Grounded Docs MCP Server for Claude Code: Setup & Config

What you can do with Grounded Docs in Claude Code

Choose it for a version-aware documentation index shared by scripts, a Web UI, and MCP assistants.

• Ground coding advice in documentation for the project's exact library version.
• Index hash-routed documentation sites with explicit route preservation.

Before you start: Grounded Docs in Claude Code

• Node.js 22 or later
• An MCP-compatible client for MCP access

The README starts this long-running server, opens its Web UI at http://localhost:6280, and connects MCP clients to the local SSE URL. OPENAI_API_KEY is optional for OpenAI embeddings. CLI and Docker HTTP alternatives are documented.

Grounded Docs Claude Code configuration

1. Choose Claude Code configuration scope

   For Grounded Docs MCP Server, open Project scope: .mcp.json at the repository root. Project JSON: merge into mcpServers; user scope: use the CLI.

2. Add Grounded Docs MCP Server to Claude Code

   Use the docs-mcp-server entry below in mcpServers. Keep Grounded Docs MCP Server's documented sse connection fields and your other Claude Code entries.

3. Check Grounded Docs MCP Server in Claude Code

   Grounded Docs MCP Server: Inspect claude mcp list and /mcp status.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docs-mcp-server": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:6280/sse"
    }
  }
}

claude mcp add-json --scope project 'docs-mcp-server' '{"type":"sse","url":"http://localhost:6280/sse"}'

Grounded Docs tools available to Claude Code

Grounded Docs's stored tool list documents 1 tool; compare it with Claude Code's connected tool list, because the stored list is not a live check.

scrape_docs

For Grounded Docs's scrape_docs, review the permission request and arguments in Claude Code before approval.

Index documentation, with an optional setting to preserve hash-based routes.

Grounded Docs: full stored tool descriptions

Troubleshooting Grounded Docs in Claude Code

• Inspect claude mcp list, then Grounded Docs MCP Server's connection to localhost:6280 in /mcp. Complete Claude Code authentication only for a trusted service.
• Grounded Docs MCP Server: check sse connectivity to localhost:6280 from Claude Code; a stdio command is not a replacement for this endpoint.
• Transport mismatch: Grounded Docs's catalog lists stdio; the displayed Claude Code configuration uses sse.
• Known limitation: Hash-routed sites require explicit preservation settings and browser rendering.
• Known limitation: Semantic vector search requires configuring an embedding model.
• General Claude Code troubleshooting lives in the /clients/claude-code guide.

Frequently asked questions