Installation

The Barrd MCP server is a standalone binary that runs locally and connects your AI assistant to the Barrd backend. It communicates over stdio using the Model Context Protocol.

Install

Terminal

curl -fsSL https://barrd.com/install.sh | sh

The installer detects your OS and architecture, downloads the correct binary, and installs it.

Manual install

Download the binary for your platform from GitHub Releases:

Platform	Binary
macOS (Apple Silicon)	barrd-mcp-aarch64-apple-darwin
macOS (Intel)	barrd-mcp-x86_64-apple-darwin
Linux (x86_64)	barrd-mcp-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Linux (ARM64)	barrd-mcp-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

Terminal

chmod +x barrd-mcp-*
sudo mv barrd-mcp-* /usr/local/bin/barrd-mcp

Build from source

Terminal

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

Connect to Claude Code

One command:

Terminal

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.

That's it.

The server reads BARRD_API_KEY from the environment. No config files needed.

Claude Desktop

Add Barrd to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "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.

Environment variables

Configuration via environment variables.

BARRD_API_KEY required API key for authentication

BARRD_API_URL API base URL. Default: https://api.barrd.com. Override for self-hosted.

BARRD_MCP_CONFIG Path to a JSON config file

RUST_LOG Log level: debug, info, warn, error

Config file

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

~/.config/barrd/mcp.json

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

Code intelligence (LSP)

Barrd includes LSP integration: go-to-definition, find references, hover info, workspace symbol search. Install the language server for the languages you work with:

Language servers

# 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. More languages coming soon.

Supported languages

Go gopls — fully tested

Rust rust-analyzer — fully tested

TypeScript / JavaScript typescript-language-server — fully tested

Python pyright — supported, not extensively tested

Debugging

Enable debug logging to troubleshoot connection or LSP issues:

Terminal

RUST_LOG=debug barrd-mcp

Next steps

Getting Started Create your first project and start tracking tasks, plans, and decisions.

MCP Tools Reference Full list of 43 tools available to your AI assistant via Barrd.