MCP Copilot Access (mcpte002)

This note explains how to start the SPaDE MCP server for use by Copilot (or any MCP client) and how to perform a quick connectivity test.

Prerequisites

• Python 3 installed in the dev container (already present).
• Workspace root on PYTHONPATH so the server can import the kr modules.
• Dependencies from requirements.txt are baked into the container build; only re-run pip install -r requirements.txt if you are outside the dev container or after adding new requirements.

Start the server

• From mcp/, launch the server in the foreground:
  • make serve
• The target sets PYTHONPATH=.. and runs python3 mcpcd001.py.
• Logs are written to mcp/server.log and /tmp/spade_server_startup.log during startup.

Connect with an MCP client (Copilot)

• Configure your MCP-enabled client to start the server via the make serve command (or python3 mcpcd001.py with PYTHONPATH=..).
• The server name is SPaDE-server and exposes three tools:
  • create_repository(filepath, version=1)
  • write_sexpression(filepath, sexp_json)
  • read_sexpression(filepath, seq_num)
• Communication is over stdio (no sockets), so clients should launch the process directly.

Smoke test (optional)

• Run the integration harness from mcp/ to validate the server:
  • PYTHONPATH=.. python3 mcpte001.py
• The harness initializes the server, lists tools, and exercises create_repository, write_sexpression, and read_sexpression end-to-end.