Connect your coding agents to your team's knowledge through the Dosu MCP Server. This page covers what the connection gives you, how to set it up, and every tool the server exposes so your agents can retrieve and enrich knowledge as they work. For the full reference, see Dosu MCP Server.

What connecting it gives you#

Coding agents write better code when they can see how your team actually works. The Dosu MCP Server gives agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot a way to query your Libraries directly from the editor, so they pull architectural decisions, conventions, and past answers instead of guessing.

The result is fewer wrong assumptions, less copying and pasting context into prompts, and more consistent output across everyone using agents. As you grow from one repo to many teams, the same knowledge backs every agent at once.

Availability and prerequisites#

• The MCP Server is available today and works with any MCP-compatible client. Many organizations use tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot.
• You need a Dosu organization with at least one Library so the server has knowledge to serve. Create or open one under Libraries.
• A default MCP server is created with your organization. You can view it and create more under MCP servers.
• API key authentication uses a key from Settings, Account, API keys.

How to connect#

1. Open MCP servers and select the server you want an agent to use. Each server can be scoped to specific Sources.
2. The fastest path is the Dosu CLI. Run npx @dosu/cli setup and follow the prompts to configure your agent. If you are signing up for the first time, setup opens your browser to authenticate and check for organization invitations, then hands you back to the terminal to finish configuration.
3. To wire up a client by hand, use the connection details shown on the server's page. Cursor offers a one-click configure option, and Claude Code can be added from the command line.
4. Authenticate. OAuth 2.0 is recommended where the client supports it, since it prompts you through the browser and rotates credentials for you. Otherwise, fall back to an API key from Settings, Account, API keys.
5. Ask your agent a question about your codebase or product. It will call the Dosu tools to retrieve relevant knowledge.

Exact CLI commands, endpoints, headers, and per-client steps live in Dosu MCP Server.

Tools the server exposes#

The server gives your agent a focused set of tools for retrieving and enriching your team's knowledge.

Retrieving and writing your team's knowledge#

• read_knowledge is the starting point for any task. It searches your curated knowledge (Documents, approved answers, and Topics) and returns the most relevant context. Agents are guided to call it first, before doing other research. Takes a detailed query description. Pass repo (the git remote URL) and branch to get that branch's notes. The results then start with an index of them (one line per note with its id, title, and the first 150 characters of its body). Without a repository and branch, the index lists the Library's unanchored notes instead. To read one note in full, pass note_id (the full UUID or a unique prefix of at least 8 characters). Because it reads curated knowledge rather than raw Sources, it is fast and high-signal.
• write_knowledge records durable context an agent learned while working, such as a decision and its rationale, a non-obvious constraint, or a gotcha. Takes detailed content and an optional short title. Notes are append-only, and visibility depends on how the client provided repository context. When both repo (the git remote URL) and branch are provided in the call, the note is scoped to that repository and branch (a Branch Note). Library members see a Branch Note as soon as they read knowledge on the same repository and branch. A Branch Note becomes a candidate Topic when its branch's pull request merges into the default branch, or immediately on write when the note is on the default branch or on a branch whose pull request has already merged. The write-time check (GitHub only) is best-effort and may fail silently, in which case promotion falls back to the merge webhook. When repo is provided without branch, the note is saved unanchored with the repo stored as observed context; these notes become candidate Topics immediately and are visible organization-wide when read without a branch. When neither repo nor branch is provided, the note is saved unanchored with no repo attached and becomes a candidate Topic immediately. Dosu checks each candidate against your existing Topics before adding it. The Dosu CLI's automated studying workflow attaches each studied session's repo and branch to the notes it mines, so they follow the Branch Note rules above. Sessions with no known repo or branch are still studied; their notes are saved unanchored and become candidate Topics immediately.

Reviewing pending changes#

• review_knowledge lists and acts on the items waiting in the review queue: Document changes Dosu has proposed and draft replies waiting for approval. The queue is scoped to the connection, not the whole organization. Document changes come from the Library behind the MCP deployment, and draft replies come from the deployment itself. The list names that scope, so an empty result doesn't mean nothing is pending anywhere. To review another Library's queue, connect to that Library's MCP deployment. The queue also differs from the web Review page, which lists threads. Takes an action (list, accept, decline, revert, or edit) and, for everything except list, the item's id. Changes apply only with confirm=true. Without it, the tool returns a preview. Agents are guided to use it only when you ask, one item at a time.

Summarizing a turn#

• finalize_session_knowledge shows what an agent read and wrote during a turn. write_knowledge returns a receipt_item_id for every note, and read_knowledge returns one when it surfaces knowledge. The agent passes those ids to this tool once, at the end of the turn. Clients that support MCP Apps render a Session Knowledge card, and terminal clients get a short text summary.

Checking the connection#

• whoami reports the connected deployment and confirms the server is reachable. It is a debugging aid for connection issues, not part of a normal task.

How the tools work together#

An agent follows a read-first pattern:

1. read_knowledge to load curated context for the task, along with the notes for its working branch when it passes repo and branch.
2. write_knowledge when the work surfaces something durable that the next agent would otherwise have to rediscover.
3. finalize_session_knowledge once at the end of the turn, with the receipts from the first two steps.

A note from write_knowledge does not wait in Review. Review holds Document changes, and agents manage it through review_knowledge only when you ask. Branch Notes (written with both repo and branch) are visible to teammates on the same branch immediately and become candidate Topics when the pull request merges or, if on the default branch or a branch that already merged, on write. Unanchored notes with repo context (written with repo but no branch) are visible organization-wide and become candidate Topics immediately.

Notes and limits#

• The MCP Server is read-first. Most calls retrieve knowledge. Notes from write_knowledge are saved directly, without passing through Review, so agents are guided to write only durable, non-obvious knowledge and never secrets or customer data.
• What an agent can retrieve depends on which Sources are connected to the server it uses. If results look thin, check the server's Sources under MCP servers.
• When your Documents and Sources change, the server serves the current version. There is nothing to re-sync by hand.

Related#

• Dosu MCP Server
• Dosu CLI
• Sources
• Libraries