claude-mcp-server

MCP server wrapping Claude CLI — lets Cursor (or any MCP host) use Claude as a sub-agent.

Install

One command — no clone needed:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tal-hason/claude-mcp-server/main/install.sh)

This downloads the latest pre-built release, installs the Cursor extension, and registers the MCP server.

Prerequisites: Node.js >= 20, jq, curl, Claude CLI

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/tal-hason/claude-mcp-server.git
cd claude-mcp-server
./setup.sh

Requires npm in addition to the prerequisites above.

Custom install location

CLAUDE_MCP_DIR=~/my-tools/claude-mcp bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tal-hason/claude-mcp-server/main/install.sh)

Uninstall

rm -rf ~/.local/share/claude-mcp-server
jq 'del(.mcpServers["claude-cli"])' ~/.cursor/mcp.json > /tmp/mcp.json && mv /tmp/mcp.json ~/.cursor/mcp.json
cursor --uninstall-extension thason.claude-cli-panel

Usage

Single tool: claude_prompt with an optional mode parameter.

claude_prompt({ prompt: "Review this code", mode: "reviewer" })

Modes

Mode	Default effort	Role
architect	high	Architecture analysis — boundaries, coupling, gaps
planner	high	Plan creation — incremental steps, acceptance criteria
reviewer	max	Code review — multi-lens, severity-graded
explorer	low	Quick research — concise, evidence-cited
executor	high	Implementation — hexagonal, small batches

Without mode, the tool passes through raw (caller controls everything).

Parameters

Param	Required	Description
prompt	Yes	The prompt to send
mode	No	Dispatch mode (see table above)
model	No	Exact model name (e.g. claude-sonnet-5)
effort	No	low / medium / high / xhigh / max
systemPrompt	No	System prompt override
sessionId	No	Resume a previous session
cwd	No	Working directory for Claude CLI
timeoutMs	No	Max execution time before the process is killed. Default 600000 (10 min). Increase for large file reads or high/max effort reviews — a timed-out call returns a [TIMEOUT] marker instead of throwing

How it works

1. Cursor calls the MCP tool via stdio
2. The server resolves mode defaults (effort, appended system prompt)
3. Spawns claude --print --output-format stream-json with the resolved args
4. Parses streaming output, sends MCP progress notifications
5. Returns the final text result + session ID

Claude CLI reads ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as global context regardless of cwd. Mode system prompts are appended (via --append-system-prompt), never replacing CLAUDE.md.

Files

File	Purpose
server.js	MCP entry point — serveStdio, tool registration
modes.js	Dispatch mode definitions (effort + system prompt per role)
cli-executor.js	Spawn Claude CLI, parse stream-json, callbacks
stream-parser.js	Parse individual stream-json lines