Qt4 Doc MCP Server

Qt Documentation MCP Server

mcp-name: io.github.jztan/qt4-doc-mcp-server

Bring locally installed Qt 4.8, Qt 5, or Qt 6 documentation to your AI coding assistant. Works offline with one selected documentation set at a time.

Tool Reference | Changelog | Contributing | Troubleshooting

✨ Features

• 🔌 Offline-First - Works entirely with local documentation
• 🔍 Full-Text Search - Find what you need across all Qt docs
• ⚡ Smart Caching - Fast responses for repeated queries
• 🎯 Fragment Support - Extract specific sections when needed
• 🛠️ MCP Standard - Compatible with Claude, VS Code, and other MCP clients

📦 Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ required (not needed when using the Docker image)
• Qt HTML Documentation for one supported release (Qt 4.8, Qt 5, or Qt 6)
• The included helper downloads Qt 4.8.4 only.
• Point QT_DOC_BASE directly at an existing Qt 5/6 offline documentation root.
• ~500MB disk space for docs + cache + search index
• SQLite with FTS5 support (included in Python 3.11+ by default)

🚀 Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install qt4-doc-mcp-server

From Source

git clone https://github.com/jztan/qt4-doc-mcp-server.git

cd qt4-doc-mcp-server uv sync --locked

Setup Qt Documentation

# Automated setup (recommended, requires the cloned repo)

python scripts/prepare_qt48_docs.py --segments 4

This will:

- Download Qt 4.8.4 source archive

- Extract HTML documentation

- Create .env with sensible defaults

- Copy GFDL license file

The helper script ships with the repo, not the PyPI package. Installed from PyPI only? Download the docs manually instead:

curl -LO https://download.qt.io/archive/qt/4.8/4.8.4/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4.tar.gz

tar -xzf qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4.tar.gz qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4/doc/html mv qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4/doc/html ./qt4-docs-html

Then create a .env with QT_DOC_BASE pointing at that directory (see Configuration below).

Quick Start Commands

# 1. Install

pip install qt4-doc-mcp-server

2. Setup Qt docs

python scripts/prepare_qt48_docs.py --segments 4

3. Build search index (optional; the server builds it on first start)

qt-doc-build-index

4. Start server

qt-doc-mcp

5. Verify health

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/health

The legacy qt4-doc-mcp-server command remains available as an alias for existing client configurations.

Agent-friendly FTS CLI

After building the index, agents can search and receive materialized absolute Markdown paths:

qt-doc-cli "accessible applications" --limit 5

The command reads the same .env settings as the server. Before searching, it automatically builds a missing/outdated FTS index and fully warms an incomplete Markdown cache. It then prints each result's title, absolute .md path, and FTS snippet to stdout; preparation messages, errors, and warnings go to stderr. Use qt-doc-warm-md --force after changing documentation in place.

🐳 Docker

Prebuilt multi-arch images (amd64/arm64) are published to GitHub Container Registry on every release. The container is offline-only: you mount your prepared Qt doc/html directory read-only at /docs, and all derived state (Markdown cache and search index) lives in a volume at /data.

# Prepare Qt docs on the host first (one-time, writes to ./qt4-docs-html)

python scripts/prepare_qt48_docs.py --segments 4

Run from GHCR

docker run -d --name qt4-doc-mcp-server -p 8000:8000 \ -v "$PWD/qt4-docs-html:/docs:ro" \ -v qt4-doc-data:/data \ ghcr.io/jztan/qt4-doc-mcp-server:latest

Verify

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/health

Using only the published image, without cloning this repo? Download the Qt 4.8.4 docs directly instead of running the prepare script:

curl -LO https://download.qt.io/archive/qt/4.8/4.8.4/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4.tar.gz

tar -xzf qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4.tar.gz qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4/doc/html mv qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.8.4/doc/html ./qt4-docs-html

Any existing Qt 5 or Qt 6 doc/html tree (from the Qt installer or distro documentation packages) works as the mount source too.

First start converts and indexes the documentation into the /data volume; subsequent starts reuse it. Depending on the docset size, the first start can take a minute or two before the health endpoint responds.

Docker Compose

With docs in the default ./qt4-docs-html location, no configuration is needed:

docker compose up -d

For docs elsewhere (including Qt 5 or Qt 6 doc/html trees, which the server also supports), point QT_DOC_HTML_PATH at them. If port 8000 is taken on the host, set HOST_PORT in the same file (with plain docker run, change the left side of -p instead):

cp .env.docker.example .env.docker   # set QT_DOC_HTML_PATH

docker compose --env-file .env.docker up -d

Or use the convenience script, which checks Docker is running, creates .env.docker on first run, builds and starts the service, and waits for the health endpoint:

./deploy.sh

Point your MCP client at http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp (streamable HTTP). Qt documentation is licensed under GFDL 1.3; the container serves your local copy and never redistributes it.

⚙️ Configuration

These settings apply to native (pip or source) runs. In Docker they are already set inside the container (QT_DOC_BASE=/docs, QT_DOC_STATE_DIR=/data, SERVER_HOST=0.0.0.0); the QT_DOC_HTML_PATH variable in .env.docker is not a server setting, just the host path mounted at /docs.

Create a .env file in the repo root. The helper script writes sensible defaults; adjust as needed:

The tools identify documents by their exact root-relative Markdown path, not an online URL. For example, use qcompleter.md for a Qt 4 page, qtdoc/accessible.md for a Qt 5/6 global page, or qtcore/qobject.md for a Qt 5/6 Core page. By default, each docset stores its own index and Markdown cache under $QT_DOC_BASE/.index/, so switching QT_DOC_BASE reuses its existing derived state. Set QT_DOC_STATE_DIR to relocate both to a writable directory. The Markdown cache mirrors the documentation tree: for example, qtcore/qobject.md is cached as .index/md/qtcore/qobject.md plus qobject.meta.json with the default state directory.

🔌 MCP Client Setup

By default, the server exposes an HTTP endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp. Register it with your preferred MCP-compatible agent using the instructions below.

Stdio transport

Run the server over stdio instead of HTTP with:

qt-doc-mcp --transport stdio

For stdio-only MCP clients, configure that command with args: ["--transport", "stdio"]. Startup indexing and Markdown-cache progress are written to stderr, leaving stdout exclusively for MCP protocol messages.

Visual Studio Code (Native MCP Support)

VS Code has built-in MCP support via GitHub Copilot (requires VS Code 1.102+).

Using CLI (Quickest):

code --add-mcp '{"name":"qt-docs","type":"http","url":"http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp"}'

Using Command Palette:

1. Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Run MCP: Open User Configuration (for global) or MCP: Open Workspace Folder Configuration (for project-specific)
3. Add the configuration:

   {

"servers": { "qt-docs": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp" } } }

4. Save the file. VS Code will automatically load the MCP server.

Manual Configuration: Create .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace (or mcp.json in your user profile directory):

{

"servers": { "qt-docs": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp" } } }

Claude Code

Add to Claude Code using the CLI command:

claude mcp add --transport http qt-docs http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

Or configure manually in your Claude Code settings file (~/.claude.json):

{

"mcpServers": { "qt-docs": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp" } } }

Codex CLI

Add to Codex CLI using the command:

codex mcp add qt-docs -- npx -y mcp-client-http http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

Or configure manually in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.qt-docs]

command = "npx" args = ["-y", "mcp-client-http", "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp"]

Note: Codex CLI primarily supports stdio-based MCP servers. The above uses mcp-client-http as a bridge for HTTP transport.

Kiro

Kiro primarily supports stdio-based MCP servers. For HTTP servers, use an HTTP-to-stdio bridge:

1. Create or edit .kiro/settings/mcp.json in your workspace:

   {

"mcpServers": { "qt-docs": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "mcp-client-http", "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp" ], "disabled": false } } }

2. Save the file and restart Kiro. The active Qt documentation tools will appear in the MCP panel.

Note: Direct HTTP transport support in Kiro is limited. The above configuration uses mcp-client-http as a bridge to connect to HTTP MCP servers.

Generic MCP Clients

Most MCP clients use a standard configuration format. For HTTP servers:

{

"mcpServers": { "qt-docs": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp" } } }

For clients that require a command-based approach with HTTP bridge:

{

"mcpServers": { "qt-docs": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-client-http", "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp"] } } }

🛠️ Available Tools

The server provides 2 MCP tools for working with the active local Qt documentation set:

1. **`read