dex mcp serve

Start the dex MCP server to expose dex tools to Claude and other MCP clients.

Synopsis

dex mcp serve

The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets AI tools like Claude Desktop and Claude Code call dex operations directly — scaffolding projects and listing templates — without leaving the chat interface.

Available tools

Tool	Description
`list_templates`	Returns all built-in templates with names and descriptions
`get_template_variables`	Returns variable specs for a named template
`scaffold_project`	Scaffolds a project from a template into a directory

Installation

Install the dex binary first — the MCP server is built in, no separate install needed.

Install script (Linux/macOS):

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yarrib/dex/main/install.sh | sh

Build from source:

cargo install --path crates/dex-cli

See Installation for full details.

Wiring into Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dex": {
      "command": "dex",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The dex tools will appear in the tool picker.

Wiring into Claude Code

Create .mcp.json at your project root (or ~/.claude/mcp.json for global config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dex": {
      "command": "dex",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code will start the server automatically when you open the project.

Usage examples

Once connected, you can prompt Claude naturally:

List templates:

What dex templates are available?

Inspect a template:

What variables does the dabs-package template need?

Scaffold a project:

Scaffold a new dabs-package project called my_pipeline in ~/projects/my_pipeline

Claude will call the appropriate tool and report the created files.

dex