Install vibesmith MCP into your coding assistant

For consumers. vibesmith does not ship its own chat agent. Pair the framework with the coding assistant you already pay for. Three subscription tiers are first-class: Claude Max → Claude Code, GitHub Copilot Pro/Business → VS Code Agent mode, OpenAI Codex Plus → Codex CLI. Community assistants (Cline, Continue, Cursor, Aider, custom orchestrators) reach the same MCP surface — see the community adapters note at the bottom.

TL;DR

vibesmith mcp install claude-code   # ~/.claude.json
vibesmith mcp install codex         # ~/.codex/config.toml
vibesmith mcp install copilot       # ./.vscode/mcp.json
vibesmith mcp diagnose              # full status report

Each command is idempotent: running it twice produces no diff. The install reports a unified-style diff before writing; your other MCP servers + top-level config keys are preserved.

Claude Code

Claude Code has the most mature MCP support of the three first-class assistants.

vibesmith mcp install claude-code
# scope=user
# add vibesmith MCP entry to ~/.claude.json
#   + "mcpServers": { "vibesmith": { "command": "npx", "args": [...], "env": {} } }
# wrote ~/.claude.json

Scope. Default is --scope user (writes ~/.claude.json). Use --scope project to write .mcp.json next to your vibesmith.toml instead — useful when you want the entry versioned with the project repo.

Auth. Claude Code uses your Claude account if you’re signed in to Claude Max; otherwise set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for BYOK billing.

Capability profile. All of tier1Router, deferredCatalog, resources, structuredOutput, multimodal — the full Track V1 tiered surface, including tools_find deferred-schema fetching.

Codex CLI

Codex CLI uses a TOML config rather than JSON. vibesmith owns the [mcp_servers.vibesmith] block + leaves the rest of the file untouched.

vibesmith mcp install codex
# scope=user
# add vibesmith MCP entry to ~/.codex/config.toml
# wrote ~/.codex/config.toml

Minimum version. Codex CLI 0.20+ for MCP support. The adapter detects the installed version and surfaces a lag warning in vibesmith mcp diagnose; install still writes the entry on older versions because you may be staging the upgrade.

Auth. Set OPENAI_API_KEY (or OPENAI_ORGANIZATION for org-scoped keys).

Capability profile. tier1Router, deferredCatalog, resources, structuredOutput. No multimodal — image / audio resources fall back to manifest-only references per Track V0’s redaction policy.

GitHub Copilot (VS Code Agent mode)

Copilot’s MCP support is in VS Code Agent mode. The adapter writes .vscode/mcp.json in your project root; VS Code reads it on workspace open + spawns the MCP server on demand.

vibesmith mcp install copilot
# scope=project
# add vibesmith MCP entry to ./.vscode/mcp.json
# wrote ./.vscode/mcp.json

Scope. Copilot’s mcp.json is workspace-scoped — the adapter always writes to the project root even if you pass --scope user. Multi-root workspaces get a copy per project (run install from each root).

Auth. Copilot uses GitHub OAuth via the VS Code Copilot extension’s own auth flow. No env var needed; sign in through the extension once.

Capability profile. tier1Router, deferredCatalog, resources. No structured-output, no multimodal today — both downgrade to text. The non-Agent Copilot Chat (inline completions) does not read MCP; bridging dev-shell state into VS Code workspace artifacts for that UX needs a VS Code extension which is on the roadmap as a separate stream.

Diagnose

vibesmith mcp diagnose
# vibesmith mcp diagnose
#
#   Claude Code (claude-code)
#     host: 1.5.2 — /Users/you/.claude.json
#     entry:   ok
#     claude 1.5.2 on PATH
#     vibesmith MCP entry matches the current plan
#
#   Codex CLI (codex)
#     host: 0.20.3 — /Users/you/.codex/config.toml
#     entry:   ok
#     codex 0.20.3 on PATH
#     vibesmith MCP entry matches the current plan
#
#   GitHub Copilot (copilot)
#     host not detected
#     entry: absent
#     code binary not found on PATH

Exit code:

0 — every detected adapter is compatible.
1 — at least one adapter is degraded (e.g. version lag, capability gap).
2 — at least one adapter is unreachable.

CI pipelines can branch on the exit code.

Uninstall

vibesmith mcp uninstall claude-code
# scope=user
# remove vibesmith MCP entry from ~/.claude.json
# removed vibesmith entry from ~/.claude.json

Symmetric with install. Removes only the vibesmith server entry; other MCP servers + top-level config keys are preserved.

Community adapters

Cline, Continue, Cursor, Aider, and custom Python orchestrators all reach the same public MCP surface that the three first-class adapters use. The framework’s commitment is to keep that surface clean enough that a community adapter costs its author one afternoon, not one quarter.

If you write or maintain one, the cookbook is the home for the recipe — open a PR to tombee/vibesmith-docs adding cookbook/install-<assistant>.md and we’ll merge it alongside this page.