beads/integrations/beads-mcp

beads-mcp

MCP server for beads issue tracker and agentic memory system. Enables AI agents to manage tasks using bd CLI through Model Context Protocol.

Installing

Install from PyPI:

# Using uv (recommended)
uv tool install beads-mcp

# Or using pip
pip install beads-mcp

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "beads": {
      "command": "beads-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Development Installation

For development, clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/steveyegge/beads
cd beads/integrations/beads-mcp
uv sync

Then use in Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "beads": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/beads-mcp",
        "run",
        "beads-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables (all optional):

• BEADS_USE_DAEMON - Use daemon RPC instead of CLI (default: 1, set to 0 to disable)
• BEADS_PATH - Path to bd executable (default: ~/.local/bin/bd)
• BEADS_DB - Path to beads database file (default: auto-discover from cwd)
• BEADS_WORKING_DIR - Working directory for bd commands (default: $PWD or current directory). Used for multi-repo setups - see below
• BEADS_ACTOR - Actor name for audit trail (default: $USER)
• BEADS_NO_AUTO_FLUSH - Disable automatic JSONL sync (default: false)
• BEADS_NO_AUTO_IMPORT - Disable automatic JSONL import (default: false)

Multi-Repository Setup

Recommended: Use a single MCP server instance for all beads projects - it automatically routes to per-project local daemons.

Single MCP Server (Recommended)

Simple config - works for all projects:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "beads": {
      "command": "beads-mcp"
    }
  }
}

How it works (LSP model):

1. MCP server checks for local daemon socket (.beads/bd.sock) in your current workspace
2. Routes requests to the per-project daemon based on working directory
3. Auto-starts the local daemon if not running
4. Each project gets its own isolated daemon serving only its database

Architecture:

MCP Server (one instance)
    ↓
Per-Project Daemons (one per workspace)
    ↓
SQLite Databases (complete isolation)

Why per-project daemons?

• ✅ Complete database isolation between projects
• ✅ No cross-project pollution or git worktree conflicts
• ✅ Simpler mental model: one project = one database = one daemon
• ✅ Follows LSP (Language Server Protocol) architecture
• ✅ One MCP config works for unlimited projects

Note: Global daemon support was removed in v0.16.0 to prevent cross-project database pollution.

Alternative: Per-Project MCP Instances (Not Recommended)

Configure separate MCP servers for specific projects using BEADS_WORKING_DIR:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "beads-webapp": {
      "command": "beads-mcp",
      "env": {
        "BEADS_WORKING_DIR": "/Users/yourname/projects/webapp"
      }
    },
    "beads-api": {
      "command": "beads-mcp",
      "env": {
        "BEADS_WORKING_DIR": "/Users/yourname/projects/api"
      }
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Problem: AI may select the wrong MCP server for your workspace, causing commands to operate on the wrong database. Use single MCP server instead.

Features

Resource:

• beads://quickstart - Quickstart guide for using beads

Tools:

• init - Initialize bd in current directory
• create - Create new issue (bug, feature, task, epic, chore)
• list - List issues with filters (status, priority, type, assignee)
• ready - Find tasks with no blockers ready to work on
• show - Show detailed issue info including dependencies
• update - Update issue (status, priority, design, notes, etc). Note: status="closed" or status="open" automatically route to close or reopen tools to respect approval workflows
• close - Close completed issue
• dep - Add dependency (blocks, related, parent-child, discovered-from)
• blocked - Get blocked issues
• stats - Get project statistics
• reopen - Reopen a closed issue with optional reason

Development

Run MCP inspector:

# inside beads-mcp dir
uv run fastmcp dev src/beads_mcp/server.py

Type checking:

uv run mypy src/beads_mcp

Linting and formatting:

uv run ruff check src/beads_mcp
uv run ruff format src/beads_mcp

Testing

Run all tests:

uv run pytest

With coverage:

uv run pytest --cov=beads_mcp tests/

Test suite includes both mocked unit tests and integration tests with real bd CLI.

Multi-Repo Integration Test

Test daemon RPC with multiple repositories:

# Start the daemon first
cd /path/to/beads
./bd daemon start

# Run multi-repo test
cd integrations/beads-mcp
uv run python test_multi_repo.py

This test verifies that the daemon can handle operations across multiple repositories simultaneously using per-request context routing.