DOCS · REFERENCE
MCP tools
The seven tools and three resources specd mcp serve exposes, and what makes the surface read-only by construction.
An agent that can query the knowledge base does not have to grep for it — and gets the citation string along with the passage, already checked.
Wiring it up
{
"mcpServers": {
"specd": { "command": "specd", "args": ["mcp", "serve"] }
}
}Needs the specd CLI on your PATH and specd login once per machine. Works with any MCP-capable client — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf.
Tools
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
search_knowledge | Passages matching a question, each with the exact CITE-AS string to cite it by and how it was found. |
get_doc | A whole document by path. |
verify_citation | Is this citation supported, stale, unsupported or unknown? Same function the SpecAgent uses. |
knowledge_health | Broken links, dangling anchors, orphans, stale code references, and the score. |
spec_status | A spec's lifecycle state — including whether it is approved. |
spec_pull | An approved spec as markdown. Unapproved specs are refused server-side. |
list_specs | Specs, filterable by lifecycle state. |
Resources
Ambient state an agent can keep in view without asking:
specd://knowledge/health- The current health of the project's knowledge base.
specd://specs/awaiting-review- What is sitting at the gate right now.
specd://project/summary- What this project is, and what it is connected to.
Why the results are citable
Every search result carries three things: the passage, the CITE-AS string a design claim should use, and how the passage was found — a direct match, a graph expansion (naming the edge that pulled it in), or source code a document references.
Grepping gets you the text and none of the evidence.
verify_citation returns the same four verdicts the SpecAgent uses, from the same function. A citation that is supported in a spec and unsupported when anyone checks it would make the verdict worthless.
Read-only, by construction
The reasoning is recorded at knowledge/decisions/0017-the-engine-answers-over-mcp.md.