MCP server integration

Solo gives MCP clients a local stdio connection to the running app. Compatible clients launch Solo's bundled mcp helper, and Solo handles the private local transport behind the scenes.

Setup#

1. Open Settings and choose the MCP tab. The default shortcut is Cmd+, on macOS and Ctrl+, on Windows and Linux; you can remap or disable it in Hotkeys settings.
2. Turn on MCP server.
3. Expand the setup section for your client and copy the generated command or JSON config.
4. For supported CLI clients, use Run to configure the client directly from Solo.

Solo shows setup snippets for:

• Enabled agent CLI targets that Solo has confirmed available or has not checked yet, including Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Amp, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, Kimi CLI, and Antigravity CLI. Refresh CLI health to remove targets confirmed missing or broken.
• IDEs and apps: Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and Claude Desktop.

The generated config uses stdio transport. There is no public MCP host or port to copy for normal clients. If Solo is using a non-default app data directory, the setup snippet passes that directory to the bundled helper so it connects to the same local app data and transport.

Core tools#

The MCP server exposes a focused core toolset for:

• Project selection, creation, rename, deletion, status, and stats.
• Workspace listing, creation, editing, deletion, reordering, and moving projects between workspaces.
• Local service and bound-port discovery.
• Process listing, status, selection, rename, start, stop, restart, close, and input.
• Bulk command start, stop, and restart.
• Rendered and raw output reads/searches, output clearing, and port discovery.
• Agent and terminal spawning, agent tool listing, session identification, and identity checks.
• Project-scoped coordination locks.
• Local help and official documentation search, tool catalog summaries, a disposable smoke test, feedback drafting, and AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md setup.

Solo's settings UI lists the exact tool names and descriptions from the generated MCP catalog. The same catalog is documented in the MCP tools reference.

Feature tool toggles#

Additional MCP tools are controlled by separate toggles. These augment the same MCP server; they do not start separate servers.

• Scratchpads adds tools to list, read, write, rename, tag, append, clear, delete, archive, transfer, save, and load project scratchpads.
• Todos adds tools to create, list, read, update, tag, transfer, block/unblock, complete, lock/unlock, delete, and comment on project todos.
• Timers adds tools for one-shot timers, idle-triggered timers, cancel, pause, resume, and list.
• Key-value tools adds project-scoped JSON key-value storage tools.
• Prompt template MCP tools adds tools to list, read, create, update, delete, and export prompt templates. This toggle only controls MCP visibility; prompt templates stay available in the rest of Solo either way.

Scratchpads, todos, and timers inherit MCP server enablement until an explicit setting is saved. Key-value and prompt template tools default off until enabled.

The server also exposes built-in MCP prompts and readable scratchpad/todo resources; see MCP prompts and resources.

Session resume across Solo restarts#

The bundled mcp helper keeps agent sessions alive across Solo restarts and updates:

• If the connection to the Solo app drops, the helper reconnects automatically with backoff while the client remains connected and outage-buffered input stays within 4 MiB. Exceeding that limit ends the helper.
• Requests the client sends while Solo is unreachable are buffered up to that 4 MiB limit and replayed once the connection is back, so in-flight work within the limit resumes instead of failing.
• For Solo-launched agents, the helper persists a per-process session identity in Solo's app data. The same Solo process resumes that identity across helper restarts and Solo restarts. Solo also restores the selected project while the persisted session remains within its seven-day retention window. Other clients keep a stable session for the helper's lifetime, but not across helper restarts.

Notes#

• The local transport is owned by the running Solo app. Turning MCP off disables tool use, even though supporting local transport may still be available for the app.
• A Restart button appears when MCP is enabled.