Index MCP server

Index Server

Governed knowledge base for AI agents via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

🚀 Quick Start Guide — Get running in 5 minutes with HTTPS and semantic search

📖 Use Case Scenarios — Real-world examples for support engineers, dev teams, and knowledge management

What Is Index Server?

Index Server is a central knowledge base that AI agents connect to via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Agents search, read, and contribute knowledge that persists across sessions and repositories — building a governed catalog with versioning, audit trails, and approval workflows. An optional admin dashboard provides real-time monitoring of catalog health, usage analytics, and drift detection.

Prerequisite: Node.js

Index Server requires Node.js 22 or newer before using the npx or source install options. Download Node.js from nodejs.org or install it with Windows Package Manager from administrator prompt:

winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

Quick Start Options

Option A: MCP-native via npx (recommended)

Run the latest published package without cloning the repo. Choose this when you want the fastest local start and already have Node.js installed.

Start with the setup wizard so it can generate the right MCP client config for VS Code, Copilot CLI, or Claude Desktop:

npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --setup

To launch the server directly without the wizard:

npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --dashboard

Prefer a stable index-server command on PATH? Install globally instead: npm install -g @jagilber-org/index-server, then run index-server --setup / index-server --dashboard. The GitHub Packages mirror requires authentication, so npx against npm.pkg.github.com needs a per-scope .npmrc plus a GITHUB_TOKEN with read:packages.

Upgrading or hitting "unsupported INDEXSERVER key" / "Cannot find module" errors after install?** Run the wizard-driven cleanup: index-server --uninstall (aliases: --remove, --clean). It can selectively remove data paths, MCP client entries, and the global package, or wipe everything with --non-interactive --all. See Upgrading and Uninstalling for the full reference.

Bootstrap HTTPS for the dashboard

Generate a self-signed TLS cert+key in one command:

# Generate at ~/.index-server/certs/, then start with HTTPS automatically
npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --init-cert --start --dashboard

--init-cert alone exits after generation. --init-cert --start continues into normal startup with the generated cert wired into --dashboard-tls automatically.

Prerequisite: openssl must be on PATH. On Windows, Git for Windows (git.exe) is the recommended TLS prerequisite because it ships an openssl build, typically at C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\openssl.exe. If it is missing, install Git for Windows from an admin prompt:

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

See docs/cert_init.md for setup guidance, the full flag reference, security notes, and troubleshooting.

Option B: VS Code MCP configuration

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.