# HIG Doctor (MCP server)

> HIG Doctor is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Apple Human Interface Guidelines search, lookup, and project audits for AI coding agents. It has 142 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y hig-mcp.

Active MCP server for developers connecting HIG Doctor to coding agents. It exposes the HIG skills corpus and source audit as structured tools.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/raintree-technology/hig-doctor |
| GitHub stars | 142 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript |
| Transport | stdio |
| Packages | npm: hig-mcp |
| Remote URL | none |
| Needs API key | no |
| Official | no |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code |
| Category | Developer tools |
| Latest release | hig-doctor-v2.0.3 (Sep 4, 2026) |
| Last commit | Sep 4, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | io.github.raintree-technology/hig-doctor |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hig-doctor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "hig-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HIG_SKILLS_DIR": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

### Claude Code

```sh
claude mcp add --env HIG_SKILLS_DIR=your-value --transport stdio hig-doctor -- npx -y hig-mcp
```

### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hig-doctor": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "hig-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HIG_SKILLS_DIR": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "hig-doctor": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "hig-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HIG_SKILLS_DIR": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07.

## Environment variables

- `HIG_SKILLS_DIR`: Optional override for the skills directory. The published package bundles the HIG skills corpus, so this is only needed to point the server at a different or…

## Tools

- `hig_list_skills`: Enumerate available skills with descriptions and reference topics. Call first to discover the corpus.
- `hig_lookup`: Fetch HIG reference markdown. Provide a skill name (e.g. hig-foundations) or skill + topic (e.g.
- `hig_search`: BM25 full-text search across every reference topic. Ask in natural language (e.g.
- `hig_audit`: Run the HIG compliance audit on a project directory. Returns severity counts, per-category breakdown, a markdown…
- `hig_audit_file`: Audit a single file — the fast inner loop after writing or editing code.
- `hig_explain_finding`: Explain a finding: full rule metadata plus an excerpt of the cited Apple HIG reference.

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