mps-node-editing

A guide for adding, changing, or deleting nodes in JetBrains MPS models using JSON descriptions. Nodes are the structured elements that make up an MPS language model.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to locate model elements, create or update nodes, copy existing structures, repair references, and validate changes across MPS structure, editor, behavior, generator, and application models.
Why use it?
It promotes safe, targeted edits and preserves the identifiers that connect model elements, avoiding broken references and corrupted files.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jetbrains/mps/mps-node-editing
Any agent
npx skills add JetBrains/MPS --skill mps-node-editing
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JetBrains/MPS

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 67 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,010 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00067 $0.02010
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.01005
Sonnet 5 $0.00013 $0.00402
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00201

Measured 3d ago against content hash aa7fad571ec8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

mps-node-editing scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.agents/skills/mps-node-editing/SKILL.md · 82 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 82 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

MPS Node Editing

The core workflow for mutating MPS nodes through MCP tools. JSON blueprints describe the node hierarchy you want; the tools resolve concepts, references, and used languages on insert.

Critical Directives

  • Always use the fully qualified concept name in the concept field — it is unambiguous and does not require a conceptReference.
  • Resolve before editing — call mps_mcp_get_current_editor_root_node (for the user's focus) or mps_mcp_search_root_node_by_name (by name) to lock onto the target. Don't guess refs.
  • Prefer surgical editsmps_mcp_update_node (ADD/CHILD or SET/CHILD) preserves persistent IDs. mps_mcp_update_root_node_from_json rewrites the entire root and is wasteful when only one subtree changed.
  • Don't delete-and-reinsert to make a small change — deletion destroys persistent IDs and breaks incoming references.
  • Cloning an existing node? Use mps_mcp_alter_nodes COPY_NODE, not a JSON blueprint. It clones the subtree natively — correct concept, properties, refs, nested structure — as the next sibling (multi-child role) or new root, then tweak with mps_mcp_update_node. Reserve JSON blueprints for nodes with no close match to copy from.
  • Validate frequently — call mps_mcp_check_root_node_problems immediately after inserting or modifying a complex node. "ok": true from insert does not mean the AST is semantically valid.

mps_mcp_update_node — Unified Node-Mutation Tool

All child, property, and reference operations on existing nodes go through mps_mcp_update_node. The operation is selected via operation (ADD/SET/DELETE) × kind (CHILD/PROPERTY/REFERENCE).

operation × kind Required parameters Notes
ADD × CHILD nodeReference (parent), childRole, childJson Optional position (0-based; null/-1 = append) and dryRun. A position ≥ the current child count clamps to an append; a negative value other than -1 is rejected. The response's data.index reports the actual landing index.
SET × CHILD childNodeRef, childJson Replaces an existing child; preserves its position in the role. Optional dryRun.
DELETE × CHILD childNodeRef Removes the child from its parent.
SET × PROPERTY properties = [[nodeRef, propertyName, value], …] Batch operation; returns per-row results.
DELETE × PROPERTY nodeReference, propertyName Clears a single property.
SET × REFERENCE references = [[nodeRef, role, targetRefOrName], …] Batch operation; targetRefOrName accepts an r:... ref or a plain name. A plain name is resolved within the reference role's search scope; if it cannot be resolved the call fails (NOT_FOUND), preserves the previous reference value, and stores no dangling reference.
DELETE × REFERENCE nodeReference, referenceRole Clears a single reference.

Read the full file on GitHub · 82 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 82 lines · 67 tokens per session scan A aa7fad571ec8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

mps-node-editing is a skill published in the GitHub repository JetBrains/MPS (1,657 stars, last pushed today), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 67 tokens to every session and 2,010 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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