MCP server

The CLI includes a stdio Model Context Protocol server:

ix mcp

You don’t normally run it yourself. Your AI client launches it in the active workspace, so every tool call answers from that repository’s graph.

Register your clients

ix mcp install            # detect installed clients and register ix mcp with each
ix mcp install --dry-run  # show what would change, write nothing
ix mcp doctor             # check each client's registration

Flag	Effect
--host <ids...>	Only these clients: claude, codex, cursor, vscode, gemini, openclaw, opencode. An unknown ID is an error
--dry-run	Print the targets and write nothing
--force	Replace an ix-memory registration that belongs to a different server

install writes through each client’s own MCP command where one exists (claude mcp add, codex mcp add, gemini mcp add, openclaw mcp set), so the client stays in charge of its own config format. It edits Cursor, VS Code and opencode config files directly, merging in place and keeping a .bak alongside.

It never overwrites a server it doesn’t own. If the name ix-memory already belongs to something else, such as an earlier Ix plugin, that client is reported and left untouched. Pass --force to replace it.

Register one client by hand

Point the client at ix with the argument mcp. For Codex:

codex mcp add ix-memory -- ix mcp

Tools

ix mcp advertises five tools by default, one per question the graph answers better than Grep and Read:

Tool	Answers
ix_context	Where do I start on this target or issue (issue=<text>)? Ranked evidence with path:lines
ix_search	Which definition does this name mean?
ix_neighbors	Callers, callees, imports or importers, picked by relation
ix_impact	What does a change to this reach?
ix_read	The source of a symbol by name, or a line range

The server also sends instructions when a client connects, saying when to use Ix instead of Grep and which tool to reach for first. Clients that load tool schemas only on demand still show these to the model. Over MCP, hints and next records are written as tool calls with arguments, such as ix_neighbors symbol=X relation=callers, not as CLI flags.

ix mcp --tools=all advertises every tool instead, including ix_health, ix_text, ix_locate, ix_overview and ix_explain, which were in the default set before.

Repair a moved launcher

If you move or reinstall ix, a client may still point at the old path. For Cursor, VS Code, opencode and OpenClaw (except on Windows), ix mcp doctor reports the stale registration and ix mcp install repairs it.

Other clients don’t expose their stored command, so remove the registration with the client’s own command and re-run the install:

claude mcp remove ix-memory
ix mcp install

Process isolation

Tool calls run inside the server process. Set IX_MCP_SUBPROCESS=1 to run each call as a separate ix child process instead. Each call gets slower by roughly the CLI’s startup time, but the calls are fully isolated from one another.