wingman-mcp 0.2.1

An open-source MCP server that gives Claude conversations a persistent, interactive plan/to-do panel.

Wingman

An open-source MCP server that gives Claude a persistent, interactive plan panel — rendered inline in the chat.

Sits beside you. Doesn't fly the plane.

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What is Wingman?

Long Claude conversations lose track of what you were doing, what's done, and what's next. Wingman fixes that.

It gives every Claude conversation a persistent, interactive plan panel — rendered inline as a live UI widget. You click checkboxes. Claude ticks tasks after completing work. Either of you can add, reorder, or rename tasks at any time. The plan survives conversation restarts and lives in local SQLite on your machine.

Think of it as Cursor's plan agent, generalized to any Claude conversation and any goal.

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Install

pip install wingman-mcp

Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Requires Python 3.10+.

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Configure

Add Wingman to your MCP host config and restart. One block, one restart.

Claude Desktop

First, install with pipx for the simplest setup:

pipx install wingman-mcp

Then add to your config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wingman": {
      "command": "wingman"
    }
  }
}

If you installed with pip instead, use the full Python path. Find it by running which python3 in Terminal, then:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wingman": {
      "command": "/path/from/which/python3",
      "args": ["-m", "wingman"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json in your project root, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wingman": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "wingman"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code Copilot Chat

.vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "wingman": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "wingman"]
    }
  }
}

Note: The interactive panel requires a host with MCP Apps support (SEP-1865). Claude Desktop and MCPJam render it fully. Cursor and VS Code Copilot Chat receive a clean text fallback — all tools still work.

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How it works

1. Build a plan with Claude

Just describe what you're working on. Claude creates the plan and renders the panel inline:

You: I want to ship Wingman this weekend — README, PyPI, GitHub, launch post.
     Create a plan.

Claude: [calls create_plan → panel mounts with tasks already populated]

2. Start with an empty plan, let Claude fill it

You: Create an empty plan called "Wingman launch"

Claude: [panel mounts showing the empty state]

Hit Build from our conversation → in the panel. Claude scans your chat history and populates tasks from what you've already discussed.

3. Work through it together

• Click a checkbox to tick a task manually
• Click ▶ Run on any task to send it back to Claude as a framed prompt — Claude works on it and ticks it when done
• Drag the ⋮⋮ handle to reorder tasks as priorities shift
• Click the title to rename the plan inline
• Tasks persist in local SQLite — survive restarts, survive new conversations

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Screenshots

Empty state — ready to build The panel mounts with a feather icon and a single CTA. One click scans your conversation and populates tasks.	Populated plan Progress card, task list with checkboxes, drag handles, and run buttons. Always visible, never hover-only.
Task ticked — progress updates live Checkbox turns green, strikethrough applied, progress bar advances. State syncs via live polling across any open panels.	3-dot menu Rename plan, Clear completed, Build from conversation, Clear all tasks, Export as markdown, and Delete plan.

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Tool reference

Wingman exposes 12 tools to Claude. You don't call these directly — just describe what you want and Claude picks the right one.

Tool	What it does
create_plan	Create a new named plan with optional initial tasks
show_plan	Render the interactive panel inline in chat
show_plans	Render a clickable plan picker inline in chat
get_plan	Return plan state as formatted text (no panel)
add_task	Append a single task to a plan
add_tasks	Append multiple tasks in one call
tick_task	Mark a task done (Claude calls this after completing work)
update_task_status	Set status: pending / in_progress / done / blocked
rename_plan	Rename a plan
reorder_tasks	Reorder tasks by ID list
list_plans	List all plans with task counts
delete_plan	Delete a plan and all its tasks

There are also 14 internal _ui_* tools used by the panel itself — hidden from Claude, not part of the public API.

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Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  MCP Host  (Claude Desktop / Cursor / MCPJam)        │
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Claude LLM  │────▶│  Wingman MCP Server       │  │
│  └──────────────┘     │  (stdio transport)        │  │
│         ▲             │                            │  │
│         │             │  12 LLM-visible tools      │  │
│  sendMessage()        │  14 UI-only tools          │  │
│         │             │  ui:// resource (panel)    │  │
│  ┌──────────────┐     │  SQLite store              │  │
│  │  Wingman     │◀────│                            │  │
│  │  Panel       │     └──────────────────────────┘  │
│  │  (iframe)    │  JSON-RPC over postMessage         │
│  └──────────────┘                                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
               platformdirs.user_data_dir()
                              │
                         plans.db (SQLite)

Stack: Python 3.10+, FastMCP, SQLite + platformdirs, vanilla HTML/CSS/JS, Sortable.js. No external runtime network calls anywhere.

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Security & privacy

• No telemetry. No phone-home. No network calls anywhere. Wingman is a local state-tracking server. Zero outbound connections on any tool path — audited and tested.
• Local-only by default. stdio transport. Your plans live on your machine.
• Sandboxed UI. The panel runs in a host-sandboxed iframe with a strict CSP (connect-src 'self'). No cross-origin access.
• Parameterized SQL throughout. No string-built queries. Validated via full test suite.
• Path-traversal safe. Plan names are allow-list validated — letters, digits, space, hyphen, underscore, apostrophe, period, colon, parentheses. Slashes, backslashes, .. sequences, null bytes, newlines, and tabs are blocked.

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vs. alternatives

	Wingman	text-only MCP todos	Cursor plan agent
Interactive UI panel	✅ inline iframe	❌	✅ code-only
Works in Claude Desktop	✅	✅	❌
One-click Run task	✅	❌	✅
Build from conversation	✅	❌	❌
Drag-to-reorder	✅	❌	❌
Persists across restarts	✅ SQLite	varies	❌
Any goal / domain	✅	✅	❌ code only
No telemetry	✅	varies	❌

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Known limitations in v0.2

• Live polling runs every 2.5s (10s after 30s idle). Server-pushed updates via MCP notifications are v0.3.
• Mobile Claude (claude.ai mobile) requires a hosted HTTP/SSE server. Local stdio can't reach mobile clients. Wingman Cloud addresses this.

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Roadmap

Wingman Cloud — next

HTTP/SSE transport · OAuth 2.1 · Postgres with user scoping · Fly.io / Railway hosting · mobile Claude support · cross-device plan access

v0.2 — shipped ✓

Plan picker (show_plans) · full menu actions (clear all, export, delete) · per-plan task numbering · wider plan-name support ('.:()) · smarter polling backoff · "Build from conversation" in 3-dot menu

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Development troubleshooting

Panel doesn't appear after code changes: The served HTML is cached in memory for the subprocess lifetime. Restart Claude Desktop fully (quit from tray, don't just close the window) after any change to ui/static/*. Hard-refresh the host webview (Ctrl+Shift+R in MCPJam) after restart. The build timestamp in the panel footer confirms which build is live.

Tools don't appear after config change: Quit Claude Desktop fully — closing the window leaves the MCP subprocess running with the old config.

wingman --help shows an MCP protocol error: Expected. Wingman is an MCP server, not a CLI tool. It speaks JSON-RPC over stdio — running it directly in a terminal produces a protocol handshake error. Use it via your MCP host config.

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Contributing

Issues, PRs, and feedback welcome. This is v0.2 — rough edges exist and are documented above.

If you hit a host-specific rendering quirk (especially on Cursor or VS Code Copilot Chat), open an issue with your host version and what you observed. Host-side MCP Apps behavior varies and real-world reports are the fastest way to track it.

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License

MIT — © 2026 Adeolu Adesina

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Built with FastMCP · Powered by MCP Apps (SEP-1865) · Published on PyPI