@nimbus-dev/mcp

What this is

A tiny launcher that exposes your local Nimbus index and agents to any MCP (Model Context Protocol) client — editors, chat clients, or other MCP-speaking tools. It does no work itself: it locates the Nimbus CLI binary already installed on your machine and execs it as nimbus mcp-server --stdio, then gets out of the way and lets stdio pass straight through.

This package is MIT-licensed and does not depend on (or import from) the AGPL-3.0 packages/cli or packages/gateway Nimbus source — it only knows how to find the installed binary, never how to run the gateway itself.

Requires the Nimbus gateway to already be installed and running. This launcher does not install or bundle Nimbus; run the regular Nimbus installer first, and keep the gateway configured the way you normally use it (the mcp-server --stdio command talks to your existing local index). Start the gateway with nimbus start: the MCP server comes up without it, but its tool calls then return an error asking you to start it.

Scope

Finding the binary, spawning it with stdio inherited, and staying in the process tree only long enough to translate the child's exit status back to the client is the whole job. Keeping it that way is what lets this package stay MIT while the gateway it launches is AGPL-3.0. Specifically, it does not:

• Install, bundle, update, or version-check Nimbus. Use the regular Nimbus installer.
• Implement any MCP tools. The index and agent tools are served by nimbus mcp-server in the Nimbus monorepo (packages/cli, packages/gateway). A tool that is missing or misbehaving is a bug there, not here.
• Parse, filter, proxy, or rewrite the MCP stream. The child process inherits stdio, and traffic passes through untouched in both directions.
• Manage gateway configuration, authentication, or the index itself. Configure those the way you normally do; this launcher passes your environment through unchanged and otherwise stays out of the way.
• Take on runtime dependencies. package.json has devDependencies only. That is a licence and supply-chain boundary rather than a style preference — adding a runtime dependency here is a deliberate decision, not a convenience call.

Install

Run it directly, without a global install, from your MCP client's config (see below), or install it explicitly:

npm install -g @nimbus-dev/mcp

Quickstart

Add nimbus-mcp as a command in your MCP client's server configuration, for example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nimbus": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@nimbus-dev/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Clients that install from the MCP Registry can find this server listed as io.github.nimbus-agent/nimbus.

Running from a local checkout

To run the launcher straight from a clone of this repository — when developing it, or to try a change before it is released — point your MCP client at the entry point itself. Use absolute paths: an editor-spawned MCP server does not inherit your shell's working directory.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nimbus": {
      "command": "bun",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/nimbus-mcp/src/index.ts"]
    }
  }
}

If you already have the Nimbus CLI installed, you can skip the launcher altogether and have your client run nimbus mcp-server --stdio directly — the launcher exists only to find that binary for you.

How the binary is found

The launcher looks for the Nimbus binary in this order:

1. NIMBUS_BIN — an explicit full path to the binary, if set. A NIMBUS_BIN that points at a non-existent file is reported as an error, never silently ignored.

2. PATH — the first nimbus (or nimbus.exe on Windows) found on your PATH.

3. Known per-platform install directories, the installer's own output directory first, then the directories the other Nimbus distribution channels write to:

   Platform	Searched in order
   Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Nimbus\bin (installer and .msi/winget), then Scoop's shims — %SCOOP%\shims or %USERPROFILE%\scoop\shims, then %SCOOP_GLOBAL%\shims or %ProgramData%\scoop\shims
   macOS	~/.local/bin (installer and .pkg), then /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin (Homebrew)
   Linux	~/.local/bin (installer), then /usr/local/bin (apt/yum) and /usr/bin, then /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin and ~/.linuxbrew/bin (Homebrew)

Step 3 is what carries a GUI-launched editor on macOS, which typically spawns MCP servers without your shell's PATH. If none of those resolve, the launcher exits with a message naming the fix — never a bare exit code.

If you installed Nimbus somewhere else entirely, set NIMBUS_BIN rather than waiting for a directory to be added here.

Environment variables

• NIMBUS_BIN — override the resolved binary path. Point it at the exact Nimbus CLI executable — on Windows, nimbus.exe itself. Node will not start a .cmd or .bat wrapper without a shell, so one fails with Failed to start the Nimbus MCP server: spawn EINVAL.
• NIMBUS_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS — how long the Nimbus CLI's MCP adapter waits for an agent brief before returning a clean timeout error; it defaults to 60 s. Lower it when your editor's own MCP transport timeout is shorter, so the tool reports a timeout instead of having the call severed underneath it. This is the adapter's own budget — the gateway imposes no such timeout. It is read by the underlying nimbus mcp-server process, which this launcher execs with your environment inherited unchanged.

See also

• docs/architecture.md — Nimbus subsystem design and the MCP connector standard.
• The CLI's mcp-server command, in the main Nimbus repository (packages/cli, serving the gateway's index and agents from packages/gateway) — this package launches it, but does not contain or license it.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Note that the Nimbus gateway and CLI this launcher execs are licensed separately under AGPL-3.0.