rtfmbro-mcp

> rtfmbro provides always-up-to-date, version-specific package documentation as context for coding agents. An alternative to context7.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/dbe0b3b4-a42c-4e91-8bcd-a94d430ef0b8

Demonstration of rtfmbro in use, fetching a specific version (3.1.1) of Flask's readme and docs.

Overview

rtfmbro is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides real-time, version-aware documentation fetching for packages across multiple ecosystems. It bridges the gap between AI agents and accurate, up-to-date package documentation by fetching docs directly from GitHub repositories at the exact version your project uses.

Supported Ecosystems

| Ecosystem | Registry | Status |
|-----------|----------|--------|
| Python | PyPI | ✅ Full Support |
| Node.js | npm | ✅ Full Support |
| Swift | SPM | 🚧 Alpha |
| GitHub | Direct | ⚠️ Fallback |

Why rtfmbro?

The Problem

- Stale Documentation: AI models often rely on outdated training data about packages - Missing Context: Source code in node_modules etc. lacks high-level documentation, browsing it is usually token-consuming and inefficient - Version Mismatches: Generic documentation doesn't match your specific package version, especially for legacy projects or brand new packages

The Solution

rtfmbro tries to solve these issues by:

1. Version-Precise Fetching: Retrieves documentation from the exact git tag/commit that matches your lockfile
2. Comprehensive Coverage: Extracts all documentation files (.md, .mdx, .txt, .rst, .html) from the repository
3. Intelligent Caching: SHA-based currency checking ensures docs stay fresh without unnecessary re-fetching
4. Agent Integration: Seamlessly integrates with AI coding assistants via the Model Context Protocol
5. Great DX: Zero seting up for developers, just add the server to your MCP configuration, instructions and start fetching docs

MCP Tools

The server exposes four primary tools to AI agents:

| Tool | Purpose | Parameters | Returns |
|------|---------|------------|---------|
| get_readme | Fetches and returns the README file for a specific package version | package, version, ecosystem | README content as string |
| get_documentation_tree | Generates a comprehensive folder structure of all documentation files | package, version, ecosystem | Tree structure as string |
| read_files | Reads specific documentation files with optional line range slicing | package, version, ecosystem, requests[] | Dictionary mapping paths to content |
| search_github_repositories | Searches for GitHub repositories using the GitHub Search API | query, sort, order, per_page | Formatted repository search results |

Installation & Setup

Quick Start

Claude Code

claude mcp add-json rtfmbro '{ "type": "http",  "url": "https://rtfmbro.smolosoft.dev/mcp/" }'

Claude Desktop / VS Code / etc.

Add the remote server to your MCP configuration:

{
  "rtfmbro": {
    "type": "http", 
    "url": "https://rtfmbro.smolosoft.dev/mcp/"
  }
}

Cursor

Agent Integration

To truly integrate rtfmbro with your AI coding agent of choice, copy the appropriate meta-instruction file to your project:

- GitHub Copilot: Copy .github/copilot-instructions.md to your project
- Claude Code: Copy CLAUDE.md to your project root
- Cursor: Copy .cursor/rules to your project root
- Other agents: Adapt the instructions from either file above to your agent's format

How It Works

Documentation Workflow

1. Registry Lookup: Queries the package registry (PyPI, npm, etc.) for metadata
2. GitHub Discovery: Extracts the GitHub repository URL from package metadata
3. Version Resolution: Fetches available git tags and matches them against your semantic version
4. Smart Fetching: Clones the repository at the exact matched tag/commit
5. Content Filtering: Extracts only documentation files, removing source code and build artifacts
6. Caching & Currency: Stores results with SHA-based currency checking for efficient re-access

Caching Strategy

- SHA-Based Validation: Compares current repository commit SHA with cached version
- Automatic Invalidation: Re-fetches documentation when new commits are detected
- Persistent Storage: Maintains local cache to avoid redundant GitHub API calls
- Metadata Preservation: Stores documentation tree structure for fast browsing

Prerequisites

- Package must be published to a supported registry (PyPI, npm)
- Package metadata must contain a valid GitHub repository link
- Repository must use git tags for version management
- Documentation files must be present in the repository (not just generated sites)

Roadmap

Near Term

- [x] Ecosystem independent fallback: Implement a fallback mechanism for unsupported ecosystems - [ ] Provide rtfmbro source code: Open source the server codebase - [ ] Public docker image: Create a public Docker image for easy deployment - [ ] Private repo support: Allow authenticated access to private repositories - [ ] Add Tests: Implement unit and integration tests for core functionality - [ ] Enhanced Python Support: Include pydocs and docstring extraction - [ ] Search Capabilities: Search across documentation corpus

Future Ecosystems / Languages / Registries

- [ ] Rust (crates.io) - [ ] Go (pkg.go.dev) - [ ] Java/Kotlin (Maven Central) - [ ] C#/.NET (NuGet) - [ ] Ruby (RubyGems)

Source code hosting and repository support:

- [x] GitHub: Support for GitHub repositories - [ ] Gitlab: Support for GitLab repositories - [ ] Bitbucket: Support for Bitbucket repositories - [ ] Launchpad: Support for Launchpad repositories

Known Issues

- Some packages may have documentation in separate standalone repos
- Large repositories may take a bit of time to clone and process initially

Similar / Additive Projects

- mcp-package-docs: Another MCP server for package documentation, focusing on documentation extraction, LSP servers, etc. May be a great supplement to rtfmbro.
- rust-docs-mcp-server: MCP server for Rust documentation, focused on Rust-specific features and documentation formats.
- mcp-ragdocs: MCP server for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) documentation, aimed at improving the documentation experience for AI models.
- godoc-mcp: MCP server for Go documentation, providing access to Go package documentation via the Model Context Protocol.
- context7: Alternative to rtfmbro

Differences between context7 and rtfmbro

|Aspect|context7|rtfmbro| |------|--------|-------| | Actuality | Scrapes documentation ahead-of-time at intransparent intervals or upon user trigger. As of writing, the "latest" Next.js docs are already 2 days old.| Fetches documentation just-in-time, ensuring it's always up-to-date. | | Version-specific docs | Theoretically allows scraping older versions (useful for legacy or longtime projects), but the process is complicated, limiting practical availability effectively to latest versions. | Fetches older documentation just-in-time, and always remains current, identical to latest docs. | | Search strategy | Uses either A) optionally token-limited RAG search to filter/preprocess docs which can be hit-or-miss, or B) dumps all content into LLM's context, resulting in excessive token-use. | Employs agentic discovery (as used by Claude Code itself) | | Developer Experience | Requires explicitly mention of context7 in every prompt. | Operates via defined rules/instructions, auto-selecting appropriate package name/version from lock file ("set and forget"). | | Support | Language/ecosystem independent. | Currently language/ecosystem-specific; planned additional languages/ecosystems and language-independent fallback mechanism soon. |