mcp-dependency-explorer

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides intelligent access to your project's installed dependencies - explore documentation and source code directly from node_modules.

Features

• Documentation Cache: One-time initialization to cache all module documentation (README, docs/) for faster access
• List Modules: Discover all installed npm packages across your project, including monorepo workspaces
• Search: Regex-powered search through module source files (.ts, .tsx, .jsx, .d.ts, .css, .md, etc.)
• Read Files: Read module files with optional line range support
• TypeScript Symbols: List and inspect functions, classes, interfaces, types, enums, and variables
• Workspace Support: Automatically detects and scans monorepo structures (pnpm, yarn workspaces)

Installation

Via npm (Recommended)

npm install -g @kozer/mcp-dependency-explorer

From Source

git clone https://github.com/kozer/mcp-dependency-explorer.git
cd mcp-dependency-explorer
pnpm install
pnpm build

Usage

As MCP Server

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dependency-explorer": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "@kozer/mcp-dependency-explorer"]
    }
  }
}

Or if installed from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dependency-explorer": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["node", "/path/to/mcp-dependency-explorer/dist/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

1. list_modules

List all installed Node modules from all node_modules directories.

Parameters:

• root (optional): Project root directory (defaults to cwd)
• filter (optional): Filter by module name substring

Example:

// List all modules
list_modules();

// Filter by name
list_modules({ filter: "react" });

2. search

Search for patterns in module files with code snippets.

Parameters:

• module: Module name (exact or substring match)
• pattern: Regex pattern to search
• flags (optional): Regex flags (e.g., 'i' for case-insensitive)
• context (optional): Lines of context around match (default: 5)
• limit (optional): Max results (default: 20, max: 100)
• root (optional): Project root directory

Example:

// Search for useState in React
search({
  module: "react",
  pattern: "function useState",
  flags: "i",
  context: 10,
});

3. read_file

Read a file from a module with optional line range.

Parameters:

• module: Module name
• file: File path relative to module root
• startLine (optional): Start line (1-based)
• count (optional): Number of lines to read (max: 2000)
• root (optional): Project root directory

Example:

read_file({
  module: "fastify",
  file: "fastify.d.ts",
  startLine: 100,
  count: 50,
});

4. list_symbols

List TypeScript symbols (functions, classes, interfaces, etc.) from a module.

Parameters:

• module: Module name
• kind (optional): Filter by symbol type (function, class, interface, type, enum, namespace, variable)
• name (optional): Filter by symbol name (substring)
• limit (optional): Max results (default: 100, max: 500)
• root (optional): Project root directory

Example:

// List all symbols
list_symbols({ module: "fastify" });

// List only interfaces
list_symbols({ module: "fastify", kind: "interface" });

// Search for specific symbol name
list_symbols({ module: "fastify", name: "Request" });

5. get_symbol

Get the full code for a specific symbol with context.

Parameters:

• module: Module name
• file: File path relative to module root
• name: Symbol name
• padding (optional): Lines of padding around symbol (default: 10)
• root (optional): Project root directory

Example:

get_symbol({
  module: "fastify",
  file: "types/instance.d.ts",
  name: "FastifyInstance",
  padding: 15,
});

6. list_cached_docs

List all cached documentation files for a module.

Parameters:

• module: Module name
• root (optional): Project root directory

Response includes:

• cacheDir: Full path to cache directory
• moduleHash: Base64-encoded hash used as folder name
• totalDocs: Number of cached documentation files
• docs: Array of cached file paths

Example:

list_cached_docs({
  module: "react",
});

How It Works

1. Project Detection: Automatically finds your project root by looking for package.json and node_modules
2. Documentation Caching: On server initialization, caches all module documentation (README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE, docs/) to /tmp/mcp-node-modules-docs/ for faster access
3. Workspace Scanning: Detects monorepos (pnpm-workspace.yaml, yarn workspaces) and scans all workspace packages
4. TypeScript Analysis: Uses TypeScript compiler API to extract symbols with accurate type information
5. Intelligent Caching: Caches symbol indexes for fast repeated queries

Supported File Types

• TypeScript: .ts, .tsx, .d.ts
• JavaScript: .jsx
• Styles: .css, .scss, .sass, .less
• Documentation: .md, README.md

Development

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build
pnpm build

# Run server
pnpm start

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• TypeScript 5+
• Project with node_modules directory

License

MIT