MCP Servers

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets your coding agents connect to external tools and data sources — databases, APIs, browsers, and more. Emdash manages MCP server configs across all your installed agents from a single place, so you configure once and each selected installed agent picks it up.

Getting Started

Open Library from the left sidebar, then select MCP. You'll see two sections:

• Added — servers you've already configured
• Recommended — a curated catalog of popular MCP servers ready to add

Use the search box to filter by name or description.

Remote MCP servers

Open Settings → Machines → your machine → MCP to manage servers for remote agents. Config files and ~ paths belong to that machine. Sync applies to selected agents there.

A stdio server runs on the agent's machine, so install its command and dependencies there. HTTP endpoints must be reachable from that machine. Localhost refers to the remote host when the agent runs remotely.

Adding a Server from the Catalog

1. Find a server in the Recommended section (e.g. Playwright, Supabase, Sentry)
2. Click Add on the card
3. The modal opens pre-filled with the server's default config
4. Fill in any required credentials (highlighted and labeled Required or Optional)
5. Select which installed agents to sync to under Sync to agents
6. Click Add

Emdash writes the config into each selected agent's native config file. The server is available in your next agent session.

Adding a Custom Server

1. Click Custom MCP in the toolbar
2. Enter a name and choose the transport type:
   • stdio — runs a process on the agent's machine (provide a command and optional arguments)
   • http — connects to a remote URL (provide the endpoint and optional headers)
3. Add any environment variables the server needs
4. Select target agents and click Add

Editing and Removing

Click an installed server card to edit its config — change credentials, update the URL, or adjust which agents it syncs to. Click Remove to delete the server from all agents.

Agent Sync

When you add or edit a server, Emdash translates the config into each agent's native format and writes it to the correct location:

Internally, Emdash normalizes MCP configs into a shared format, adapts them per agent, and writes each agent's native config file. This means the same server can also work when you run those agents outside Emdash.

Transport Compatibility

MCP servers use one of two transports: stdio (process on the agent's machine) or http (remote URL). Transport support varies by agent, based on each agent's declared capabilities — don't assume every provider supports the same transports. When adding an HTTP server, agents that don't support HTTP are automatically disabled in the agent selector.

Catalog Servers

The built-in catalog includes 54 servers for common services:

• Browser & DevTools: Playwright, Chrome DevTools
• Databases & Data: Supabase, PlanetScale, Prisma, MongoDB, MotherDuck, BigQuery
• Hosting & Infrastructure: Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Railway, Azure MCP Server, AWS Marketplace
• Monitoring & Analytics: Sentry, PostHog, Honeycomb, Axiom, Amplitude
• Project Management: Linear, Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, Graphite, Notion, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence)
• Design & Content: Figma, Canva, Miro, Webflow, Sanity, Cloudinary, WordPress, Shopify Dev
• Communication: Slack, Intercom
• Payments & Auth: Stripe, Clerk
• AI & Search: Hugging Face, OpenRouter, Exa, Context7
• Automation: Make

Each catalog entry includes a link to the server's documentation for setup details.

Tips

• You can sync a single MCP server to multiple agents at once — no need to configure each one separately.
• Environment variables with credential keys are highlighted in the modal so you know what to fill in.
• Click Refresh to re-detect installed agents if you've installed a new CLI since opening Emdash.