DocServer

A version-aware MCP documentation server. Indexes docs from your tools, skills, and CLIs into a searchable SQLite database with full-text search (FTS5). Checks versions daily and only re-indexes when something changes.

What It Does

• Tracks tool versions — knows when OpenClaw, skills, or CLIs get updated
• Indexes documentation — markdown files, CLI help output, anything text-based
• Full-text search — FTS5-powered search across all indexed docs
• MCP protocol — exposes tools via Model Context Protocol (stdio transport)
• Daily refresh — cron job checks for version changes and re-indexes as needed

Architecture

┌─────────────┐     stdio      ┌─────────────┐     SQLite/FTS5     ┌──────────┐
│  MCP Client │ ◄────────────► │  server.mjs │ ◄──────────────────► │ docs.db  │
│  (mcporter, │                │  (Node.js)  │                      │          │
│   agent,    │                └──────┬──────┘                      └──────────┘
│   Claude)   │                       │
└─────────────┘                       │ reads from
                                      ▼
                              ┌───────────────┐
                              │  Doc Sources   │
                              │  - local dirs  │
                              │  - CLI --help  │
                              │  - skill files │
                              └───────────────┘

Files

| File | Purpose | |---|---| | server.mjs | MCP server — handles all tool calls, DB operations, doc ingestion | | refresh.sh | Cron wrapper — runs a one-shot refresh and logs results |

| package.json | Node dependencies | | .gitignore | Excludes node_modules/ from version control |

Dependencies

• Node.js >= 18
• npm packages: @modelcontextprotocol/sdk, better-sqlite3, glob
• No external services required — everything is local SQLite

Installation

# 1. Clone or copy the docserver directory
mkdir -p ~/docserver
cp server.mjs refresh.sh package.json ~/docserver/
cd ~/docserver

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Create the data directory (auto-created on first run too)
mkdir -p ~/.docserver

# 4. Run initial index
# This starts the server, seeds default tools, indexes everything, then exits
printf '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"setup","version":"1.0"}}}\n{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"docs_refresh","arguments":{}}}\n' | node server.mjs

# 5. (Optional) Register with mcporter
mcporter config add docserver \
  --command node \
  --arg ~/docserver/server.mjs \
  --scope home \
  --description "Version-aware tool documentation server with FTS5 search"

# 6. Verify
mcporter call docserver.docs_list

MCP Tools

docs_list

List all tracked tools with versions, page counts, and last update times.

mcporter call docserver.docs_list

docs_search

Full-text search across all indexed documentation.

| Param | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | query | string | yes | Search terms | | tool | string | no | Filter to one tool | | limit | number | no | Max results (default 10) |

mcporter call docserver.docs_search query="model config primary"
mcporter call docserver.docs_search query="heartbeat" tool="openclaw"

docs_get

Retrieve full documentation content for a tool.

| Param | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | tool | string | yes | Tool name (e.g. openclaw, skill:discord, gh) | | section | string | no | Specific section (omit for all) |

mcporter call docserver.docs_get tool="openclaw" section="configuration"
mcporter call docserver.docs_get tool="gh"

docs_refresh

Check versions and re-index any tools that changed. Skips unchanged tools.

| Param | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | tool | string | no | Refresh one tool (omit for all) |

mcporter call docserver.docs_refresh
mcporter call docserver.docs_refresh tool="openclaw"

docs_add

Register a new tool for tracking.

| Param | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | name | string | yes | Unique tool identifier | | type | string | yes | openclaw, skill, cli, or api | | source | string | yes | Path to docs dir, or cmd:command for CLI help | | version_cmd | string | no | Shell command that outputs the version |

# Track a local docs directory
mcporter call docserver.docs_add \
  name="myapp" type="cli" \
  source="cmd:myapp --help" \
  version_cmd="myapp --version"

# Track a directory of markdown files
mcporter call docserver.docs_add \
  name="wiki" type="api" \
  source="/path/to/wiki/docs"

docs_remove

Remove a tool and all its indexed pages.

mcporter call docserver.docs_remove name="myapp"

Daily Cron Refresh

The refresh script runs the server in one-shot mode, calls docs_refresh, and logs a summary.

# Add to crontab (runs at 4:15 AM daily)
crontab -e
# Add this line:
15 4 * * * /home/pinchy/docserver/refresh.sh >> ~/.docserver/refresh.log 2>&1

Log output looks like:

[docserver refresh] 2026-03-02T04:15:01-05:00
  Total: 63 | Updated: 2 | Unchanged: 61
  ↻ openclaw → v2026.3.1 (654 pages)
  ↻ gh → v2.47.0 (1 pages)

CLI Wrapper (Optional)

A convenience script at ~/.local/bin/docserver:

docserver list              # Show all tracked tools
docserver search "query"    # Full-text search
docserver get openclaw      # Get all docs for a tool
docserver get openclaw gateway  # Get specific section
docserver refresh           # Run manual refresh

To install:

# Copy the wrapper (see below) to ~/.local/bin/docserver
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/docserver
# Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH

How It Decides What to Index

On first run (docs_refresh):

1. Seeds default tools — auto-detects OpenClaw install, all skills, common CLIs on PATH
2. Runs version commands for each tool
3. Ingests all docs (markdown files from directories, or --help output from CLIs)

On subsequent runs:

1. Runs version commands again
2. Compares to stored version
3. Only re-indexes if version changed — skips everything else
4. Skills without version commands always skip after first index (re-index manually with docs_refresh tool="skill:name")

Database

• Location: ~/.docserver/docs.db (override with DOCSERVER_DATA env var)
• Engine: SQLite with WAL mode
• Tables:
  • tools — registered tools, versions, sources
  • doc_pages — individual doc pages with content
  • doc_fts — FTS5 virtual table for full-text search

What Gets Indexed (Current Defaults)

| Tool | Type | Source | Pages | |---|---|---|---| | openclaw | core | ~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/docs/ | ~654 | | skill:* | skill | Each skill's directory (SKILL.md + any .md files) | 1-7 each | | gh | cli | gh --help output | 1 | | git | cli | git --help output | 1 | | camsnap | cli | camsnap --help output | 1 | | mcporter | cli | mcporter --help output | 1 | | ffmpeg | cli | ffmpeg -h output (first 50 lines) | 1 |

Future Plans

• HTTP/SSE transport — run as a network service, not just stdio
• Docker container — host-independent, run anywhere
• Remote doc sources — fetch from URLs, npm registries, GitHub releases, swagger endpoints
• API docs — Home Assistant, Frigate, Portainer, Gitea swagger auto-import
• Semantic search — RAGFlow integration alongside FTS5 keyword search