noyalib-mcp

<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 OR MIT -->

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  <img src="https://cloudcdn.pro/noyalib/v1/logos/noyalib.svg" alt="Noyalib logo" width="128" />
</p>

<h1 align="center">noyalib-mcp</h1>

<p align="center">
  <strong>Model Context Protocol server exposing noyalib's
  lossless YAML editing to AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude
  Code, Cursor, Zed, Continue.dev, …).</strong>
</p>

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---

## Contents

- [Install](#install) — Cargo, npx, Docker
- [Requirements](#requirements) — toolchain floor, platforms, the core pin
- [Quick Start](#quick-start) — JSON-RPC handshake
- [Why this approach?](#why-this-approach) — design rationale
- [Connect](#connect) — per-client configuration
- [Tools](#tools) — MCP tool reference
- [Examples](#examples) — runnable scripts
- [Verification](#verification) — cosign + npm provenance
- [When not to use noyalib-mcp](#when-not-to-use-noyalib-mcp)
- [Documentation](#documentation)
- [License](#license)

---

## Install

```bash
cargo install noyalib-mcp
```

For environments without a Rust toolchain (the typical AI-agent
deployment shape):

```bash
# npm wrapper — auto-downloads the matching binary on first run,
# caches under ~/.cache/noyalib-mcp/<version>/.
npx @sebastienrousseau/noyalib-mcp

# Container — multi-arch (linux/amd64, linux/arm64).
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/sebastienrousseau/noyalib-mcp:latest
```

> **Split from the monorepo since v0.0.13.** Prior versions
> shipped from `sebastienrousseau/noyalib/crates/noyalib-mcp/`
> under the workspace-lockstep release cadence. From v0.0.13
> onward `noyalib-mcp` lives here as its own crate, still
> released in strict lockstep with the parent
> [`noyalib`](https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/noyalib) at
> the same version. See
> [ADR-0005](https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/noyalib/blob/main/docs/adr/0005-workspace-split.md)
> for the rationale and rollback recipe.

Both consume the same signed binary attached to every GitHub
Release. See [Verification](#verification) for the verify
commands.

---

## Requirements

- **Rust 1.86.0 or newer** to build from source: `rust-version` in
  the manifest, enforced by the `msrv-core` CI job on every push.
- **Any tier-1 platform.** CI runs the tests on Linux, macOS, and
  Windows with the stable, beta, and nightly toolchains; stable is the
  gate, beta and nightly are early warning.
- **The matching core.** This crate pins `noyalib` at the identical
  `=0.0.X` and releases in lockstep with it; Cargo resolves that pin
  for you.
- **An MCP client** speaking JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio (2025-06-18 or
  2026-07-28 protocol eras); the README's Connect section lists tested
  hosts.

## Quick Start

The server speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio with newline-delimited
frames, per the
[MCP specification](https://modelcontextprotocol.io). A typical
agent launches the binary as a child process, sends
`initialize`, then dispatches tool calls:

```json
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"agent","version":"0.0.1"}}}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call",
 "params":{"name":"format","arguments":{"yaml":"a:1\nb:2\n"}}}
```

---

## Why this approach?

AI agents that edit YAML configuration today regex-replace and
corrupt comments, indentation, and document structure. The same
agent fixing a port number in a Kubernetes manifest can shift
every comment by a line, reorder sibling keys, or strip
trailing whitespace that a downstream linter cared about.

noyalib's CST does the edits losslessly — a `set("server.port",
"9090")` rewrites only the byte span of the `8080` scalar; the
surrounding comments and indentation pass through untouched.
This server is the protocol shim that lets MCP-aware clients
drive that engine safely:

- **Lossless mutation.** `tools/call set` returns a document
  byte-identical to the input outside the touched span.
- **Surgical reads.** `tools/call get` walks the dotted path
  and returns just the value, not the whole tree.
- **Schema validation.** `tools/call validate --schema` runs
  the same JSON Schema 2020-12 engine `noyavalidate` ships.
- **Stdio transport.** Standard MCP. Works with every
  spec-compliant client.

---

## Connect

### Claude Desktop / Claude Code

```bash
claude mcp add noyalib $(which noyalib-mcp)
```

### Cursor

`~/.cursor/mcp.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "noyalib": {
      "command": "noyalib-mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

### Zed

`~/.config/zed/settings.json`:

```json
{
  "context_servers": {
    "noyalib": {
      "command": { "path": "noyalib-mcp" }
    }
  }
}
```

### Continue.dev

`~/.continue/config.json`:

```json
{
  "experimental": {
    "modelContextProtocolServers": [
      { "transport": { "type": "stdio", "command": "noyalib-mcp" } }
    ]
  }
}
```

### Any other MCP-aware client

Point at the binary; the transport is stdio with newline-
delimited JSON-RPC 2.0.

---

## Tools

The v0.0.1 server registers two file-oriented tools — both
operate on a YAML file at `file: <path>`, not on inline source
strings, so an agent's edits land on disk losslessly:

- `noyalib_get` — Takes `{ file: string, path: string }`; returns the raw source fragment at the dotted/indexed path (e.g. `server.host`, `items[0].name`). No re-quoting; no canonicalisation.
- `noyalib_set` — Takes `{ file: string, path: string, value: string }`; returns the file rewritten via the lossless CST so only the touched span changes; comments, blank lines, and sibling formatting survive byte-for-byte. The `value` is a YAML fragment (`0.0.2`, `"hello"`, `[1, 2, 3]`); a parse failure leaves the file unchanged.
- `noyalib_parse` — Takes `{ yaml: string }`; returns the JSON data model of the text (tags stripped, a stream as an array). Stateless: nothing on disk is touched.
- `noyalib_edit` — Takes `{ yaml: string, path: string, value: string }`; returns the whole text with that one value replaced losslessly. Stateless.
- `noyalib_validate` — Takes `{ yaml: string, schema?: string }`; returns `valid` with either the parse error (line and column) or every JSON Schema violation with its path. Stateless.

Each tool's full input schema lives in the response to
`tools/list`. The server also handles the standard
`initialize` / `initialized` / `notifications/cancelled`
lifecycle.

Format / parse / validate are not exposed as MCP tools today —
they're available via the [`noya-cli`](../noya-cli/README.md)
binaries (`noyafmt`, `noyavalidate`) and the
[`noyalib`](../noyalib/README.md) library API. Promotion to
first-class MCP tools is on the v0.0.2+ roadmap.

---

## Examples

Agent-driving demos under
[`crates/noyalib-mcp/examples/`](examples/):

| Script | What it shows |
|---|---|
| [`handshake.sh`](examples/handshake.sh) | `initialize` → `tools/list` smoke test. Confirms the binary speaks the protocol and announces the expected tools. |
| [`format-call.sh`](examples/format-call.sh) | `tools/call format` on a poorly-spaced document. Demonstrates that comments + indentation pass through the CST formatter unchanged. |
| [`set-then-get.sh`](examples/set-then-get.sh) | Round-trip the mutation surface: `set` rewrites `server.port`, `get` reads it back. Surgical edit; surrounding bytes untouched. |

```bash
chmod +x crates/noyalib-mcp/examples/*.sh
crates/noyalib-mcp/examples/handshake.sh | jq -c .
```

POSIX-shell only — no `jq`, no `node` dependencies. Pipe
through `jq -c .` if you want pretty-printed JSON responses.

---

## Verification

GitHub Releases ship the crate archive and a CycloneDX SBOM,
each with a sigstore bundle and checksums; the GHCR image is
built from the tagged source. Pre-built binaries are not
attached to releases yet. To verify a release artefact:

```bash
COSIGN_EXPERIMENTAL=1 cosign verify-blob \
  --certificate-identity-regexp 'https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/noyalib-mcp/' \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer 'https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com' \
  --bundle <artefact>.bundle \
  <artefact>
```

The npm wrapper additionally carries an
[npm provenance attestation](https://docs.npmjs.com/generating-provenance-statements):

```bash
npm view noyalib-mcp provenance
```

Full cookbook: [`pkg/VERIFY.md`](https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/noyalib/blob/main/pkg/VERIFY.md).

---

## When not to use noyalib-mcp

- **You don't trust your AI agent with filesystem access at
  all.** noyalib-mcp doesn't read or write files itself —
  every operation takes the YAML document as a string argument
  and returns the result as a string. The agent decides what
  to do with the result. If the agent has filesystem access,
  it can persist the response wherever it wants.
-