MCP Server for Claude Desktop¶

Free, open source MCP server that gives Claude Desktop intelligent code context. NLP-powered ranking finds the most relevant files for any task.

Why Use Tenets with Claude?¶

Without Tenets	With Tenets
Manually copy-paste code	Claude calls Tenets directly
Random file selection	NLP-ranked relevance
Context window waste	Token-optimized output
No persistence	Sessions with pinned files

Quick Setup (2 minutes)¶

Step 1: Install¶

Bash

pip install tenets[mcp]

Step 2: Configure Claude Desktop¶

macOS: Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

JSON

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

Step 3: Restart Claude Desktop¶

Quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Step 4: Verify¶

Ask Claude:

"What MCP tools do you have available?"

Claude should list distill, rank_files, examine, session_create, etc.

What Tenets Provides to Claude¶

Available Tools¶

Tool	Purpose
`distill`	Build optimized code context
`rank_files`	Preview file relevance
`examine`	Analyze codebase structure
`chronicle`	Git history analysis
`momentum`	Development velocity
`session_create`	Persistent sessions
`session_pin_file`	Pin files to session
`tenet_add`	Add coding guidelines

Example Prompts¶

Build context for a task:

"Use tenets to find code related to user authentication in /path/to/project"

Rank files without content:

"Use tenets rank_files to show the top 10 files for 'payment processing'"

Create a working session:

"Use tenets to create a session called 'auth-refactor' and pin src/auth/"

Add guidelines:

"Use tenets to add a critical tenet: Never log sensitive user data"

Configuration Options¶

Full Path (Recommended)¶

Bash

# Find your path
which tenets-mcp

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/tenets-mcp"
    }
  }
}

With Working Directory¶

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp",
      "args": ["--path", "/Users/you/projects/myapp"]
    }
  }
}

Debug Logging¶

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tenets": {
      "command": "tenets-mcp",
      "env": {
        "TENETS_LOG_LEVEL": "DEBUG"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting¶

Claude says "I don't have access to tenets tools"¶

Check config file location is correct
Verify JSON syntax (use a JSON validator)
Fully restart Claude Desktop
Use absolute path to tenets-mcp

"Command not found"¶

Find the binary location:

Bash

which tenets-mcp
# /usr/local/bin/tenets-mcp

Use that full path in config.

Tools timeout on large projects¶

Add exclusions to .tenets.yml in your project:

YAML

scanner:
  exclude:
    - node_modules/
    - .git/
    - dist/
    - "*.min.js"

Why Tenets?¶

Free forever — MIT license, open source
100% local — Code never leaves your machine
NLP-powered — BM25, TF-IDF, import centrality
Fast — Thousands of files in seconds

Next Steps¶

Tenets is 100% free and open source.

MIT License · GitHub · PyPI