project-explorer

Project Explorer

Use the project-explorer MCP server to answer structural questions about a codebase without reading files one by one: what is in the project, what imports what, where a symbol or pattern occurs, and which npm packages are stale.

The server exposes five usable tools through one STDIO process: list_allowed_directories, explore_project, search_files, check_outdated, rename_file. delete_file exists but ships disabled in this plugin's mcp.json.

Full argument tables: references/tool-reference.md.

When to use

• "What is the structure of this project?", "which files import X?", "how entangled is this module?"
• Broad code search across many files: TODO/FIXME inventories, API usage sites, config keys, dead exports, large recently-changed files.
• Dependency hygiene before a release or upgrade.
• Any task where reading files individually would cost many round trips.

Do not use it as a substitute for opening one known file, and never use it as a mass-edit tool - it only reads, reports, and renames.

Workflow

1. Confirm scope first

Call list_allowed_directories once at the start. Every other tool is path-restricted to those directories.

• A non-empty list means paths outside it fail with Access denied.
• An empty list means the server has no allow-list and can read anywhere. Treat that as a signal to pass explicit project-root paths in mcp.json rather than as license to scan the whole disk.

Relative directory / searchPath values resolve against the first allowed directory, not the editor's cwd - so an unrooted "src" can silently point at the wrong project. Prefer absolute paths, or verify the first allowed directory before using a relative one.

2. Map the project

explore_project({ "directory": "/absolute/path/to/project" })

Returns per-file sizes, detected config files, parsed imports/exports/functions, and a local dependency graph (edge list, most-imported and most-importing files). JS/TS import edges are resolved through tsconfig baseUrl/paths; Python, Java, Kotlin, Go, Rust, and C# produce import/export-like declarations without resolved edges.