# Ref Tools MCP (MCP server)

> Ref Tools MCP is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Token-efficient search for coding agents over public and private documentation. It has 1,177 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y ref-tools-mcp.

A ModelContextProtocol server that gives your AI coding tool or agent access to documentation for APIs, services, libraries etc. It's your one-stop-shop to keep your agent up-to-date on documentation in a fast and token-efficient way.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/ref-tools/ref-tools-mcp |
| GitHub stars | 1,177 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript |
| Transport | stdio, streamable-http |
| Packages | npm: ref-tools-mcp |
| Remote URL | https://api.ref.tools/mcp |
| Needs API key | yes |
| Official | yes |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Claude.ai, ChatGPT |
| Category | Developer tools |
| Latest release | none |
| Last commit | Sep 28, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | tools.ref/ref-tools-mcp |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "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 REF_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio ref-tools-mcp -- npx -y ref-tools-mcp
```

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

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

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

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

```json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "ref_api_key",
      "description": "REF_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "ref-tools-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "${input:ref_api_key}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Claude Code (remote)

```sh
claude mcp add --transport http ref-tools-mcp "https://api.ref.tools/mcp"
```

The same server is also hosted as a remote MCP endpoint, so nothing runs on your machine.

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

## Environment variables

- `REF_API_KEY` (secret) (required): Your API key for Ref

## Tools

- `ref_search_documentation`: A powerful search tool to check technical documentation. Great for finding facts or code snippets.
- `query`: Query to search for relevant documentation. This should be a full sentence or question.
- `ref_read_url`: A tool that fetches content from a URL and converts it to markdown for easy reading with Ref.

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---

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