@ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides semantic search and intelligent access to the free-for-dev repository - a comprehensive list of free services and tools for developers.

Features

• 🔍 Semantic Search: Natural language search using Fuse.js for fuzzy matching
• ⚡ Smart Caching: LRU cache for fast responses and persistent disk cache
• 🎯 Advanced Filtering: Filter by categories, tags, and custom queries
• 🤖 AI-Optimized: Designed specifically for LLM context consumption
• 📊 Rich Analytics: Service popularity ranking and similarity matching
• 🚀 High Performance: Built with Bun for blazing-fast execution

Installation

As an NPM Package

npm install -g @ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp.git
cd free-for-dev-mcp

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Build the server
bun run build

# Run the server
bun start

MCP Client Configuration

Claude Code

Quick setup with Claude Code:

claude mcp add free-for-dev -- npx @ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp

Cursor IDE

Add to your Cursor MCP configuration in the Cursor Settings

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "free-for-dev": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code with Continue

Add to your Continue configuration:

{
  "models": [...],
  "mcpServers": {
    "free-for-dev": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Custom MCP Client

import { Client } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js';
import { StdioClientTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/stdio.js';
import { spawn } from 'child_process';

const transport = new StdioClientTransport({
  command: 'npx',
  args: ['@ariburaco/free-for-dev-mcp']
});

const client = new Client({
  name: 'my-client',
  version: '1.0.0'
});

await client.connect(transport);

// Use the tools
const result = await client.callTool({
  name: 'semantic_search',
  arguments: {
    query: 'free cloud database with good limits',
    limit: 5
  }
});

Available Tools

🔍 semantic_search

Advanced natural language search with fuzzy matching and relevance scoring.

{
  query: string;      // Natural language search query
  category?: string;  // Filter by category
  tags?: string[];    // Filter by tags
  limit?: number;     // Max results (default: 10, max: 50)
}

🔎 search_services

Traditional keyword-based search.

{
  query?: string;     // Search query
  category?: string;  // Filter by category
  tags?: string[];    // Filter by tags
  limit?: number;     // Max results (default: 10)
}

🔗 get_similar_services

Find services similar to a given service based on tags and category.

{
  serviceName: string;  // Name of the service
  limit?: number;       // Max results (default: 5)
}

⭐ get_popular_services

Get the most comprehensive and popular free services.

{
  limit?: number;  // Number of services (default: 10)
}

📁 list_categories

List all available service categories.

{
  withCount?: boolean;  // Include service count per category
}

ℹ️ get_service

Get detailed information about a specific service.

{
  name?: string;  // Service name
  url?: string;   // Service URL
}

🏷️ list_tags

List all available tags across all services.

📊 get_stats

Get statistics about the service database and cache.

🔄 refresh_data

Refresh the data from the GitHub repository.

Examples

Finding Cloud Databases

// Using semantic search for natural language queries
{
  "tool": "semantic_search",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "cloud database with generous free tier",
    "tags": ["database"],
    "limit": 5
  }
}

Finding Similar Services

// Find services similar to Supabase
{
  "tool": "get_similar_services",
  "arguments": {
    "serviceName": "Supabase",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

Getting Popular Services by Category

// Get popular API services
{
  "tool": "semantic_search",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "api",
    "category": "APIs, Data, and ML",
    "limit": 10
  }
}

Development

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Run in development mode
bun run dev

# Run tests
bun test

# Run tests with UI
bun run test:ui

# Check types
bun run typecheck

# Build for production
bun run build

Architecture

• Parser: Fetches and parses the free-for-dev README from GitHub
• Search Engine: Fuse.js-based semantic search with caching
• Cache Manager: Two-tier caching (memory + disk) for optimal performance
• MCP Server: Implements the Model Context Protocol with 9 specialized tools

Performance

• ⚡ Sub-second responses for cached queries
• 📦 1,500+ services indexed and searchable
• 🔄 24-hour cache with automatic refresh
• 💾 Persistent cache survives server restarts

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT - See LICENSE file for details.

Credits

• Data source: free-for-dev by ripienaar
• Built with Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
• Powered by Bun runtime

Support

For issues and feature requests, please visit our GitHub repository.

NPM Package