🦀 MCP Rust Docs Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for fetching Rust crate documentation from docs.rs using the rustdoc JSON API

Features • Installation • Usage • Building • Development • Notes • Contributing • License

✨ Features

• 🚀 Fast Documentation Fetching - Direct access to rustdoc JSON API for comprehensive crate documentation
• 🔍 Item-Level Lookup - Query specific structs, functions, traits, and more within crates
• 💾 Smart Caching - Built-in LRU cache with SQLite backend for optimal performance
• 🎯 Version Support - Fetch docs for specific versions or use semver ranges
• 🖥️ Cross-Platform - Standalone executables for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• 📦 Zero Dependencies - Single executable with everything bundled
• 🔧 TypeScript - Full type safety with modern ES modules
• 🗜️ Compression Support - Automatic Zstd decompression for efficient data transfer

📦 Installation

Using Bun

bun install
bun run build:bytecode # or bun run build:all for all platforms

Using Pre-built Executables

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

Linux

• x64/AMD64 (GLIBC): mcp-docsrs-linux-x64 - For Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.
• ARM64 (GLIBC): mcp-docsrs-linux-arm64 - For ARM64 systems, AWS Graviton
• x64/AMD64 (MUSL): mcp-docsrs-linux-x64-musl - For Alpine Linux, Docker containers (requires libstdc++)
• ARM64 (MUSL): mcp-docsrs-linux-arm64-musl - For Alpine on ARM64, minimal containers (requires libstdc++)

macOS

• Intel: mcp-docsrs-darwin-x64 - For Intel-based Macs
• Apple Silicon: mcp-docsrs-darwin-arm64 - For M1/M2/M3 Macs

Windows

• x64: mcp-docsrs-windows-x64.exe - For 64-bit Windows

Using Docker

Pull and run the latest multi-arch image (supports both x64 and ARM64):

# Pull the latest image
docker pull ghcr.io/vexxvakan/mcp-docsrs:latest

# Run the server
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/vexxvakan/mcp-docsrs:latest

# Run with custom configuration
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/vexxvakan/mcp-docsrs:latest \
  --cache-ttl 7200000 --max-cache-size 200

Available tags:

• latest - Latest stable release (multi-arch)
• v1.0.0 - Specific version (multi-arch)
• x64 - Latest x64/AMD64 build
• arm64 - Latest ARM64 build

🚀 Usage

Starting the Server

Using npm or Bun

# Production mode
npm start
# or
bun start

# Development mode with hot reload
npm run dev
# or
bun run dev

Using Executable

# Show help
mcp-docsrs --help

# Run with default settings
mcp-docsrs

# Run with custom configuration
mcp-docsrs --cache-ttl 7200000 --max-cache-size 200

🛠️ Available Tools

lookup_crate_docs

Fetches comprehensive documentation for an entire Rust crate.

Parameters:

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | crateName | string | ✅ | Name of the Rust crate | | version | string | ❌ | Specific version or semver range (e.g., "1.0.0", "~4") | | target | string | ❌ | Target platform (e.g., "i686-pc-windows-msvc") | | formatVersion | string | ❌ | Rustdoc JSON format version |

Example:

{
  "tool": "lookup_crate_docs",
  "arguments": {
    "crateName": "serde",
    "version": "latest"
  }
}

lookup_item_docs

Fetches documentation for a specific item within a crate.

Parameters:

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | crateName | string | ✅ | Name of the Rust crate | | itemPath | string | ✅ | Path to the item (e.g., "struct.MyStruct", "fn.my_function") | | version | string | ❌ | Specific version or semver range | | target | string | ❌ | Target platform |

Example:

{
  "tool": "lookup_item_docs",
  "arguments": {
    "crateName": "tokio",
    "itemPath": "runtime.Runtime"
  }
}

search_crates

Search for Rust crates on crates.io with fuzzy/partial name matching.

Parameters:

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | query | string | ✅ | Search query for crate names (supports partial matches) | | limit | number | ❌ | Maximum number of results to return (default: 10) |

Example:

{
  "tool": "search_crates",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "serde",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

📊 Resources

The server provides resources for querying and inspecting the cache database:

cache://stats

Returns cache statistics including total entries, size, and oldest entry.

Example:

{
  "totalEntries": 42,
  "totalSize": 1048576,
  "oldestEntry": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

cache://entries?limit={limit}&offset={offset}

Lists cached entries with metadata. Supports pagination.

Parameters:

• limit - Number of entries to return (default: 100)
• offset - Number of entries to skip (default: 0)

Example:

[
  {
    "key": "serde/latest/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu",
    "timestamp": "2024-01-15T14:20:00.000Z",
    "ttl": 3600000,
    "expiresAt": "2024-01-15T15:20:00.000Z",
    "size": 524288
  }
]

cache://query?sql={sql}

Execute SQL queries on the cache database (SELECT queries only for safety).

Example:

cache://query?sql=SELECT key, timestamp FROM cache WHERE key LIKE '%tokio%' ORDER BY timestamp DESC

Note: SQL queries in the URI should be URL-encoded. The server will automatically decode them.

cache://config

Returns the current server configuration including all runtime parameters.

Example response:

{
  "cacheTtl": 7200000,
  "maxCacheSize": 200,
  "requestTimeout": 30000,
  "dbPath": "/Users/vexx/Repos/mcp-docsrs/.cache"
}

⚙️ Configuration

Configure the server using environment variables or command-line arguments:

| Variable | CLI Flag | Default | Description | |----------|----------|---------|-------------| | CACHE_TTL | --cache-ttl | 3600000 | Cache time-to-live in milliseconds | | MAX_CACHE_SIZE | --max-cache-size | 100 | Maximum number of cached entries | | REQUEST_TIMEOUT | --request-timeout | 30000 | HTTP request timeout in milliseconds | | DB_PATH | --db-path | :memory: | Path to SQLite database file (use :memory: for in-memory) |

Example:

# Environment variables
CACHE_TTL=7200000 MAX_CACHE_SIZE=200 npm start

# Command-line arguments (executable)
./mcp-docsrs --cache-ttl 7200000 --max-cache-size 200

# Use persistent database to cache documentation between sessions
./mcp-docsrs --db-path ~/.mcp-docsrs

# Or with environment variable
DB_PATH=~/.mcp-docsrs npm start

🔌 MCP Configuration

Add to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rust-docs": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp-docsrs/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Or using the executable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rust-docs": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-docsrs"
    }
  }
}

Or using Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rust-docs": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "ghcr.io/vexxvakan/mcp-docsrs:latest"]
    }
  }
}

🏗️ Building

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.2.14 or later
• macOS, Linux, or Windows

Build Commands

# Build for current platform
bun run build

# Build with bytecode compilation (standalone, requires Bun runtime)
bun run build:bytecode

# Build for all platforms (7 targets, all with bytecode for fast startup)
bun run build:all

# Linux builds (GLIBC - standard)
bun run build:linux-x64      # Linux x64/AMD64
bun run build:linux-arm64    # Linux ARM64

# Linux builds (MUSL - for Alpine/containers)
bun run build:linux-x64-musl    # Linux x64/AMD64 (Alpine)
bun run build:linux-arm64-musl  # Linux ARM64 (Alpine)

# macOS builds
bun run build:darwin-x64     # macOS Intel
bun run build:darwin-arm64   # macOS Apple Silicon

# Windows build
bun run build:windows-x64    # Windows x64

Build Output

All executables are created in the dist/ directory with bytecode compilation for fast startup:

| File | Platform | Type | Size | |------|----------|------|------| | mcp-docsrs-linux-x64 | Linux x64/AMD64 | GLIBC + Bytecode | 99MB | | mcp-docsrs-linux-arm64 | Linux ARM64 | GLIBC + Bytecode | 93MB | | mcp-docsrs-linux-x64-musl | Linux x64/AMD64 | MUSL (static) + Bytecode | 92MB | | mcp-docsrs-linux-arm64-musl | Linux ARM64 | MUSL (static) + Bytecode | 88MB | | mcp-docsrs-darwin-x64 | macOS Intel | Bytecode | 64MB | | mcp-docsrs-darwin-arm64 | macOS Apple Silicon | Bytecode | 58MB | | mcp-docsrs-windows-x64.exe | Windows x64 | Bytecode | 113MB |

👨‍💻 Development

Development Workflow

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Run in development mode
bun run dev

# Run tests
bun test

# Lint code
bun run lint

# Type checking
bun run typecheck

# Check build sizes (updates README table)
bun run check:sizes  # Run after building

Testing

The project includes comprehensive tests for all major components:

# Run all tests
bun test

# Run tests in watch mode
bun test --watch

# Run specific test file
bun test cache.test.ts

# Run tests with full error logging (including expected errors)
LOG_EXPECTED_ERRORS=true bun test

Test Output

Tests are configured to provide clean output by default:

• ✅ Expected errors (like CrateNotFoundError in 404 tests) show as green checkmarks: ✓ Expected CrateNotFoundError thrown
• ❌ Unexpected errors are shown with full stack traces in red
• ℹ️ Info logs are shown to track test execution

This makes it easy to distinguish between:

• Tests that verify error handling (expected errors)
• Actual test failures (unexpected errors)

To see full error details for debugging, set LOG_EXPECTED_ERRORS=true.

Project Structure

mcp-docsrs/
├── src/                        # Source code
│   ├── cli.ts                  # CLI entry point with argument parsing
│   ├── index.ts                # MCP server entry point
│   ├── server.ts               # MCP server implementation with tool/resource handlers
│   ├── cache.ts                # LRU cache with SQLite persistence
│   ├── docs-fetcher.ts         # HTTP client for docs.rs JSON API
│   ├── rustdoc-parser.ts       # Parser for rustdoc JSON format
│   ├── errors.ts               # Custom error types and error handling
│   ├── types.ts                # TypeScript types and Zod schemas
│   └── tools/                  # MCP tool implementations
│       ├── index.ts            # Tool exports and registration
│       ├── lookup-crate.ts     # Fetch complete crate documentation
│       ├── lookup-item.ts      # Fetch specific item documentation
│       └── search-crates.ts    # Search crates on crates.io
├── test/                       # Test files
│   ├── cache.test.ts           # Cache functionality tests
│   ├── cache-status.test.ts    # Cache status and metrics tests
│   ├── docs-fetcher.test.ts    # API client tests
│   ├── integration.test.ts     # End-to-end integration tests
│   ├── persistent-cache.test.ts # SQLite cache persistence tests
│   ├── rustdoc-parser.test.ts  # JSON parser tests
│   └── search-crates.test.ts   # Crate search tests
├── scripts/                    # Development and testing scripts
│   ├── test-crates-search.ts   # Manual crate search testing
│   ├── test-mcp.ts             # MCP server testing
│   ├── test-persistent-cache.ts # Cache persistence testing
│   ├── test-resources.ts       # Resource endpoint testing
│   └── test-zstd.ts            # Zstandard compression testing
├── plans/                      # Project planning documents
│   └── feature-recommendations.md # Future feature ideas
├── dist/                       # Build output (platform executables)
├── .github/                    # GitHub Actions workflows
│   ├── workflows/              # CI/CD pipeline definitions
│   └── ...                     # Various automation configs
├── CLAUDE.md                   # AI assistant instructions
├── README.md                   # Project documentation
├── LICENSE                     # Apache 2.0 license
├── package.json                # Project dependencies and scripts
├── tsconfig.json               # TypeScript configuration
├── biome.json                  # Code formatter/linter config
└── bun.lock                    # Bun package lock file

📝 Notes

• 📅 The rustdoc JSON feature on docs.rs started on 2025-05-23, so releases before that date won't have JSON available
• 🔄 The server automatically handles redirects and format version compatibility
• ⚡ Cached responses significantly improve performance for repeated lookups
• 📦 Built executables include all dependencies - no runtime installation required
• ⚠️ MUSL builds limitation: Due to a known Bun issue, MUSL builds are not fully static and require libstdc++ to run. For Docker/Alpine deployments, install libstdc++ with: apk add libstdc++

🤝 Contributing

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

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

🙏 Acknowledgments

• docs.rs for providing the Rust documentation API
• Model Context Protocol for the MCP specification
• The Rust community for excellent documentation standards

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Made with ❤️ for the Rust community

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