snipara-mcp

snipara-mcp is the lightweight stdio MCP connector for the Snipara Project Brain.

Snipara is the Project Brain for AI coding agents.

Use it when an MCP client needs a local stdio process that talks to Snipara's hosted Project Intelligence APIs. Snipara gives Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients the decisions, active work, code impact, proof, and handoffs they need before they edit. If your client supports streamable HTTP MCP directly, prefer the hosted endpoint and skip the local process.

What Is Snipara?

Snipara is the shared Project Intelligence layer for AI-assisted software work.

It gives Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenAI Agents, and other MCP-compatible clients project context that survives sessions, users, tools, and model switches.

Your agent still uses its own LLM. Snipara gives it the right project context: source-backed docs, reviewed memory, shared guidance, workflow continuity, and code graph structure. In category terms, it is an AI coding agent context, memory, and continuity platform.

Why MCP?

MCP is becoming a standard adapter layer for agent tools. snipara-mcp makes Snipara available through that layer without forcing developers into a specific IDE, model, or orchestration framework.

The integration should feel small:

uvx snipara-mcp

The impact is larger: agents can retrieve durable project context instead of starting cold every session.

What It Unlocks

Public MCP clients must use the snipara_* names. The rlm_* compatibility aliases were removed from the distributed contract on 2026-08-16 and remain only as internal handler identifiers. This contract cleanup is staged for the next package release; clients using legacy names must migrate before upgrading.

The stdio server advertises the same compact default agent contract as the hosted MCP endpoint. Set SNIPARA_TOOL_PROFILE=full only for clients that need direct discovery of every specialist compatibility tool; hidden tools remain callable by explicit name and discoverable through snipara_help.

The default discovery surface contains 13 coherent tools: snipara_context_query, snipara_ask, snipara_search, snipara_read, snipara_stats, snipara_help, snipara_get_chunk, snipara_recall, snipara_remember_if_novel, snipara_end_of_task_commit, snipara_inbox_review_queue, snipara_inbox_review_plan, and snipara_inbox_review_apply.

Minimum-safe-change review (2.8.30)

The packaged snipara_context_query and snipara_code_impact contracts now accept minimum_change_mode="review". When enabled, answer packs and impact responses carry a non-blocking, evidence-first receipt covering existing capabilities, stdlib/native options, installed dependencies, the smallest safe diff, and validation-surface preservation. The policy is advisory and remains opt-in until project evidence calibrates stronger enforcement.

Callers may provide bounded minimum_change_evidence with named provenance such as runtime, manifest, lockfile, git_diff, or test_runner. Unverified confirmed claims remain visible as asserted; confirmed is reserved for a versioned, fingerprint-matching adapter receipt. The verified adapters are lockfile_manifest for direct installed dependencies and git_diff for a coherent local smallest-safe-diff check. Responses also include non-blocking preservation guards for validation, errors, auth/security, accessibility, public contracts, and tests.

Semantic rule contract (2.8.27)

The generated snipara_code_symbol_card and snipara_code_impact schemas now forward bounded semantic_rules project overrides to the hosted service. Terms are literal strings rather than executable regular expressions.

MCP transport security floor (2.8.26)

The connector now requires MCP Python SDK 1.28.1 or newer. This incorporates the upstream fixes for authenticated-principal session isolation, experimental task ownership, and WebSocket Host/Origin validation.

Configurable code-impact traversal (2.8.25)

The packaged snipara_code_impact contract now exposes depth (1-6), direction (in, out, or both), and optional edge_kinds. This keeps the connector contract aligned with hosted impact chains and Companion's hybrid local/hosted traversal controls.

Credential-free discovery and compact contract (2.8.24)

MCP clients and directory inspectors can now complete initialize and tools/list before credentials are configured. Every actual tool call still fails closed until authentication and project selection are present. The default tools/list response exposes the same 13-tool core as hosted Snipara, while SNIPARA_TOOL_PROFILE=full retains direct discovery of all specialist compatibility tools. Core tools now include complete selection guidance, behavior annotations, and nested parameter documentation for safer agent use.

Agent-readable tool contracts (2.8.23)

The connector now preserves detailed tool descriptions and MCP behavior annotations from the hosted source of truth. Summary, coordination, state, memory, and code graph tools explain their prerequisites, access rules, side effects, idempotence, alternatives, parameters, outputs, and common failure modes so agents can choose them safely. Native output schemas remain deferred until the transport and structured result format upgrade together.

Unified conversational Inbox review (2.8.22)

Human team admins can list the same memory candidates and ProjectDecision drafts shown by the multi-project Dashboard Inbox, create evidence-backed approve/reject/needs-human recommendations, and atomically apply an explicitly authorized snapshot. The service revalidates the human team-admin identity, project ownership, current candidate states, and immutable item snapshots before recording authority audits. Real credentials remain addressable for rejection but are redacted from MCP output. The earlier ProjectDecision-only tools remain available as specialist compatibility tools.

Conversational decision review (2.8.21)

Agents can list pending ProjectDecision drafts, propose evidence-backed approve/reject/needs-human recommendations, and apply an explicitly authorized snapshot-bound plan. Apply requires a human project admin and fails closed if a draft changed after planning; there is no live wildcard approval.

Structured Why Capture task commits (2.8.20)

snipara_end_of_task_commit now accepts an atomic why block with decision, rationale, alternatives, constraints, and observed_outcome. Structured candidates stay pending until human review, and unknown parameters fail closed instead of being silently ignored.

Retrieval outcome controls (2.8.19)

The stdio connector forwards the hosted server's bounded retrieval-outcome controls for context_query and recall: optional task correlation, shadow or enabled rerank requests, and the strict context attribution window. The hosted server remains authoritative, so a client request can lower or disable the configured mode but cannot escalate it.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    Agents["Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT, OpenAI agents"] --> Stdio["snipara-mcp stdio process"]
    Stdio --> Hosted["Hosted Snipara MCP API"]
    Hosted --> Context["Context engine"]
    Hosted --> Memory["Project memory"]
    Hosted --> Graph["Code graph"]
    Context --> AgentLLM["Agent's own LLM"]
    Memory --> AgentLLM
    Graph --> AgentLLM

Hosted HTTP Or Stdio?

Use the hosted HTTP endpoint when your MCP client supports streamable HTTP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "snipara": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.snipara.com/mcp/your-project-id-or-slug",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer snp-your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Use snipara-mcp when your client expects a local stdio command:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "snipara": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["snipara-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SNIPARA_API_KEY": "snp-your-key",
        "SNIPARA_PROJECT_ID": "your-project-id-or-slug"
      }
    }
  }
}

Decision rule:

• HTTP MCP first for modern clients
• snipara-mcp for stdio-only clients or local compatibility
• create-snipara when you want guided setup across clients and templates

Install

No local install:

uvx snipara-mcp

Python package:

pip install snipara-mcp

With RLM Runtime helper integration:

pip install "snipara-mcp[rlm]"

Quickstart

Sign in through the browser:

pip install snipara-mcp
snipara login

Initialize a project:

snipara init

The initializer detects common project files, writes MCP configuration, and can upload local project docs when you are authenticated.

Useful options:

snipara init --slug my-project
snipara init --dry-run
snipara init --no-upload
snipara init --skip-test

Claude Code

claude mcp add snipara uvx snipara-mcp

Then export credentials in your shell:

export SNIPARA_API_KEY="snp-your-key"
export SNIPARA_PROJECT_ID="your-project-id-or-slug"

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "snipara": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["snipara-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SNIPARA_API_KEY": "snp-your-key",
        "SNIPARA_PROJECT_ID": "your-project-id-or-slug"
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment

OAuth tokens created by snipara login are stored in ~/.snipara/tokens.json. If a project id or slug is set, the connector selects the matching token and does not silently fall back to another project.

What You Get

The connector exposes the same compact default MCP contract as the hosted backend. The packaged full compatibility surface is generated from the server source of truth and is available with SNIPARA_TOOL_PROFILE=full.

Common tool groups:

• retrieval: snipara_context_query, snipara_search, snipara_get_chunk, snipara_load_document
• durable memory: snipara_recall, snipara_remember, snipara_memory_compact
• owner-aware bootstrap: snipara_session_memories, snipara_owner_profile_get, snipara_owner_profile_update
• shared context: snipara_shared_context, collection and template tools
• document upload: snipara_upload_document, snipara_sync_documents
• project setup: client, project, and business-context workspace tools
• operations: snipara_settings, snipara_index_health, snipara_reindex
• code graph: snipara_code_* tools when code indexes are available
• coordination: swarm, hierarchical task, and state tools when enabled

Tool availability can vary by plan, hosted deployment, and project index state.

CLI Commands

Legacy aliases such as snipara-init, snipara-mcp-login, snipara-mcp-logout, and snipara-mcp-status are still supported.

Relationship To Other Repos

snipara-mcp is intentionally thin. It should be easy to install, easy to audit, and boring to operate. The heavy lifting stays in Snipara's hosted context and memory engine.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
ruff check .

The source of truth for the generated tool contract lives in the Snipara server. When backend tools change, regenerate the packaged contract before publishing this package.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.