@manuelvanrijn/seek-mcp-server

MCP stdio server package that exposes the seek CLI as one read-only tool: seek_search.

Install seek CLI

seek project: https://github.com/dualeai/seek

Quick install:

go install github.com/dualeai/seek/cmd/seek@latest

Then verify:

seek -version

Use the published npm package

You can run it directly with npx (no global install required).

VS Code MCP config example:

{
	"servers": {
		"seek-mcp-server": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@manuelvanrijn/seek-mcp-server"]
		}
	}
}

Optional: force a specific workspace root for seek execution.

Optional environment variables:

• SEEK_WORKSPACE_ROOT: absolute path passed to seek as its working directory.
• SEEK_TIMEOUT_MS: per-search timeout in milliseconds. Leave unset to let seek run until it finishes.

{
	"servers": {
		"seek-mcp-server": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@manuelvanrijn/seek-mcp-server"],
			"env": {
				"SEEK_WORKSPACE_ROOT": "/absolute/path/to/repo",
				"SEEK_TIMEOUT_MS": "30000"
			}
		}
	}
}

Agent-facing query guidance

seek_search is best for named code lookup and scoped local search.

Use it for:

• known symbol, class, or method lookup
• filename or path lookup
• scoped content search with language or path filters
• ranked code search where relevance matters

Do not use it as the first tool for architecture, pattern, flow, or how/why questions. Those are better served by semantic/codebase-understanding tools.

Also do not use it as the first tool for callers, references, implementations, or type information when an LSP tool is available.

The MCP tool accepts one argument named query. Pass the full seek query as one string and combine filters inside that string.

Useful query patterns:

• sym:handleRequest — definition lookup via ctags
• type:file config — filename lookup only
• handleRequest file:api -file:test — path include/exclude filters
• content:async def.*handler lang:python — content search scoped to one language
• regex:class\s+Validator — explicit regex search
• (lang:go or lang:python) ValidationError — boolean grouping

Result behavior:

• results are ranked by relevance
• results are grouped by file
• no matches return (no results) rather than an error

Test

Run the integration test suite:

npm test

The test lives at tests/integration/seek-mcp-visible-test.mjs.

Releasing

Publishing to npm is fully automated via .github/workflows/publish.yml, triggered by pushing a v*.*.* tag.

From a clean main:

git switch main && git pull
npm version patch   # or: minor | major
git push --follow-tags

npm version bumps package.json + package-lock.json, creates a commit and annotated tag vX.Y.Z. The tag push triggers the workflow, which:

1. Verifies the tag matches package.json version.
2. Creates a GitHub Release with auto-generated notes.
3. Publishes to npm with --provenance (OIDC / sigstore).