avc mcp

Starts an MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 server over stdio, exposing AVC commands as tools that AI agents can call directly.

Usage

avc mcp serve                       # project resolved from the working directory
avc mcp serve --tools core          # advertise a smaller tool set
avc mcp serve --compact             # compact JSON for token-sensitive contexts
avc mcp serve ~/Projects ~/work     # search folders instead of a working directory

Flags

Flag	Description
`--tools <tier>`	Tool set to advertise: `core` (4), `standard` (default), or `full`
`--compact`	Emit single-line JSON without indentation (saves tokens for LLM context windows)

Resolving the project

In order of precedence:

The AVC_PROJECT environment variable, when set
A .avc/ directory found by walking up from the working directory
The search roots given as positional arguments

Search roots exist for hosts that launch the server outside any project — Claude Desktop, for instance. AVC searches each folder up to four levels deep, skipping node_modules, vendor, build, and hidden directories.

With exactly one project found it is selected automatically. With several, the agent picks using avc_projects_list and avc_project_use, and tools needing a project return an error naming that path forward rather than failing blankly. See MCP Server for the full behaviour.

Available tools

The server exposes 30 tools. Most map directly to a CLI command:

Tool	CLI equivalent
`avc_snapshot`	`avc snapshot`
`avc_list`	`avc list`
`avc_diff`	`avc diff`
`avc_restore`	`avc restore`
`avc_info`	`avc info`
`avc_delete`	`avc delete`
`avc_branch_create`	`avc branch create`
`avc_branch_list`	`avc branch list`
`avc_branch_switch`	`avc branch switch`
`avc_branch_diff`	`avc branch diff`
`avc_branch_rename`	`avc branch rename`
`avc_branch_abandon`	`avc branch abandon`
`avc_branch_prune_merged`	`avc branch prune --merged`
`avc_merge_preview`	`avc merge --preview`
`avc_merge`	`avc merge`
`avc_merge_abort`	`avc merge --abort`
`avc_run_in_workspace`	run a shell command inside a branch workspace
`avc_status`	`avc status`
`avc_restore_file`	`avc restore-file`
`avc_annotate`	`avc annotate`
`avc_tag_snapshot`	`avc snapshot tag`
`avc_untag_snapshot`	`avc snapshot untag`
`avc_list_conflicts`	list files with unresolved conflict markers after a merge
`avc_resolve_conflict`	resolve one conflicted file (`ours`/`theirs`/`content`)

Setup for agent frameworks

Don’t configure the MCP server by hand — let AVC do it:

avc init --skills claude-code,cursor,windsurf

This writes the right MCP config files for each framework. See Agent Integration for details.

Manual integration

If you’re building a custom agent or testing the server manually:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | avc mcp serve

The server reads JSON-RPC 2.0 messages on stdin and writes responses on stdout. It exits when stdin closes.