MCP Commander

Exposes Sublime Text to AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) via the Model Context Protocol. The MCP server is built directly into the ST plugin — no separate process or external dependency required.

63 tools covering reading, navigation, editing, searching, build, Terminus integration, settings, layout, menus, console log, and live Python scripting.

Architecture

The plugin runs two local servers on startup:

| Server | Default port | Purpose | |--------|-------------|---------| | MCP SSE | 9502 (Win) / 9503 (Mac/Linux) | MCP 2024-11-05 SSE transport — connect your agent here | | HTTP bridge | 9500 (Win) / 9501 (Mac/Linux) | Internal REST API used by the SSE dispatcher |

Claude Code (MCP client)
        │  MCP SSE  (port 9502)
        ▼
  sublime_mcp.py  ←  ST plugin — MCP server + HTTP bridge, all in one file
        │  sublime API
        ▼
  Sublime Text 4

Installation

1. Install via Package Control

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Run Package Control: Install Package
3. Search for MCP Commander and install

The plugin loads automatically. Check View › Show Console for:

sublime-mcp: MCP SSE on 127.0.0.1:9502, HTTP bridge on 127.0.0.1:9500

Manual install: copy sublime_mcp.py (and optionally sublime_mcp_browse.py) into your Packages/User/ folder.

2. Register with Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json under "mcpServers":

Windows:

"sublime-mcp": { "type": "sse", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9502/sse" }

Mac / Linux:

"sublime-mcp": { "type": "sse", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9503/sse" }

Restart Claude Code. Tools appear with the mcp__sublime-mcp__ prefix.

Server management

The MCP server starts automatically when ST loads the plugin. To stop or restart it, open the Command Palette and run:

MCP Commander: Server Status

The panel shows whether the server is running and on which port, and lets you start or stop it with a single keypress.

Tab and Sheet Indexing

IMPORTANT: Users refer to tabs by 1-based numbering (tab 1, tab 2, etc.), but get_sheets() returns 0-based indexes. Always convert user tab references before using:

• User tab 1 = index 0
• User tab 2 = index 1

When targeting a specific tab, call get_sheets() first to verify the index.

Tools

Read / Introspect

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | get_active_file | Path, full content, cursor line/col, dirty flag, and syntax name | | get_selection | Current selection(s): text and begin/end line+col for each | | get_cursor_context | lines lines above and below cursor, with 1-based line numbers prepended | | get_open_files | All files open in the current window (path, name, is_dirty) | | get_sheets | All sheets (tabs) in the window by index — includes images and untitled buffers | | get_sheet_content | Content of any tab by sheet index (from get_sheets) | | get_project_folders | Project root folder paths | | get_file_content | Full content of any already-open file by path | | get_view_content | Full content of any open tab by name (partial match, case-insensitive) | | get_view_size | Total character count of any open tab | | get_view_chars | Text at character offsets begin..end (0-based, end exclusive) | | get_view_phantoms | Phantom HTML and extracted plain text from a named view | | get_output_panel | Text content of a named output panel (name='exec' for build output) | | get_active_panel | Active panel id and, if it is an output panel, its content | | get_symbols | All symbols (functions, classes, etc.) in the active file with line numbers | | lookup_symbol | Find where a symbol is defined across all open files | | get_project_data | Raw .sublime-project JSON for the current project | | get_variables | ST build variables: $file, $project_path, $platform, etc. | | get_command_palette | Command Palette entries from installed *.sublime-commands resources | | get_commands | Runnable command ids from loaded command classes | | get_menu_items | Menu items from *.sublime-menu resources | | get_syntaxes | All syntax definitions available in ST (name + path) | | get_scope_at_cursor | Full syntax scope string at the cursor position | | get_word_at_cursor | Word under the cursor and its line/col | | get_bookmarks | All bookmarked positions in the active file | | get_line_count | Total number of lines in the active file | | get_encoding | Character encoding of the active file | | get_setting | A ST setting by key. scope='view' (default) or 'window' | | get_layout | Current window layout (groups, cells) and which files are in each group |

Navigate

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | open_file | Open a file, optionally jumping to a specific line and column | | goto_line | Move cursor to line (and optional column) in the active file | | show_panel | Bring an output panel to the front. Default name='exec' for the build panel | | focus_group | Move focus to a pane group by 0-based index |

Edit

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | str_replace_based_edit_tool | ST-native editor: str_replace, insert, create, view. Full undo, gutter diff, 30s highlight | | replace_selection | Replace the current selection(s) with text | | replace_lines | Replace lines begin..end (inclusive, 1-based) in the active file | | insert_snippet | Insert at the cursor using ST snippet syntax | | duplicate_line | Duplicate the current line(s) | | toggle_comment | Toggle line comment, or block comment if block=True | | sort_lines | Sort selected lines, or all lines if nothing is selected | | select_lines | Select lines begin..end (1-based, inclusive) | | fold_lines | Fold (collapse) lines begin..end in the active file | | undo | Undo the last edit | | redo | Redo the last undone edit | | run_command | Run any ST command with optional args |

Search

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | find_in_file | Find all occurrences of a pattern in the active file | | find_in_files | Search across project folders. Skips .git, __pycache__, node_modules, .venv |

File / Project

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | save_file | Save the active file (or a specific file by path) | | save_all | Save all open files | | close_file | Close a file by path, or the active file if path is omitted | | revert_file | Revert the active file to its last saved state | | add_folder | Add a folder to the current project | | remove_folder | Remove a folder from the current project by path |

Syntax / Encoding

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | set_syntax | Set the syntax of the active file by name (case-insensitive partial match) | | set_encoding | Set the character encoding of the active file |

Settings / Window

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | set_setting | Set a ST setting by key | | toggle_sidebar | Show or hide the sidebar | | set_layout | Set the window pane layout | | set_status | Write a message to ST's status bar |

Build

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | run_build | Trigger the current build system, or pass cmd/shell_cmd for a custom command |

Terminus Integration

Terminus is a popular ST terminal package. send_to_view is Terminus-aware: when targeting a Terminus tab it uses terminus_send_string to type text into the terminal session.

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | send_to_view | Send text to any open tab. For Terminus tabs, types as if the user typed it. Include \n to execute |

Scripting

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | eval_python | Execute arbitrary Python in ST's main thread. Returns captured stdout in output | | eval_python_latest | Execute Python in the system interpreter outside ST's sandbox | | get_console_log | Recent ST console output. tail=N limits to last N entries | | get_console_full | Entire captured ST console buffer since startup |

Configuration

Ports

| Server | Windows | Mac/Linux | Env var override | |--------|---------|-----------|-----------------| | MCP SSE | 9502 | 9503 | SUBLIME_MCP_MCP_PORT | | HTTP bridge | 9500 | 9501 | SUBLIME_MCP_PORT |

Telling Claude how to use the tools

Add a section like this to your project's CLAUDE.md (or ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md):

## Sublime Text MCP tools

MCP Commander is connected. Prefer it over standard file tools when working in ST:

- Read files with `get_active_file` or `get_file_content` rather than the Read tool
- Edit with `str_replace_based_edit_tool` — edits appear live with gutter diff and undo
- Use `find_in_files` for project-wide search
- Use `send_to_view` to run commands in a Terminus terminal tab
- Use `eval_python` for one-off ST scripting (no plugin file needed)
- Check `get_console_log` when a plugin isn't behaving as expected

Tab indexing: `get_sheets()` returns 0-based indexes; users refer to tabs
1-based. Always call `get_sheets()` first when targeting a specific tab.

Security note

Both servers bind to 127.0.0.1 only and accept any request without authentication. Do not expose these ports to a network interface.

Requirements

• Sublime Text 4
• Terminus package (optional — only required for send_to_view on terminal tabs)

Known limitations

• No multi-window support — tools target the most recently focused ST window
• No image editing — get_sheet_content returns the path for image tabs, not pixel data
• No ST3 support — the plugin uses ST4 APIs throughout

Testing

The test suite requires Sublime Text to be running with sublime_mcp.py loaded.

cd /path/to/sublime-mcp
pip install httpx pytest
pytest tests/ -v

Contributing

Adding a tool:

1. Add a handler function in sublime_mcp.py (run via _on_main for ST API calls)
2. Add an entry to _MCP_TOOLS and the _GET / _POST routing dicts
3. Add a row to the Tools table in README.md

Good first issues:

• Multi-window support (sublime.windows() instead of sublime.active_window())
• get_diagnostics — expose LSP error/warning annotations
• set_bookmark / clear_bookmarks — write counterparts to get_bookmarks

Open an issue or PR on GitHub.