Installation

Download

Grab the latest binary from GitHub Releases.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

curl -L -o barrd-mcp https://github.com/barrdlabs/barrd/releases/latest/download/barrd-mcp-aarch64-apple-darwin
chmod +x barrd-mcp
sudo mv barrd-mcp /usr/local/bin/

macOS (Intel)

curl -L -o barrd-mcp https://github.com/barrdlabs/barrd/releases/latest/download/barrd-mcp-x86_64-apple-darwin
chmod +x barrd-mcp
sudo mv barrd-mcp /usr/local/bin/

Linux (x86_64)

curl -L -o barrd-mcp https://github.com/barrdlabs/barrd/releases/latest/download/barrd-mcp-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
chmod +x barrd-mcp
sudo mv barrd-mcp /usr/local/bin/

Linux (ARM64)

curl -L -o barrd-mcp https://github.com/barrdlabs/barrd/releases/latest/download/barrd-mcp-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
chmod +x barrd-mcp
sudo mv barrd-mcp /usr/local/bin/

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/barrdlabs/barrd.git
cd barrd
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/barrd-mcp

Connect to Claude Code

The fastest way to get started. One command:

claude mcp add barrd /usr/local/bin/barrd-mcp -e BARRD_API_KEY=your-api-key

Get your API key from the Barrd dashboard under Settings → API Keys.

Claude Desktop

Add Barrd to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "barrd": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/barrd-mcp",
      "env": {
        "BARRD_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

On macOS, this file lives at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.

Other MCP clients

Any MCP-compatible client can connect to Barrd. The server uses stdio transport with auto-detected framing:

• Line-delimited — one JSON-RPC message per line (default for most clients)
• Framed — HTTP-style Content-Length headers (LSP-compatible)

Transport mode is auto-detected from the first message, or can be forced with --transport line or --transport framed.

Configuration

The server resolves configuration in this order:

1. BARRD_MCP_CONFIG env var — path to a JSON config file
2. ~/.config/barrd/mcp.json — default config file location
3. Environment variables — BARRD_API_KEY and optionally BARRD_API_URL

For most users, just setting BARRD_API_KEY is enough.

Config file

Only needed if you prefer file-based config over environment variables:

{
  "api": {
    "base_url": "https://api.barrd.com",
    "key": "your-api-key"
  }
}

Code intelligence (LSP)

Barrd includes built-in LSP integration for semantic code understanding — go-to-definition, find references, hover info, and workspace symbol search. To use it, install the language server for the languages you work with:

# Go
go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest
# Rust
rustup component add rust-analyzer
# TypeScript / JavaScript
npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript
# Python
npm install -g pyright

LSP servers start automatically on first use and stay alive for subsequent requests. No additional configuration needed.

Debugging

Enable debug logging to troubleshoot connection or LSP issues:

RUST_LOG=debug barrd-mcp

Next steps