MCP

MCP lets Arctic connect to external tool servers.

Import from Claude Code

When you first launch Arctic, it will automatically prompt you to import MCP servers from Claude Code if you have any configured in ~/.claude.json. This includes:

• Project-specific MCPs: Configured in .mcp.json files
• Directory-specific MCPs: Configured in ~/.claude.json under the projects key for the current directory
• Global MCPs: Configured at the root level of ~/.claude.json

Arctic will ask you once per type (project/directory/global), and you can choose to import or skip. Imported servers are added to your Arctic config (.arctic/arctic.jsonc for projects or ~/.config/arctic/arctic.jsonc globally).

Add an MCP server

MCP servers are configured in your Arctic config file (~/.config/arctic/arctic.json or .jsonc). After updating the config, restart Arctic (or reopen the TUI) to load the server.

Remote MCP (Context7 example)

{
  "mcp": {
    "context7": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://mcp.context7.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "CONTEXT7_API_KEY": "ctx7sk-REPLACE_ME"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remote MCP with OAuth

Use OAuth when the server requires it. If you have a client ID, add it; otherwise, {} enables dynamic client registration.

{
  "mcp": {
    "my-oauth-server": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
      "oauth": {
        "clientId": "your-client-id",
        "clientSecret": "optional-secret",
        "scope": "optional scopes"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then run:

arctic mcp auth

Local MCP

{
  "mcp": {
    "filesystem": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["arctic", "x", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem"],
      "environment": {
        "MCP_ROOT": "/path/to/scan"
      }
    }
  }
}

Optional fields

• enabled: disable a server on startup by setting false
• headers: add custom headers for remote servers
• timeout: tool discovery timeout in milliseconds (defaults to 5000)

Interactive helper

arctic mcp add

This walks you through a setup and prints a config snippet you can paste into your config file.

Commands

arctic mcp list
arctic mcp add
arctic mcp auth
arctic mcp logout

What you can do

• List configured servers
• Add or remove servers
• Authenticate OAuth‑based MCP servers
• See available tools in the TUI status view