MCP Integration

OpenDaemon can run as an MCP stdio server with dmn mcp, allowing AI clients to inspect status/logs and control services.

Quick setup

Validate your config:

dmn mcp --check --config /absolute/path/to/dmn.json

Add OpenDaemon to your MCP client config.
Restart your IDE/client.
Ask the AI to list services or check status.

Cursor/Kiro config example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "opendaemon": {
      "command": "dmn",
      "args": ["mcp", "--config", "/absolute/path/to/dmn.json"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Use an absolute --config path to avoid working-directory issues.

Available MCP tools

Tool	Access	Purpose
`list_services`	Read	List configured services
`get_service_status`	Read	Get current service statuses
`read_logs`	Read	Read buffered logs for one service
`watch_logs`	Read	Stream logs with duration/pattern stop conditions
`start_service`	Write	Start one service (+ dependencies)
`stop_service`	Write	Stop one running service
`restart_service`	Write	Restart one service

Key parameters

read_logs: service, lines (number or "all"), optional contains, caseSensitive, stream (stdout|stderr|both)
watch_logs: service, plus either durationSeconds or untilPattern; optional timeoutSeconds, pollIntervalMs, maxLines, includeExisting, includePatterns, excludePatterns, caseSensitive, stream
start_service / stop_service / restart_service: service

Runtime routing behavior

If an extension daemon is active for the same config path, MCP tool calls reuse that runtime.
Otherwise, MCP uses its own orchestrator runtime for the loaded config.

See Runtime Model for cross-interface details.

Practical validation flow

Try asking your AI assistant:

"List my OpenDaemon services."
"Start the frontend service."
"Check status until frontend is running."
"Restart frontend and show recent frontend logs."

MCP troubleshooting

dmn not found: use an absolute binary path in MCP config.
No services returned: verify --config points to the right dmn.json.
Service action appears to do nothing: check if service is already running, then test with restart_service.
Extension UI and MCP disagree: confirm both target the same absolute config path.