCoder versions

qualcoder-mcp is ground-truthed against QualCoder 3.8.2, the latest stable release (project schema v14), and additionally verified against the QualCoder 4.0-Beta pre-release (version string "QualCoder 4.0 Beta", built from the QualCoder development tree) at commit 9bddf17, whose projects use schema v17. Project schemas v14 through v17 are supported for reading and writing. Support is determined by inspecting the project database itself (capability probes), not by version numbers, so projects migrated by either QualCoder version work interchangeably.

Because QualCoder 4.0 is a pre-release, its behaviour may change before the final release. Claims about 4.0 compatibility are valid as of commit 9bddf17 (2026-08-25) and will be re-verified against the final release. One known limitation: released QualCoder versions signal "project open" through a lock file, which qualcoder-mcp honours; the 4.0-Beta pre-release builds no longer use a lock file, so qualcoder-mcp falls back to best-effort heuristics there (reported as qualcoder_gui_signals by select_project, get_current_project, analyze_for_coding and the restore_backup preview: database write sidecars, recent activity on the 4.0 AI search index, a chat-history file changed recently (QualCoder 3.8.2 and 4.0 both create it on a project's first open and change it when the chat is used), and a best-effort process scan that reports only how many running processes look like QualCoder, never their names or command lines). The file-based signals are traces of recent activity, never proof of an open window (an idle 4.0 window with no recent AI activity leaves no file trace at all), so heuristics can miss an open window: do not run qualcoder-mcp writes while any QualCoder window has the same project open.

Two facts about how the tools relate. QualCoder 4.0 ships its own embedded AI assistant, built on an internal MCP server that serves only the GUI (it has no external transport); qualcoder-mcp is the external MCP surface for QualCoder projects, for Claude-family and other MCP hosts, automation, and headless work. And an open QualCoder 4.0 window will not display changes written by external tools (its views refresh through an internal event bus only), so changes written by qualcoder-mcp appear after the project is closed and reopened in QualCoder.

Sub-codes (a code nested under another code, schema v16 and newer) are supported: creating them, moving a code with its sub-codes, merging (the source's sub-codes move under the target), branch-aware deletion, and nesting-aware listings, reports, codebook and REFI-QDA exports. Nesting an existing code under another code is done in QualCoder, and moving a sub-code, into a category or to none, detaches it from its parent code, as in QualCoder; the result names the parent it left. Projects newer than schema v17 refuse writes until this server has been verified against them; setting QUALCODER_MCP_ALLOW_UNKNOWN_SCHEMA=1 in the server environment lets writes proceed at your own risk, and every write result then carries a warning.

Installation

Claude Desktop: the one-click extension (recommended)

For Claude Desktop on macOS or Windows, download qualcoder-mcp-<version>.mcpb from the Assets of the latest release (from v0.14), double-click it and click Install: Claude fetches Python and everything else itself, and a settings form chooses the tool set and the folder for projects. No Terminal, no configuration file. The steps, the two settings and what an unsigned extension means are in INSTALL.md, "Claude Desktop: the one-click extension". The routes below are for Claude Code, LM Studio and other hosts, and for configuring Claude Desktop by hand.

The Terminal route: install from PyPI

The simplest install is a plain pip install into a virtual environment, with no git and no source tree:

python3 -m venv ~/qualcoder-mcp-venv
~/qualcoder-mcp-venv/bin/pip install qualcoder-mcp

Or, if you use pipx or uv, one command gives you an isolated install with the qualcoder-mcp command on your PATH:

pipx install qualcoder-mcp
# or
uv tool install qualcoder-mcp

Either way you end up with a qualcoder-mcp console command. Find its absolute path with which qualcoder-mcp (you'll need it for the client configuration below).

Contributor install (from source)

Use this path if you want to modify the code or run the test suite.

Step 1: Clone or Download This Repository

cd ~/Documents  # or wherever you want to install
git clone https://github.com/nicotem/qualcoder_mcp.git
cd qualcoder_mcp

Step 2: Create a Virtual Environment and Install

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate it
source venv/bin/activate  # On Mac/Linux
# or on Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install the package (editable, with dev tools)
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

You have two options for configuring project access:

Option A: Dynamic Project Selection (Recommended for Multiple Projects)

If you work with multiple Qualcoder projects, this is the easiest approach: Claude will discover projects and let you switch between them.

Configuration (no project path needed).

With a PyPI install (pip/pipx/uv), point the client straight at the installed qualcoder-mcp command, using the absolute path from which qualcoder-mcp:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qualcoder": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/qualcoder-mcp-venv/bin/qualcoder-mcp"
    }
  }
}

With a source (git) install:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qualcoder": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/qualcoder_mcp/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "qualcoder_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Replace: YOUR_USERNAME with your actual Mac username (use an absolute path; Claude Desktop does not inherit your shell's PATH)

Usage: After restarting Claude Desktop:

List my available Qualcoder projects

Then select one:

Select the "My Research Project" project

Switch projects at any time:

Switch to "Different Project"

See PROJECT_SELECTION_GUIDE.md for full details.

Option B: Fixed Project (Simpler for Single Project)

If you work with one main project, you can hardcode the path for instant access.

Find Your Project Path: Your Qualcoder project is a folder with a .qda extension containing a data.qda database file. Typical locations:

~/Documents/QualCoder_projects/MyProject/MyProject.qda/ (folder)
~/QualCoder/ProjectName/ProjectName.qda/ (folder)

Configuration (PyPI install; for a source install use the venv/bin/python + -m qualcoder_mcp.server form from Option A):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qualcoder": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/qualcoder-mcp-venv/bin/qualcoder-mcp",
      "env": {
        "QUALCODER_PROJECT_PATH": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/QualCoder_projects/MyProject/MyProject.qda"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace:

YOUR_USERNAME: your actual Mac username
the command path: the output of which qualcoder-mcp (or your source install's venv python)
/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/QualCoder_projects/MyProject/MyProject.qda: path to your .qda project folder

Editing the Config:

Open Claude Desktop
Go to Settings (Claude > Settings)
Click the Developer tab
Click Edit Config
Paste your chosen configuration
Save and restart Claude Desktop

Step 4: Restart Claude Desktop

After editing the configuration:

Quit Claude Desktop completely (Cmd+Q)
Reopen Claude Desktop

The MCP server should now be connected. You will see it listed in the MCP section of Claude Desktop's settings.

Using with Claude Code (and other MCP clients)

The server speaks standard MCP over stdio, so any MCP client works; Claude Desktop is simply the most common host. Researchers also run it under Claude Code (including in editor side panels such as Obsidian's).

Claude Code, one command (PyPI install; for a source install substitute <repo>/venv/bin/python -m qualcoder_mcp.server):

claude mcp add qualcoder -- qualcoder-mcp

Or per-project with a .mcp.json in the folder you run Claude Code from:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qualcoder": {
      "command": "qualcoder-mcp"
    }
  }
}

(Claude Code resolves commands on your shell PATH; if in doubt, use the absolute path from which qualcoder-mcp.)

Both accept the same optional env block (QUALCODER_PROJECT_PATH, QUALCODER_MCP_AI_CODER_NAME, QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET, QUALCODER_MCP_WORKSPACE; INSTALL.md lists every variable) as the Desktop configurations above. Everything in this guide (the tools, the review-first workflow, the safety gates) behaves identically in any client.

Choosing the AI coder name (attribution)

Every row this server writes (codings, annotations, journal entries, imports, cases, codes, categories, attributes) is attributed to one coder name, so AI work stays distinguishable from yours in QualCoder. An attribute value it sets takes that name and the date on a file or a journal entry as on a case; QualCoder's own file and journal edits change the value alone and keep the row's earlier owner. From v0.12 that name belongs to the PROJECT and it is yours to choose. The first write that needs it stops and asks: the model relays the question, you answer, and it calls

set_project_ai_coder_name("Qwen 3.8 6bit", note="LM Studio 0.4.22")

The answer is stored in qualcoder_mcp.json in the project folder, beside data.qda, so it travels with backups, copies and a synced folder, and two hosts talking to one project agree on it. Reads never ask. You can change the name at any time with the same tool; earlier rows keep the name they were written under, and the project remembers the names it has used, which is what makes a later comparison between two models possible. A model name is a good answer for exactly that reason.

Quick picks if you have no preference: AI Coding Assistant (this server's built-in default, and what every project coded with v0.11 and earlier already holds) and AI Agent, the exact name QualCoder 4.0's built-in assistant writes under, which groups this server's work and the built-in assistant's under one coder in QualCoder's per-coder visibility toggle, undo and reports.

QUALCODER_MCP_AI_CODER_NAME in the server's env block is now a DECLARATION by this host, not an attribution:

"env": {
  "QUALCODER_MCP_AI_CODER_NAME": "Qwen 3.8 6bit"
}

It offers that name as the first quick pick, which is the convenient way to say "this host runs this model". It never writes a row by itself: if it differs from the project's current name, the next write asks which of the two to use rather than re-attributing anything, and answering either way settles it for that host. Invalid values (empty, longer than 80 characters, containing control or line-separator characters, containing any invisible formatting character (Unicode category Cf: every bidirectional control, every zero-width character; the two exceptions are ZWNJ and ZWJ, which spell words in Persian and Indic scripts), or containing the ##### memo-privacy marker) stop the server at startup with a clear error. The invisible ones are refused because a name you cannot see is a name you cannot check: it renders identically to yours in QualCoder's coder list, its visibility toggle and its reports, and telling AI rows from yours is what the setting is for.

The name cannot be your own QualCoder coder name (the project's codername) or QualCoder's literal default: AI rows would then be indistinguishable from a person's in QualCoder's coder lists, visibility toggle, undo and reports, and mixed rows cannot be told apart again later. Both are refused, and so is QualCoder's speaker coder ("📌 Speaker coding"), under which QualCoder stores its speaker codings. A name that a QualCoder visibility setting hides is refused too, unless you pass allow_hidden_coder=true, because rows written under it would be invisible in QualCoder and in this server's default reads.

Coder names are compared exactly, after trimming spaces, and never case-insensitively: QualCoder stores them in a column with a binary unique index, so AI Agent and AI agent really are two coders there. (Code, category and case NAMES follow the opposite rule, which is QualCoder 4.0 parity for those.)

The setting travels with the project folder: our backups and workspace copies carry it, QualCoder's own _BKUP_ backups carry it, and restore_backup puts back whatever the backup held (the result says so when the name changed). One case does not travel: after merging another project into this one in QualCoder, the source's AI coder names appear as owners on the rows that arrived, but they are not added to this project's name history, because the merge copies rows and not settings.

The owner argument is deprecated. apply_codings and import_text_file still accept owner, but it no longer chooses the name: passing exactly the project's AI coder name is a no-op and any other value is refused before any backup or write. A human coder's name is never used for rows this server writes. It will be removed in v0.15, and an answer to a call that passes it says so. If you want a file under your own name in QualCoder, import it in QualCoder rather than through this server.

Starting a project from the conversation (Experimental)

The server can create a new, empty QualCoder project, so a study can begin in the conversation. The Claude Desktop extension turns it on (its tool set setting defaults to lifecycle); the Terminal route does not: there, add QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET=lifecycle to the server's environment (INSTALL.md shows where), which registers the full set of tools plus create_project.

The format. The project is made in QualCoder 4.0's format, exactly as 4.0's own New Project makes it (the folder <name>.qda with its four subfolders, and the database at schema v17), in one step: if anything fails, nothing committed is left, and what this call made is removed; if the process is killed part way, the folder it leaves (empty subfolders, an empty database and its journal) is recognised as such next time, and the name refused. Its "about" line reads qualcoder-mcp <version> (QualCoder schema v17).
Where. In the server's workspace, unless you name an existing folder (give its full path, or one starting with ~). With the Claude Desktop extension the workspace is its "Folder for projects", by default ~/QualCoder projects, outside Documents; otherwise it is ~/Documents/Qualcoder MCP Projects, unless the host sets another folder with QUALCODER_MCP_WORKSPACE. The answer gives the full path. Keep projects on a local disk that is not synced (iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox): sync services can copy the database and its journal separately. On a Mac with iCloud's "Desktop & Documents Folders" switched on, ~/Documents, and so the standard workspace there, is synced: name a folder outside it, or use the extension's default. On Windows where Documents has been moved (to OneDrive, say), the workspace may not be where QualCoder's Open dialog starts; the result gives the full path.
Your coder name. The assistant asks for the coder name you use in QualCoder (Settings, Coder name), after every other check, so you are asked once. If you do not know it or do not use QualCoder yet, say so: the project is created, and the check that keeps the AI's codings apart from yours stays off until QualCoder records your name, the first time you open the project there. The server never reads QualCoder's settings file, which holds API keys.
Names. A name already used in that folder is refused, never given a "_1", and so is one that differs from it only in letter case or accents (a project copied to macOS or Windows would otherwise merge with it). Names QualCoder cannot open (with |), names Windows cannot store, names holding _backup_ or _BKUP_, and a name whose older backup folders sit in that folder are refused too, each with the reason. Short names, in folders near the top of the disk, travel better.
Opening it in QualCoder. QualCoder 4.0 opens it without changing its format (Project, Open Project, then the folder), and without a message when you open it under the coder name you gave (under another name, it asks whether to keep yours or switch). QualCoder 3.8.2 opens it without any warning and keeps everything in it, but cannot show what 4.0 added: sub-codes appear there as ordinary codes, and the labels, arrows and memo notes on graphs do not appear. If the project is edited in 3.8.2, three things change without a message the next time 4.0 opens it: a sub-code moved into a category goes back under its parent code; the sub-codes of a code deleted in 3.8.2 become ordinary codes with no category; and a graph saved after another was deleted can show the deleted graph's memo notes. Work on such a project in QualCoder 4.0.
The project memo starts empty, as QualCoder leaves it; set_memo with the target project writes it (research questions, methodology, participants), and QualCoder 4.0's own assistant reads it as the study's context. Text after a ##### line stays private.

Working alongside QualCoder 4.0

QualCoder 4.0's AI subsystem defines conventions that live in the project itself. This server follows them, so a project touched by both tools behaves coherently. Each feature below is detected by probing the project database (tables, columns, views), never by version string; pre-4.0 projects behave as before. Parity claims were verified against QualCoder master at commit 9bddf17.

Private memo sections (#####). Memo text from the first ##### marker onward is the researcher's private zone. Every tool and resource that returns memo content (codes, categories, files, cases, codings, annotations, journal entries, the project memo, attribute types, search results) returns only the text before the marker, silently, and search_memos and search_files match the public part only. Memo writes (set_memo, update_annotation, the provenance notes that merges add) replace only the public text and keep an existing private section verbatim. Since v0.14 text the assistant supplies for a memo, a note, a journal entry, a code's definition, a proposed code's rationale or a suggestion's reasoning is refused if it contains #####, before anything is written or backed up: QualCoder's own AI server drops the marker and what follows it silently, which here emptied notes that began with it ("make this note private"), so the private part stays the researcher's to write in QualCoder. Deleting a coding or annotation whose memo carries a private note is refused unless confirm_private_note_deletion=true, and for such a row a backup is always taken even with create_backup=false; the refusal says only that a private note exists, never its content. One exception, chosen for parity with QualCoder's own exports: exported files (export_refi_qda, export_codebook, export_coded_segments_report) carry full memos, marker and private section included, and those tools say so. export_code_report returns into the conversation and strips.

The novelty filter and coder visibility. exclude_code_ids on search_files and search_coded_text drops candidates that overlap a coding of one of those codes in the same file, which is how you ask what is not yet coded. The spans it excludes are the ones the caller can see: on a project that hides coders, a hidden coder's codings do not suppress a passage, so the filter cannot be used to find out that hidden work exists. QualCoder's own search reads the full table there (ai_mcp_server.py:5228 at 9bddf17); this is a deliberate difference.

Coder visibility. When a project with the coder-visibility capability (QualCoder 3.8.2 and 4.0, schema v14 and later) hides some coders' work, a setting stored in the project database, coded-segment reads and analytics (get_coded_segments, search_coded_text, get_coding_frequencies, find_cooccurring_codes, get_case_code_matrix, get_codes_by_case, get_cases_by_code, the codings and annotations in analyze_file_with_coding, and the coding-memo and annotation matches of search_memos) read what the user sees in QualCoder by default and disclose how many coders are hidden, never their names (with one stated exception, a project that gained the capability after this server connected to it; PRIVACY.md's "Coder visibility" section says what is and is not re-read). Passing an explicit coder argument reads that coder's rows from the full data instead. File exports keep reading the full data, as QualCoder's own reports do: QualCoder's own coding report does the same in both pinned builds (Reports > Coding reports in 3.8.2, Reports > Code retrieval in 4.0) and lists a hidden coder's segments, because it reads the base code_text table (report_codes.py:1712-1724 at 9bddf17, :1504-1515 at the 3.8.2 tag); only the coding screen reads through the visibility view.

QualCoder 3.8.2 and edit mode: an upstream caution, not this server's. On the 3.8.2 line, leaving the coding view's edit mode after any change to the text deletes every coding that the edit leaves touching the new end of the file, and the undo cannot bring it back. ed_update_codings deletes any row whose new end is >= len(text), evaluated against the text AFTER the edit, so this is wider than it sounds: trimming the tail of a transcript destroys whichever coding is left nearest the cut, even one that was nowhere near the end before. Deleting the last 193 characters of a 614-character file in the v0.12.1 acceptance run destroyed a coding at 400-421, which had sat 193 characters clear of the end; the 4.0 line kept it. Annotations and case links are unaffected, and leaving edit mode without changing anything is harmless. This happens whether or not a project has ever been through this server: the acceptance run reproduced it on a project the server never touched, which is how it is attributed. The QualCoder 4.0 line has fixed it, clamping such a coding instead of deleting it. If you use edit mode on 3.8.2, know this regardless of pseudonymise_source.

Writes that target an existing row by id (delete_coding, update_annotation, delete_annotation, set_memo on a coding) refuse a hidden coder's row unless allow_hidden_coder=true; with the override the result carries ids only. The refusal confirms that the row belongs to a hidden coder (never who, never how many), a trade PRIVACY.md states.

Backups, workspace copies and ai_data/. Backups and copy_project_to_workspace copy the whole project tree including ai_data/ (the 4.0 prompt library and chat history are user data), minus QualCoder's own backup ignore set (search.sqlite, search.sqlite-*, *.sqlite-shm, *.sqlite-wal, *.sqlite-journal) and lock files. search.sqlite is the regenerable AI search index and holds a plaintext copy of every text source; QualCoder rebuilds it on project open, so a restored project without one is normal. The project database itself is copied with SQLite's own online backup (since 0.14; QualCoder copies it as a file), so a backup or copy taken while QualCoder is writing holds what was last committed, and the database's journal and WAL files are never copied: QualCoder's ignore set misses them, and a backup that carried a journal read differently on different platforms. list_backups marks a backup that holds them unclean and restore_backup refuses it. If QualCoder keeps the database locked for more than about 15 seconds, no backup is taken and the write is refused, as a locked database. The copy holds SQLite's read lock while it runs (about 1.2 seconds per gigabyte of database on a Mac's SSD, measured), so QualCoder's own saves wait for it; QualCoder waits five seconds, so on a database of about 4 GB or more (less on a slow, network or USB disk) a save in an open QualCoder window can fail while a backup or workspace copy runs. A data.qda that is a link to a file inside the project (QualCoder never makes one) is copied the same way, and the backup's data.qda is then a plain file; one that points outside the project is refused: no backup could hold the database, so nothing is written. Unlike QualCoder's backups, symlinks that point outside the project folder, that dangle, or that loop back into a folder already being copied are not followed; skipped entries are reported (backup_skipped_symlinks on write results, skipped_symlinks on workspace copies, safety_backup_skipped_symlinks on restores).

Detecting an open 4.0 window. 4.0 writes no lock file, so detection is heuristic (see "Supported QualCoder versions" above), and an open 4.0 window will not display external writes until the project is reopened there.

Recovery hint. If a host restarts the server mid-conversation (observed with LM Studio), every "no project selected" error names the last project used on this machine when it still exists, so one select_project call recovers. The selection is never restored automatically. The pointer lives in ~/.qualcoder_mcp/mru_project.json.

PRIVACY.md describes these conventions in full, including what they disclose.

Updating to a new version

Updates are manual: a new release does not install itself.

Claude Desktop extension: download the newer .mcpb from the latest release and install it the same way (INSTALL.md, "Claude Desktop: the one-click extension").

Upgrading from a pre-0.9 git install? See "Upgrading from an earlier (git) install" in INSTALL.md for how to move to the PyPI install (or stay on git), with the exact client-config change. Your projects and session files are untouched either way.

PyPI install: one command, into the same environment you installed with:

~/qualcoder-mcp-venv/bin/pip install --upgrade qualcoder-mcp
# pipx:  pipx upgrade qualcoder-mcp
# uv:    uv tool upgrade qualcoder-mcp

Source (git) install: update in three steps:

cd ~/Documents/qualcoder_mcp   # wherever you installed it
git pull                        # fetch the latest code
source venv/bin/activate        # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .                # picks up any new dependencies

Then fully quit and reopen your Claude client (Claude Desktop: Cmd/Ctrl+Q then reopen; Claude Code: restart the session) so it relaunches the server with the new code. New tools only appear after the client restart: the client starts the server once per session, so an update takes effect on the next launch, not mid-conversation.

To check which version is installed, run the server with --version in the environment you installed into: ~/qualcoder-mcp-venv/bin/qualcoder-mcp --version (PyPI venv), qualcoder-mcp --version after pipx or uv tool (both put the command on your PATH), or venv/bin/python -m qualcoder_mcp.server --version in a git clone. It prints qualcoder-mcp followed by the version and exits; version 0.14.0-alpha shows as 0.14.0a0, its normalised form. The server also reports its version to the host in the MCP handshake, but whether Claude can see and repeat it depends on the host, so asking Claude "What version of the QualCoder server is running?" is a convenience, not proof. You can also see the latest release and what changed on the Releases page and in CHANGELOG.md.

Updates never touch your data: the server is code-only, so your QualCoder projects and their backups stay exactly where they are.

Usage

Once configured, you can interact with your Qualcoder data naturally in Claude Desktop. Here are some example prompts:

Getting Started

Can you give me a summary of my Qualcoder project?

What codes do I have in my project?

List all the source files in my project

Finding Files

Find files with 'paul' in the name

Search file content for 'workplace stress'

Search for files containing motivation (in both filenames and content)

Analysing Themes

Show me all the text segments coded with "participant motivation"

What are the most frequently used codes in my project?

Search for segments containing the word "education"

Deeper Analysis

Analyse the theme "workplace culture" and identify key patterns

Compare the codes "job satisfaction" and "work-life balance"

What are the main themes in case "Participant 5"?

NEW: Rich Transcript Analysis

Analyse the interview transcript for participant 3, showing me both the coded segments and the full context. What does this participant say that relates to the Wisdom of the Crowds argument?

Review file ID 5 with all its coding. Help me understand how the participant discusses motivation throughout the entire interview.

NEW: Demographic Analysis

Show me all participants over age 50

Which cases have education level "graduate"?

Find all interview files where the attribute "interview_type" is "focus_group"

NEW: Co-occurrence & Pattern Discovery

What codes appear together with "workplace stress"?

Find patterns of co-occurring themes in the data

Which codes never appear with "job satisfaction"?

NEW: Comparative Case Analysis

Create a case-code matrix showing which themes appear in which participants

Which participants mention "work-life balance"?

Show me all codes that appear in case "Participant 7"

Searching

Search through my memos for notes about "methodology"

Find coded segments that mention "remote work" but only for the code "challenges"

AI-Assisted Coding 🤖

Claude can help you code your qualitative data with a conversational approval workflow. You chat with Claude, review suggestions together, and directly write approved codings to your database.

Conversational Workflow

Important: AI coding writes directly to the database. Always work on copies in the workspace folder: with the Claude Desktop extension its "Folder for projects" (by default ~/QualCoder projects/), otherwise ~/Documents/Qualcoder MCP Projects/ unless the host sets another with QUALCODER_MCP_WORKSPACE; copy_project_to_workspace's answer gives the path. Automatic backups are created before every write, and writes are refused while a released QualCoder (3.x) has the project open; close it there first. QualCoder 4.0 builds write no lock file, so for them the server can only warn on heuristics: make sure no QualCoder window has the project open before any write.

Quick Start Example

Step 1: Copy Project to Workspace

Copy my project "Interview Study" to the workspace for AI coding

(the copy_project_to_workspace tool does this; then open the copy with select_project)

Step 2: Analyse Files

Analyse files 1-3 for WORKPLACE-STRESS and COPING-STRATEGIES codes

Claude will:

Ask you three things first: what to look for, how long a coded passage should be, and whether a passage may carry more than one code (your answers are the session's instruction, which is required)
Create an analysis session (analyze_for_coding)
Examine the files
Record its suggestions into the session (record_suggestions; every suggestion is verified against the file text before it is stored)
Present suggestions with their reasoning, each with its reading: explicit (the passage states what the code names) or interpretive (the code rests on what the passage implies rather than on what it says)

Step 3: Review in Chat

Show me details about suggestion 1

Claude shows you:

In a transcript, the earlier turn by another speaker, found by speaker labels ("Interviewer:", "Siân [00:01:09]:" starting a paragraph, a name counted only when it opens more than one; Otter's unbracketed "Name 0:03" is not read); a turn of three words or fewer with no question mark ("Mm-hmm.", "Describe your manager.") is shown with the one before it, and what lies between is counted, never skipped silently
The passage, in its paragraph or speaker turn
Which code and file
Whether the passage states what the code names (explicit) or the code rests on what the passage implies rather than on what it says (interpretive)
Why it was selected (the reason)

Step 4: Approve/Reject

Approve suggestions 1, 2, and 5. Reject 3 and 4.

Who approves. The server writes only suggestions marked approved, and the mark is set by a tool call the assistant makes (update_suggestion_status, and update_proposal_status for new codes) when it relays your decision. The server cannot tell whether you gave it: it records the approval the assistant reports. Two things stand behind it: your host asking you before each call that decides or writes (keep it in its asking mode, and choose "allow once" for update_suggestion_status, update_proposal_status, apply_codings and create_proposed_codes rather than allowing them always), and your own reading of what the approval step reports: how many suggestions are now approved, rejected and pending. If the approved number is not the number you said yes to, stop before anything is applied.

To change your mind about a decided suggestion, ask for it to be reopened (update_suggestion_status with reopen): it goes back to pending, can be edited, and waits for your decision again.

Step 5: Apply to Database

Apply the approved codings to the project

Claude will:

Verify every approved suggestion against the project (right project, files/codes exist, text matches positions)
Create a backup first (by default)
Write approved codings to database (all-or-nothing)
Report success with coding IDs
Then open the project in QualCoder to see the results (a QualCoder 4.0 window that was already open will not show them until the project is reopened)

If something went wrong: delete_coding(coding_id) removes a single coding and marks its suggestion removed in the session (which then allows it to be approved again, reopened and edited, or the passage recorded again); list_backups + restore_backup roll the whole project back to a snapshot.

Key Features

Conversational Review: Discuss suggestions with Claude before applying
Explicit or interpretive: Each suggestion carries a reading: explicit (the passage states what the code names) or interpretive (the code rests on what the passage implies rather than on what it says, and the reason names the words it rests on), shown with the passage and before the reason, and yours to change at review. There is no numeric score: a model's rating of its own confidence is not a measurement. Nothing sorts or totals by the reading. An applied coding's memo says which, in words
Session Persistence: Resume work at any time, all sessions saved to disk
Automatic Backups: Every write creates a timestamped backup first, unless you pass create_backup=false
Workspace Isolation: Work on copies in dedicated workspace folder
Direct Database Writes: No import/export step; codings are in the project the next time it is opened in QualCoder (an open QualCoder 4.0 window does not show external changes until the project is reopened)
Granular Control: Approve, reject or reopen individual suggestions by GUID; a GUID the session does not hold is named, not passed over
A session's scope holds: the files, and the codes if you name them, that a session is started with are the only ones it accepts suggestions for; a name or id that matches nothing is listed
Full Context: See the file's own text around each suggestion, read from the file (the assistant cannot supply it)
Verified Writes: Suggestions are checked against the file text when recorded AND before writing; sessions only apply to the project they were created in
QualCoder-Aware: Writes are refused while a released QualCoder (3.x) has the project open (its project_in_use.lock heartbeat is respected). QualCoder 4.0 builds write no lock file, so for them the server reports best-effort heuristics (qualcoder_gui_signals), re-verifies the file text inside the write transaction, and relies on you to make sure no window has the project open
Recovery Tools: delete_coding, list_backups, restore_backup

Workspace Safety

The AI coding workflow uses a workspace directory for safe modifications:

~/Documents/Qualcoder MCP Projects/

A host can name another folder with QUALCODER_MCP_WORKSPACE; the Claude Desktop extension does, from its "Folder for projects" setting (by default ~/QualCoder projects/, outside Documents, which iCloud or OneDrive may sync).

Never work on your original projects with AI coding! Always:

Copy project to workspace first
Let Claude work on the workspace copy
Review results in Qualcoder
If good, replace original OR keep both versions

For comprehensive workflow documentation, see AI_CODING_WORKFLOW.md.

Available Resources

The MCP server exposes these resources (read-only data):

qualcoder://project/info - Project metadata
qualcoder://codes/list - All codes
qualcoder://categories/list - Code categories
qualcoder://codes/{code_id} - Specific code details
qualcoder://files/list - All source files
qualcoder://files/{file_id} - File content
qualcoder://cases/list - All cases
qualcoder://cases/{case_id} - Case details
qualcoder://journal - Journal entries
qualcoder://guidance/methods - Static methods notes: the grounding rules, the four-way methodological vocabulary (allow, allow_with_caveat, reframe_and_ask, refuse) and citations to the method literature QualCoder 4.0 ships prompts for; needs no project

Available Tools

Claude can use these tools to analyse your data. The full toolset (the default when you configure the server yourself, QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET=full; the Claude Desktop extension defaults to lifecycle) registers 73 tools; the argument lists below name every argument each tool declares, and each tool's own description says what each one does.

Creating projects (Experimental): with QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET=lifecycle the server registers the full set plus create_project, 74 tools. The Claude Desktop extension's tool set setting defaults to lifecycle, so creating projects is on there; configured by hand, the server defaults to full, so that researchers opt in to a tool that makes folders on their disk; it is not in core either. Measured as below, the lifecycle definitions run to about 198,000 characters, roughly 49k tokens.

Reduced toolset for local models (Experimental): with QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET=core in the server's environment, only the 21-tool supervised coding set is registered: list_available_projects, select_project, get_current_project, get_project_summary, search_files, analyze_file_with_coding, search_coded_text, get_coded_segments, get_coding_frequencies, analyze_for_coding, record_suggestions, review_suggestions, edit_suggestion, update_suggestion_status, apply_codings, create_code, set_memo, set_project_ai_coder_name, copy_project_to_workspace, delete_coding, list_backups. Required for local models, optional elsewhere; unknown values fail loudly at startup. Measured for 0.14 (the serialised tool definitions: name, description and input schema, the same method as the CHANGELOG, under Python 3.13.5 with mcp 1.30.0), the definitions run to about 195,000 characters for full, roughly 49k tokens at four characters per token, and about 65,000 characters for core, roughly 16k tokens. On Python 3.10 to 3.12 the same definitions measure about five per cent more, because those interpreters keep the docstring indentation that 3.13 strips. See the LM Studio recipe in INSTALL.md for what that means for context length.

Project Management:

list_available_projects(search_directories) - Discover Qualcoder projects on your system
select_project(project_path) - Open/switch to a different project (reports qualcoder_gui_signals and remembers the selection for the recovery hint)
get_current_project() - Show which project is open, whether a released QualCoder has it open (qualcoder_open), and the 4.0 heuristics (qualcoder_gui_signals); pseudonyms_json says whether the project's own pseudonyms.json is present and how many entries it has, never a name
create_project(name, directory, coder_name, coder_name_not_known) - Creates a folder and a database (the lifecycle toolset only): a new, empty project in QualCoder 4.0's format, exactly as 4.0's own New Project makes it, in the server's workspace or an existing folder, then selects it. Asks for the researcher's own QualCoder coder name (or an explicit "not known") after every other check; refuses a name already used there in any letter case, names QualCoder cannot open or Windows cannot store, and names whose backups sit beside it; never replaces or deletes anything
set_project_ai_coder_name(name, note, allow_hidden_coder) - Set the coder name this project's AI writes are stored under (stored beside the project in qualcoder_mcp.json); refuses the researcher's own coder name, QualCoder's default and its speaker coder, and warns when the researcher's name is not known yet
read_pseudonym_list() - Sends real names to the AI provider: returns the entries of the project's own pseudonyms.json (the researcher's reverse key), for use only when the researcher asks to see or check the list; each call writes one log line with the count and no name. In the full and lifecycle tool sets (so in the Claude Desktop extension by default), not in core. QualCoder's Pseudonyms dialog (the button in Manage Files) shows the same list without sending it anywhere. Deprecated, removed in v0.15 (its answer says so)

Core Data Analysis:

search_files(pattern, search_filename, search_content, search_memo, case_sensitive, limit, exclude_code_ids, cursor, max_matches_per_file) - Find files by name, content, or memo with smart clarification workflow; exclude_code_ids hides content matches that are already coded under those codes, and cursor walks the results page by page. A PDF with no usable text (no text layer, or a PDF QualCoder 3.8.2 stored as the file itself) is not content-searched and is counted and named as not searched, so finding nothing there is not a "not found"; a search of any PDF covers its text layer only. search_memo is deprecated, removed in v0.15: search_memos searches file memos and every other kind of note
search_coded_text(query, code_name, limit, coder, exclude_code_ids, cursor) - Search coded segments, with the same novelty filter and paging
get_coded_segments(code_id, limit, coder, strategy, max_chars, file_ids, cursor) - Segments for a code, sampled by strategy (by_document, diverse_by_document, recent_first, sequential) under an optional character budget; codings_not_shown counts the code's region codings (areas on PDF pages or images) and audio/video codings in the same scope, which a text read does not show
get_coding_frequencies(coder) - Coding statistics: text codings per code, with codings_not_counted giving the region and audio/video codings beside them, so the two together are QualCoder's own count when no coder is hidden (on a project that hides a coder both are the visible coders', while QualCoder's Codebook counts every coder)
search_memos(query, limit) - Search every memo and note outside QualCoder's saved graphs (public text only): the project memo; code, category, file, case and attribute type memos; text, region and audio/video coding memos (where the AI's reasons are stored); case link memos; annotations; and journal entries, each result named by its type
export_code_report(code_name) - Detailed code report returned into the conversation (public memo text only), with up to 1,000 of the code's text segments; segments_total and truncated say when there are more, which get_coded_segments pages through. Deprecated, removed in v0.15: get_coded_segments(code_id=...) reads the same passages page by page
get_project_summary() - Comprehensive project overview, naming any PDF with no usable text and counting the region and audio/video codings the text statistics leave out

On projects with the coder-visibility capability (QualCoder 3.8.2 and 4.0, schema v14 and later) that hide coders, tools with a coder argument read visible coders' work by default and one coder's rows from the full data when coder is given (see "Working alongside QualCoder 4.0").

A read given an id, a name or a coder that is not in the project refuses it, rather than answering "nothing": a code, case or file id that does not exist; an attribute name that is not one of that kind (names are exact, and the refusal names one that differs only by letter case, or says it is the other kind); a code name that matches no code (a code name is found as the codebook tools find it: the same name, then one differing only by letter case); and a coder with no codings anywhere in the project (the refusal names one that differs only by letter case, never a coder hidden in QualCoder). A known value with nothing in scope still answers empty, and that answer is a finding.

Rich Transcript Analysis:

analyze_file_with_coding(file_id) - Get complete file text with all coding context for deep analysis; counts the file's region and audio/video codings it does not show, and names a PDF with no usable text (a PDF QualCoder 3.8.2 stored as the file itself, recognised by a heuristic, has its text withheld)

Attributes & Demographics:

list_attribute_types() - List all available attributes (age, gender, etc.)
get_file_attributes(file_id) - Get attributes for a specific file
get_case_attributes(case_id) - Get attributes for a specific case
query_by_attribute(attr_name, attr_value, attr_type, operator) - Find cases/files by attribute values. gt, gte, lt and lte, and equals on a numeric attribute, compare only values that are finite numbers once space around them is stripped, on a character attribute too, and count the rest in values_left_out (so "under 18" does not find "unknown", as QualCoder's attribute report, which reads it as 0, would; that report reads "34 years" as 34, which this tool leaves out and counts); a probe that is not such a number is refused

Co-occurrence Analysis:

find_cooccurring_codes(code_id, window_size, coder) - Discover which codes appear together: at window_size 0, codings that share at least one character; at N, codings whose gap (from the end of one to the start of the other) is at most N characters. Window 0 is QualCoder's co-occurrence report's overlap, and at N the gap is the distance its Code relations report gives; the counts are not the co-occurrence report's
compare_coders(coder_a, coder_b, code_ids, file_ids, case_ids, include_subcodes, per_file, allow_hidden_coder) - Compare two coders' text coding per code: agreement, dual-coded and uncoded percentages, and two agreement coefficients (kappa_qualcoder, which reproduces QualCoder's own column, and kappa_cohen). Read-only; in the full and lifecycle tool sets, not in core. A character a coder did not code is not a decision, so the result names the files only one of the two coded (files_coded_by_one_coder_only): narrow file_ids to the files both worked on. Comparing a person with this server's AI is not comparing independent coders: the AI's codings are the suggestions the person approved, and the assistant is told to read each file with analyze_file_with_coding before suggesting, which gives it every visible coder's codings; do not report it as intercoder reliability

Case-Code Matrix & Comparative Analysis:

get_case_code_matrix(coder) - Create cross-tabulation of cases vs codes
get_codes_by_case(case_id, coder) - Get all codes used in a specific case
get_cases_by_code(code_id, coder) - Get all cases containing a specific code

AI-Assisted Coding (Conversational Workflow):

analyze_for_coding(file_ids, code_names, instruction) - Start a coding session for the files, and the codes if named (matched exactly, else ignoring letter case, spacing and Unicode form, the rule for code names throughout; a name matching two codes that way is listed in ambiguous_code_names and used for neither), that suggestions may then be recorded for; instruction is required (there is no default): the researcher's answers to what to look for, how long a coded passage should be and whether a passage may carry more than one code; it reads no file and makes no suggestion, returns the coding_session_id the other session tools take, and lists in not_found any id or name that matched nothing; a PDF with no usable text is refused by name (files_refused), with the way forward: OCR outside this server, which bundles none, then import the result, and for a PDF 3.8.2 stored as the file itself, QualCoder 4.0's Restructure first
record_suggestions(coding_session_id, suggestions, replace) - Record Claude's suggestions into the session (each verified against the file text; positions auto-corrected when the excerpt is unique; a PDF with no usable text is refused, as it is by edit_suggestion, apply_codings, proposal evidence and add_annotation)
review_suggestions(coding_session_id, suggestion_guids, show_context) - Show each suggestion in the order a researcher reads it: the nearest earlier turn by another speaker, found by speaker labels (a name of a few words and a colon starting a paragraph, compared by name, and counted only when that name opens more than one paragraph; an unbracketed time after the name, as in Otter's "Name 0:03", is not read; nothing is shown otherwise), whatever it says; a turn of three words or fewer with no question mark is shown with the one before it, and the turns and paragraphs left out between are counted, then the passage in its paragraph or speaker turn, then the code, the reading and the reason; the surrounding text, and that of any shorter or longer span offered, is read from the file each time and never stored
edit_suggestion(coding_session_id, suggestion_guid, start_pos, end_pos, segment_text, use_alternative, code_id, code_name, reading) - Adjust a pending suggestion's span, code or reading before approval (session-only; server-computed shorter/longer alternatives); moving it to another code without a new reading clears it, which was given for the old code
update_suggestion_status(coding_session_id, approve, reject, reopen) - Approve, reject or reopen (back to pending) suggestions by GUID; GUIDs not in the session are listed, and a GUID in two lists is refused
apply_codings(coding_session_id, create_backup, owner) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Apply approved suggestions (bound to the session's project, validated before backup, all-or-nothing; a suggestion whose identical coding is already in the project is reported as already existing and skipped, not written twice); owner is deprecated, removed in v0.15 (see "The owner argument is deprecated" above)
get_coding_session_info(coding_session_id) - View all details of a coding session
list_coding_sessions(project_path, days_old) - List the saved coding sessions changed in the last days_old days (30 by default), optionally for one project
delete_coding_session(coding_session_id) - Delete a saved session file (not the codings)
cleanup_old_sessions(days_old) - Delete every session file on this computer whose last change is older than N days (N >= 1), for every project, including sessions holding approved suggestions not yet applied; there is no preview. Deprecated, removed in v0.15: delete_coding_session removes one session
explain_ai_coding_tools(tool_name) - Built-in help for this workflow, including grounding_rules, methodology_vocabulary and methods_notes. Its topics analyze_for_coding, apply_codings, edit_suggestion and coding_style_guidance are deprecated, removed in v0.15: they repeat the tools' own descriptions

Inductive Coding (proposing new codes):

propose_codes(coding_session_id, proposals, replace) - Record brand-new code proposals discovered in the data
review_proposals(coding_session_id, proposal_guids, show_examples) - Review proposed codes in detail before deciding
update_proposal(coding_session_id, proposal_guid, name, color, category, memo, example_segments) - Refine a proposal before it is created; changing an approved proposal returns it to pending, so what is created is what was approved
merge_proposals(coding_session_id, from_proposal_guid, into_proposal_guid) - Combine two proposals; the source is marked merged, a final status (it can never be approved or created), and an approved target returns to pending when it gains evidence (a merge whose spans were all already there changes nothing). Deprecated, removed in v0.15: reject the proposal instead, and add its passages to the other with update_proposal if they belong there
update_proposal_status(coding_session_id, approve, reject) - Approve or reject proposals; GUIDs not in the session are listed, and a GUID in both lists is refused
create_proposed_codes(coding_session_id, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Create the approved proposals in the codebook, as codes only: no passage is coded; the answer lists each new code's example passages, which the assistant then suggests one by one in the same session, first

Data Import, Cases & Attributes (Write Operations):

import_text_file(filename, content, memo, owner, create_backup, case_name, apply_project_pseudonyms) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Add a new text source, optionally linked to a case. The name follows rename_file's rules (at most 200 bytes in UTF-8; no path, control or invisible characters; no name Windows cannot store; not a name already in the project's documents/ folder). With apply_project_pseudonyms=true the project's own pseudonyms.json is applied to the text before it is stored, which is what QualCoder does to every text file it imports; default off; owner is deprecated, removed in v0.15 (see "The owner argument is deprecated" above)
link_file_to_case(file_id, case_id, case_name, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Make a file visible to case-based analyses; a PDF with no usable text is refused (the case read gives no text for a link to one, and names it)
create_case(name, memo, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Create a new case (idempotent: an existing name, case-insensitively, answers created: false with the existing case)
rename_case(case_id, new_name, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Rename a case, as QualCoder's Manage Cases does: the name only, the date untouched. A name another case has, ignoring letter case, spacing and Unicode form, is refused; the result says where the old name stays (saved graph labels, table displays and filters, files named after the case, backups)
rename_file(file_id, new_name, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Rename a file's entry, as QualCoder's "Rename database entry" does: the name only, nothing on disk. Refuses path characters, names Windows cannot store, names over 200 bytes in UTF-8, a name already in the project's documents/ folder for a text, and an ending change QualCoder acts on (a transcript's .txt or .transcribed, .pdf, a media file's extension); the result says what keeps the old name (an imported file's stored copy and stored path, and for a document its original text). A rename back recognised from the project's backups is deprecated, removed in v0.15: QualCoder's own Rename makes it
create_attribute_type(name, applies_to, value_type, memo, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Define a new attribute for cases, files or journals. Attributes on journal entries are deprecated, removed in v0.15: this server can set them but never reads them back, and QualCoder's Journals window sets them
set_attribute(target_type, target_id, attribute_name, value, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Set or clear an attribute value; a numeric attribute takes a finite number in the digits 0 to 9 ("nan", "inf" and "1_000" are refused, though QualCoder accepts them). Journal attributes are deprecated (see create_attribute_type)

Recovery & Safety:

copy_project_to_workspace(source_path, new_name) - Copy a project to the safe workspace for AI coding (the database copied consistently and the same exclusions as backups; reports skipped symlinks)
delete_coding(coding_id, create_backup, allow_hidden_coder, confirm_private_note_deletion) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Remove one coded segment (refuses a hidden coder's row or a row carrying a private note unless the override is passed); a coding an AI coding session applied is marked removed in that session, which the answer names
list_backups() - List this project's backup snapshots (both this server's _backup_ and QualCoder's _BKUP_ families); a backup holding its database's journal or WAL file, copied while a program was writing, is marked unclean
prune_backups(keep_last, older_than_days, preview_token) - Delete this server's own backups by a retention policy (preview first, then the token the preview returns; QualCoder's _BKUP_ backups are never removed)
restore_backup(backup_path, preview_token) - Guarded project restore (previews first, then the token the preview returns, reporting qualcoder_gui_signals; safety backup of the current state; an unclean backup is refused)

Interchange & Report Exports (exported files keep full memos, private sections included; give output_path as a full path or one starting with ~: since 0.14 a relative one is refused and nothing is written):

export_refi_qda(output_path, coding_session_id, overwrite) - Export codings (or a session's suggestions) as a REFI-QDA .qdpx for QualCoder/NVivo/ATLAS.ti/MAXQDA. Deprecated, removed in v0.15: it files every coding under the AI coder name and leaves out cases, annotations, journals and media, and a session's export includes rejected suggestions unmarked; QualCoder's own export (Project, Export, REFI-QDA Project export) keeps them
export_codebook(output_path, format, include_memos, sanitize_formulas, overwrite) - Codebook (codes and category tree) as CSV, txt or Markdown, matching QualCoder's Codebook export; in Markdown the codes without a category come first under their own heading, each category's codes directly under its heading, and a sub-code indented under its parent
export_coded_segments_report(output_path, code_names, case_names, coder, file_ids, search_text, important, include_variables, format, sanitize_formulas, overwrite) - QualCoder's Coding Report as a file
export_frequencies_csv(output_path, sanitize_formulas, overwrite) - Code frequencies table as CSV
export_case_code_matrix_csv(output_path, sanitize_formulas, overwrite) - Case by code cross-tab as CSV

Memos, Annotations & Journal (Write Operations):

set_memo(target_type, target_id, memo, create_backup, allow_hidden_coder) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Write or clear the public part of a memo on a code, category, file, coding, or case, or the project memo (target_type project, target_id null), which QualCoder 4.0's own assistant reads as the study's context (an existing ##### private section survives; content-only, matching QualCoder, never rewrites date/owner)
add_journal_entry(name, entry, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Add a new research journal entry (a name already in use is refused; no tool changes an existing entry, which is done in QualCoder)
add_annotation(file_id, start_pos, end_pos, memo, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Attach a note to a text span of a file
update_annotation(annotation_id, memo, create_backup, allow_hidden_coder) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Edit an annotation's note (an empty note deletes the annotation, as in QualCoder, unless a private section keeps the row)
delete_annotation(annotation_id, create_backup, allow_hidden_coder, confirm_private_note_deletion) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Delete an annotation

Codebook Editing (Write Operations):

create_code(name, category, color, memo, parent_code_id, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Create a new code (a supplied colour is snapped onto QualCoder's 120-colour palette and the result says so; parent_code_id nests it as a sub-code on v16+ schemas). Idempotent: a name that already exists, ignoring letter case, spacing and Unicode form, answers created: false, reason: already_exists with the existing code and makes no backup
rename_code(code_id, new_name, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Rename a code (a name another code already uses, case-insensitively, is refused; the identical name answers changed: false)
recolor_code(code_id, color, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Change a code's colour (snapped onto QualCoder's palette; changed: false when the code already has that colour)
move_code_to_category(code_id, category, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Move a code into a category (omit category for top level; changed: false when it is already there). The result names the category it resolved to (new_category), since a name matches ignoring letter case, spacing and Unicode form
create_category(name, parent_category, memo, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Create a category (idempotent like create_code: an existing name, case-insensitively, answers created: false with the existing category)
rename_category(category_id, new_name, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Rename a category (same collision and no-op rules as rename_code)
move_category(category_id, parent_category, create_backup) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Reparent a category (refuses moves that would create a cycle; changed: false when it is already under that parent). The result names the new parent (new_parent)

Source Text, Destructive (preview, then token, then safety backup):

pseudonymise_source(mapping, file_id, use_project_pseudonyms, case_mode, overlap_policy, rewrite_memos, save_mapping_to_project, researcher_keeps_mapping, preview_token, allow_hidden_coder, record_in_journal, include_context, context_chars, scan_residue, residue_detail, max_spans_per_entry) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Replace names with pseudonyms in the stored text of one text source per call, moving every coding, annotation and case link with the text. file_id is required; to pseudonymise a project, run it file by file, so two people who share a name can be given two pseudonyms in the file text. Not in notes: with rewrite_memos on, whichever run carries it rewrites that name in notes across the whole project, the other person's notes included, whatever the order of the runs; so for a shared name keep rewrite_memos off on every run and change the notes that name either person by hand, and give the second person a typed mapping with save_mapping_to_project off and researcher_keeps_mapping on (pseudonyms.json holds one pseudonym per name). A PDF, a media file or a source with no stored text is refused with the reason (pdf_source, no_fulltext, unknown_file_id). The only tool here that rewrites the text positions are measured against. Deterministic and rule-based: only the names in mapping are replaced, as whole words, case-sensitively unless case_mode says otherwise; no name detection. overlap_policy decides what happens to a coding that cut into a name: snap_to_pseudonym (default) grows it to contain the whole pseudonym and never deletes anything, qualcoder_edit_parity reproduces the walk QualCoder's coding-view editor applies, fed this tool's exact edit list (the editor's own diff may factor a shared prefix or suffix out of a replacement and keep a coding this policy deletes), which deletes a coding sitting on a name. Notes and journal entries are scanned and counted, and are rewritten, in their public part only and across the whole project, only when rewrite_memos is on; case, file, code, category and attribute-type names, journal entry names and attribute values are scanned and counted, never rewritten; and the preview's residue block says where names remain, with a third count, wide_after_rewrite, on each note field when the notes are rewritten, which does not reach zero because the wide reading is wider than the rewrite. A note's private part is carried across unread, so a name in it is still there and cannot be reported. rewrite_memos and save_mapping_to_project are bound into the token, six bound arguments in all. On a mapping you type, the execute is refused unless save_mapping_to_project (given on the preview, because the token binds it) writes the mapping into the project's own pseudonyms.json in QualCoder's own format, merged by QualCoder's rules, with alternative spellings as separate entries and the new entries longest name first (QualCoder's text and transcript imports (not PDFs) apply the file one entry at a time, case-sensitively; the preview warns when an entry already in the file would pre-empt a new one, or when an insensitive case mode means QualCoder will replace only the spellings saved), or researcher_keeps_mapping (not bound, and allowed on the execute) attests that the researcher keeps their own record; PDFs are never rewritten, and their stored text is counted with every other file's (not a PDF that QualCoder 3.8.2 stored as the file itself, which holds no text); media files and ai_data/ are out of scope and are neither rewritten nor scanned. Writes a run manifest to ~/.qualcoder_mcp/pseudonymisation/, an audit record of which rows the run changed and not a way back (the backup is), and, by default, a journal entry in the project; neither ever contains an original name, and a file name, folder name or path that carries one is withheld from both in favour of the file id. Every residue count is two readings, {"wide": N, "whole_word": M}: the wide one reads wider than the rewrite does, any occurrence a person would see, including inside a longer word and in any case, and every whole word the rewrite itself matches, and is a heuristic; the whole-word one is what this run's own rule matches. Notes, labels and attribute values are counted as fields; the file_text block counts, as occurrences, the names left in the text of every file with stored text after the run, the one this call rewrites, the files it does not touch and the PDF sources, each split by kind (inside a longer word, case only, joined differently, an invisible character or another normalisation, put back by a pseudonym, whole words in a file this run did not rewrite). A name inside a longer word is reported and never substituted; on a typed mapping the block lists the longer words themselves, so an exact entry can be added. A longer word is listed only when it extends the name by at most eight characters and is not in a script written without spaces (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Myanmar), and all lists in one preview share 4,000 characters. By default the block gives full detail for the file this call names and one short row (id, name, the two counts) for up to 1,000 other files that still show a name, and their ids past that; residue_detail="project" gives full detail for up to 200 files and the short row for up to 1,000 more, and the totals and the warnings are the same either way. The count has fixed budgets for its work and for the number of matches, and everything it spends is charged to them; past them a file is only asked whether a name shows, and past a budget for that question it is not checked, is listed in files_not_checked and is never reported clean. The file this call names is read first, with the first claim on the budgets. A count that stops part-way has found a name and is listed in files_counted_in_part with a lower bound, a file too large to count with this many names, decided before counting, is listed in files_too_large_for_this_mapping, where fewer names is the remedy, one too large for any mapping in files_too_large_for_any_mapping, where there is none, and a PDF source, which cannot be named for a preview, is never told to be previewed on its own. With use_project_pseudonyms the mapping is the researcher's own pseudonyms.json, which the caller never supplied, so no diagnostic and no refusal quotes a name from it, include_context returns nothing, no longer word is listed, and a pseudonym that carries one of its names is withheld by entry number (it is withheld from the run manifest and the journal entry on both paths); file names, including every file the residue names, and the project path are still returned as they stand. The mandatory backup does contain the real names. On a project that hides coders, the preview reports what the run would do to their rows as counts (shifted, substituted, resized, snapped, deleted, clamped), never names, and allow_hidden_coder is required when snapped, deleted or clamped is non-zero: a pure shift, a substitution and a resize change no coding decision, whatever the two lengths. overlap_policy qualcoder_edit_parity is deprecated, removed in v0.15: it deletes codings on names and is not exact parity

Codebook, Destructive (preview, then token, then safety backup):

merge_codes(from_code_id, into_code_id, preview_token, allow_hidden_coder) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Merge one code into another (lossy on overlaps, exactly matching QualCoder). The codebook changes too, as in QualCoder, and the preview names each change: on projects QualCoder 4.0 has opened (schema v16 and later) the source code's sub-codes move under the target, the source code's memo is added to the target's memo under a "[Merged from code: ...]" line, and the source code's nodes and lines on saved graphs are removed; on a 3.8.2 project the source code's memo is deleted with it (the backup keeps a copy)
delete_code(code_id, preview_token, cascade, allow_hidden_coder) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Delete a code and all its coded segments; a code with sub-codes goes with its whole branch (cascade=true, which the preview's execute_with carries when there are sub-codes, so approving the preview approves the branch, as QualCoder's single dialog does). On schema v16 and later the deleted codes' nodes and lines on saved graphs go too, and the preview counts them. cascade is deprecated, removed in v0.15: the preview token already approves the whole branch
delete_category(category_id, preview_token) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Delete a category; its codes and sub-categories move to the top level (no cascade to coded data). On projects QualCoder 4.0 has opened (schema v16 and later), the category's own node in QualCoder's saved graphs and the lines that end on it are removed with it, and the preview counts them; its codes stay on the graphs
merge_category(from_category_id, into_category, preview_token) - WRITES TO DATABASE - Merge a category into another (or into the top level); its codes and sub-categories move to the target. Saved graphs as for delete_category: only the merged category's own node and lines go, where QualCoder 4.0's own merge also erases the kept codes' nodes and lines

Since v0.12 these four, pseudonymise_source, restore_backup and prune_backups, are two-step: call without preview_token for a preview of exactly what would change, then call again with the token the preview returned. The token is bound to that operation, those arguments, that project and the rows the preview covered, so a preview the user approved cannot authorise something else, and a project that changed in between is refused rather than acted on. The confirm argument, accepted and ignored through 0.12, is gone in 0.13, and since 0.14 a call that still passes it is refused, naming it, with nothing done: drop it.

The four codebook previews (merge_codes, delete_code, delete_category, merge_category) say whose work is at stake: how many of the affected codings were made under this project's AI coder name(s), a per-owner breakdown of the rest, how many belong to coders currently hidden in QualCoder (a count, never a name), and how many rows carry a ##### private note. Of these, merge_codes and delete_code require allow_hidden_coder=true to execute when hidden coders' codings are affected. restore_backup rolls the whole project back: its preview does not count codings by owner, and it has no such gate; pseudonymise_source reports hidden coders' rows as counts and gates a narrower set (see its own entry).

Available Prompts

Built-in prompt templates for common analysis tasks:

analyze_theme(theme_name) - Deep dive into a specific theme
compare_codes(code1, code2) - Compare two codes
summarize_project() - Describe the state of a project (data, codebook, coding progress), without drawing conclusions from counts
explore_case(case_name) - Analyse a specific case

Troubleshooting

Server Not Connecting

Check the configuration file path: Make sure claude_desktop_config.json is in the right location
Verify the command path: run which qualcoder-mcp (PyPI install), or which python in your virtual environment (source install), and use that absolute path
Check .qda project path: Make sure the path to your Qualcoder project folder is correct and exists
Look at logs: Check Claude Desktop logs for errors

Claude Can't Access Data

Restart Claude Desktop after any configuration changes
Check file permissions: Make sure the .qda project folder and the data.qda file inside it are readable
Verify the virtual environment is activated when testing

"No Qualcoder project selected" Error

With Option A, ask Claude to list and select a project; the error also names the last project used on this machine when it still exists, so one select_project call recovers. With Option B, make sure the env section in your configuration includes the QUALCODER_PROJECT_PATH variable with the full path to your .qda project folder (or its data.qda file); since 0.14 a configured project is used by whichever tool comes first (before, the backup tools and a few others gave this error until another tool had run), and a configured path that cannot be opened is answered with the reason.

Testing the Server Manually

You can test the server independently:

# Activate your virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Set the project path
export QUALCODER_PROJECT_PATH="/path/to/your/project.qda"

# Check the installed version (prints it and exits)
python -m qualcoder_mcp.server --version

# Run the server (it will use stdio)
python -m qualcoder_mcp.server

Started by hand like this, the server prints one paragraph explaining that it expects an MCP host on its standard input and output, then waits; that is the expected behaviour, not an error (an MCP host never sees the paragraph). Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Using MCP Inspector for Development

For development and debugging, you can use the MCP Inspector:

# Install uv if you haven't already
pip install uv

# Run the inspector
export QUALCODER_PROJECT_PATH="/path/to/your/project.qda"
uv run --with "mcp[cli]" mcp dev src/qualcoder_mcp/server.py

This will open a web interface where you can test resources and tools.

Data Safety

This MCP server's tools work in two modes, with no setting to switch between them: the reading tools use the first, and each tool marked WRITES TO DATABASE opens a write connection for its own call:

Read-Only Mode (the reading tools)

For all standard analysis operations:

✅ No writes to your project database
✅ Your Qualcoder projects are never modified
✅ All operations are queries only
✅ Safe to use on original projects

Write-Enabled Mode (the tools marked WRITES TO DATABASE)

For AI-assisted coding with direct database writes:

⚠️ WRITES TO DATABASE - Can modify project files
✅ Automatic backups created before every write
✅ Workspace isolation - Work on copies only
✅ Conversational approval - You control what gets written
✅ Session files - AI coding sessions (suggestions, proposals and their statuses) are saved in ~/.qualcoder_mcp/sessions/
✅ Rollback capability - Backups allow full restoration

Best Practices for AI Coding:

🔒 NEVER work on original projects - Always copy to workspace first
🔒 Review backups - Check backup was created before applying
🔒 Test on copies - Try workflow on test projects first
🔒 Keep originals - Maintain untouched versions of important projects
🔒 Verify in Qualcoder - Open project after AI coding to confirm results

General Safety:

🔒 The server runs locally and adds no cloud path of its own, but tool results enter the conversation and are transmitted to whichever AI provider your host uses (none, with a fully local host). See PRIVACY.md for what this means for research data.
🔒 Regular Qualcoder backups recommended
🔒 Automatic backups: <project>_backup_<timestamp>.qda folders next to the project, one per write (the whole project tree, ai_data/ included, minus QualCoder's backup ignore set and lock files, with the database copied by SQLite's own online backup and its journal or WAL file never copied; prune them with prune_backups)
🔒 Workspace directory: ~/Documents/Qualcoder MCP Projects/, or the folder QUALCODER_MCP_WORKSPACE names (the desktop extension's default is ~/QualCoder projects/)
🔒 Session files: ~/.qualcoder_mcp/sessions/
🔒 Last-used project pointer: ~/.qualcoder_mcp/mru_project.json (one project path and a timestamp, echoed only into the "no project selected" error as a recovery hint; see PRIVACY.md)
🔒 Preview-token secret: ~/.qualcoder_mcp/preview_secret (signs the tokens of the seven preview tools; never shown in a result, an error or the log)

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐
│  Claude Desktop │  (MCP Host)
└────────┬────────┘
         │ MCP Protocol (stdio)
         │
┌────────▼────────┐
│   MCP Server    │  (This package)
│  qualcoder_mcp  │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ SQLite connection (read-only by default;
         │  guarded writes with backup, lock and
         │  heuristic open-window checks)
         │
┌────────▼────────┐
│   Qualcoder     │
│  Database (.qda)│
└─────────────────┘

Development

Project Structure

qualcoder_mcp/
├── src/
│   └── qualcoder_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── server.py            # Main MCP server with resources, tools, prompts
│       ├── database.py          # SQLite database interface
│       ├── memo_privacy.py      # QualCoder's '#####' private-memo convention
│       ├── new_project.py       # create_project: the folder and its schema v17 database
│       ├── sessions.py          # AI coding session management
│       ├── project_settings.py  # The project's AI coder name (qualcoder_mcp.json)
│       ├── preview_tokens.py    # Preview tokens for the destructive tools
│       ├── cursors.py           # Paging cursors for the search and segment tools
│       ├── coder_comparison.py  # compare_coders: agreement and the two kappas
│       ├── pseudonymise.py      # pseudonymise_source: matching, remapping, the residue detector
│       └── refi_export.py       # REFI-QDA XML export
├── scripts/
│   ├── build_desktop_extension.py  # Builds the Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb)
│   ├── smoke_desktop_extension.py  # Installs and starts a built extension as Claude Desktop does
│   └── create_test_project.py  # Test project generator
├── packaging/
│   └── desktop-extension/      # The extension's manifest template and its validator
├── legal/
│   └── GPL-3.0.txt         # The GNU GPL, version 3, which the LGPL incorporates
├── pyproject.toml           # Package configuration
├── README.md               # This file
├── CHANGELOG.md            # Version history
├── INSTALL.md              # Detailed installation guide
├── PRIVACY.md              # Data-flow disclosure
├── CONTRIBUTING.md         # How to report, propose and review changes
├── CITATION.cff            # Citation metadata
├── SUPPORT.md              # Support policy (GitHub Issues only)
├── COPYING.LESSER          # The licence: GNU LGPL, version 3
└── NOTICE                  # Copyright, licence, and the code derived from QualCoder

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Some ideas for enhancements:

Completed in v0.2.0:

✅ Co-occurrence analysis
✅ Support for attributes and demographic queries
✅ Case-code matrix for comparative analysis
✅ Rich transcript analysis with full coding context
✅ Support for multiple projects switching

Completed in v0.3.0:

✅ AI-assisted coding with REFI-QDA export (deprecated in v0.4.0)
✅ Code discovery and suggestion
✅ Session persistence and management
✅ Confidence scoring for suggestions (replaced in v0.14: each suggestion is now marked explicit or interpretive, with no score)
✅ Comprehensive help system

Completed in v0.4.0:

✅ Conversational approval workflow for AI coding
✅ Direct database writes with automatic backups
✅ Workspace isolation for safe modifications
✅ GUID-based suggestion approval/rejection
✅ Context-aware suggestions with reasoning

Completed in v0.6.0:

✅ record_suggestions: the AI coding loop works end-to-end via MCP tools
✅ Session-project binding and text/position verification on every write
✅ QualCoder lock-file protocol: writes refuse while QualCoder is open
✅ Recovery tooling: delete_coding, list_backups, guarded restore_backup
✅ REFI-QDA export revived and made importable (export_refi_qda)
✅ Case linkage for imported files (link_file_to_case)
✅ Attribute queries with operators (contains, gt/gte/lt/lte)
✅ Old-schema/corrupt/locked projects fail with clear, actionable errors

Completed in v0.7.0:

✅ Memo writing (set_memo) and research journal (add_journal_entry)
✅ Codebook editing: create/rename/recolour/move codes and categories
✅ Destructive codebook ops with preview → confirm → safety backup (merge_codes, delete_code, delete_category), matching QualCoder's own semantics
✅ Category cycle guard (which QualCoder itself lacks)

Completed in v0.8.0:

✅ Inductive/open coding: AI proposes brand-new codes; you refine, approve, and create them
✅ Review-time span editing (edit_suggestion) with server-computed shorter/longer alternatives
✅ Report exports: codebook, coded segments, frequencies, case×code matrix (CSV/txt/md, QualCoder-parity numbers)
✅ Annotations, category merge, case creation, attribute schema and values
✅ Backup retention (prune_backups) and opt-in CSV formula sanitisation

Completed in v0.9.0:

✅ PyPI packaging: pip install qualcoder-mcp (or a one-command pipx/uvx install): no git clone, no manual venv, and updates via pip install --upgrade
✅ Whole-codebase security audit with three fixes; SHA-pinned CI actions
✅ Upgrade guide for existing (git-install) testers

Completed in v0.10.x:

✅ QualCoder schema v14 through v17 support, including full sub-code handling, determined by capability probes rather than version numbers
✅ Write protection for lockless QualCoder 4.0 builds (text re-verified inside the write transaction)
✅ Multi-host support (Experimental): the reduced core toolset (QUALCODER_MCP_TOOLSET=core) plus setup recipes for LM Studio (fully local) and Claude Code with an Anthropic API key
✅ v0.10.1: the session tools take coding_session_id (some MCP middleware strips an argument named session_id)

Completed in v0.11.0: QualCoder 4.0 interop conventions, Phase 1

✅ ##### private memo sections are never shown to the AI, survive every memo write, and stay in exported files for parity with QualCoder's own exports
✅ Configurable AI coder name (QUALCODER_MCP_AI_CODER_NAME), with AI Agent as the QualCoder 4.0 opt-in
✅ Reads follow QualCoder's per-coder visibility wherever the project has that capability (QualCoder 3.8.2 and 4.0, schema v14 and later), with a coder override; by-id writes on a hidden coder's row need allow_hidden_coder
✅ Backups and workspace copies include ai_data/ minus QualCoder's own ignore set; symlinks pointing outside the project are not followed
✅ Best-effort detection of an open QualCoder 4.0 window (qualcoder_gui_signals), and the last-used project named in "no project selected" errors

Completed in v0.12.0: (v0.12.1 adds no code; it records the in-QualCoder acceptance checks, see the CHANGELOG)

✅ 🕵️ Pseudonymisation tooling, retroactive and position-preserving (pseudonymise_source): rewrites the stored text of chosen text sources and moves every coding, annotation and case link with it, in one transaction, behind a preview, a token bound to that preview and a mandatory backup. Rule-based and deterministic: only the names you list are replaced, as whole words. Memos, journal entries, case, file, code, category and attribute-type names and attribute values are scanned and counted, never rewritten, so the preview's residue report tells you where names remain; PDFs, media files and ai_data/ are out of scope and are neither rewritten nor scanned. Hidden coders' rows move with the text and are reported as counts; the override is needed only where a coding's extent changed for a reason the rewrite does not explain
✅ The AI coder name belongs to the project and you choose it (set_project_ai_coder_name, stored in qualcoder_mcp.json beside data.qda); the first write asks instead of guessing, and the host's QUALCODER_MCP_AI_CODER_NAME is a declaration offered as a quick pick
✅ Preview tokens on the six destructive tools, replacing confirm (kept inert for one release), with a collateral block that says whose work each cascade would remove
✅ compare_coders: per-code agreement between two coders, with QualCoder's own coefficient and Cohen's kappa side by side
✅ The novelty filter (exclude_code_ids), keyset cursors and sampling strategies with a character budget on the paged read tools
✅ Colours snapped onto QualCoder's 120-colour palette; idempotent creates with case-insensitive duplicate detection (QualCoder 4.0 parity, reversing the v0.10 rule); no-op writes answered, not backed up
✅ Methodology vocabulary and grounding rules in the tool guidance, the qualcoder://guidance/methods resource and the MCP initialize handshake
✅ --version, a notice when the server is started by hand, the mcp>=1.17.0,<2 floor (the core toolset needs FastMCP.remove_tool), the deprecated session_id duplicate removed, Dependabot on the SHA-pinned actions

Completed in v0.13.0:

✅ pseudonymise_source rewrites one file per call, and its residue report counts the names left in the text of every file, each count as two readings (wide and whole-word); a name inside a longer word is reported and never substituted, and a pseudonym that contains a real name is warned about and withheld from the records
✅ pseudonymise_source rewrites the public part of notes and journal entries under rewrite_memos, and a mapping you type is kept: saved into the project's own pseudonyms.json or attested as kept by the researcher; read_pseudonym_list reads that file back as a tool of its own; a restore says when it takes the file out of the project, and a prune warns before it removes the only backups that hold it
✅ rename_case and rename_file rename a case or a file's entry the way QualCoder does, so a label named after a participant can be changed without leaving the conversation
✅ The inert confirm argument is gone from the six token-gated tools, and every failure after a backup names that backup
✅ The licence is LGPL-3.0-or-later, QualCoder's own, and NOTICE lists every routine, value and fact taken from QualCoder

Completed in v0.14.0 (this release):

✅ A one-click install for Claude Desktop: the server as a desktop extension (.mcpb), whose settings choose the tool set and the folder for projects; the Terminal route stays for other hosts
✅ Creating a project from the conversation (Experimental, opt-in): create_project, in the lifecycle tool set, makes a new project in QualCoder 4.0's format, in one transaction
✅ Nothing private in answers or logs: the run record's fingerprints keyed, and error answers and log lines carrying no note, name or path
✅ Existing projects handled honestly: backups taken with SQLite's own online backup and an unclean one refused; saved graphs cleaned after a category is deleted or merged; PDFs with no usable text named and refused by the coding tools; region codings disclosed
✅ What the server tells the assistant and the researcher, made true by a claims audit of every tool and text: every tool marked as reading or writing; an argument a tool does not declare refused; the confidence score replaced by a reading, explicit or interpretive; a coding session started from three questions to the researcher; no surrounding text kept in session files; reads, queries and exports that say what they found

Planned for v0.15 and later:

🛡️ v0.15, the safety net: undo for what a session did, choosing which occurrences of a name to leave, the smaller items of the claims audit, and the removal of what v0.14 deprecates
💬 v0.16, chat-first: three graph reads (co-occurrence, the code hierarchy, counts by attribute value), PDFs announced with QualCoder 4.0's text extraction, and counts for the places a rename cannot reach
📖 v0.17: the Manual, and quote-anchored writes
🖼️ Media region coding (images, audio/video, PDF)
🤝 Further QualCoder 4.0 interoperability (later phases)
🔭 Further refinements driven by tester feedback (file yours)

Disclaimer

This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The authors accept no responsibility or liability for any damage, data loss, or other issues arising from the use of this software. Users are solely responsible for ensuring the integrity and backup of their QualCoder projects. Always work on copies of your data, not originals.

Licence

From v0.13, qualcoder-mcp is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version (LGPL-3.0-or-later), which is QualCoder's own licence. The licence texts are COPYING.LESSER and the GNU General Public License, version 3, which the Lesser licence incorporates: legal/GPL-3.0.txt in this repository, and the same text at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt.

Every release up to and including 0.12.1 was published under the MIT License, and this project's own code in those releases remains available under those terms. Those releases also contained some of the QualCoder-derived items NOTICE lists; those items were always under QualCoder's licence, LGPL-3.0-or-later, whatever those releases declared.

qualcoder-mcp is a separate program that reads and writes QualCoder project files. It does not include QualCoder, but it contains code derived from QualCoder: a small number of routines and values taken from QualCoder so that its results match QualCoder's exactly. NOTICE lists them, with the QualCoder file and lines each comes from.

Nothing changes for anyone who installs and runs the server. The licence's conditions apply only to someone who distributes it, and in practice they matter for a modified version: whoever distributes one must make its source available under the same licence.

Acknowledgements

Qualcoder by Dr. Colin Curtain and Dr. Kai Dröge
Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
Claude Desktop by Anthropic

Support

If you encounter issues:

Check the Troubleshooting section above
Review the MCP documentation
Check Qualcoder documentation
Open an issue on GitHub Issues

All support goes through GitHub Issues, not email. See Support & Feedback above and SUPPORT.md.

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