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Refdocs MCP Server

Developer ToolsModerate5.1MCP RegistryLocal
Free

Server data from the Official MCP Registry

Search technical documentation and read web pages as markdown.

About

Search technical documentation and read web pages as markdown.

Security Report

5.1
Moderate5.1Moderate Risk

refdocs is a small, transparent documentation search and URL-to-markdown tool with no exfiltration, backdoor, or shell execution patterns, and its API key is only sent to the configured Ref API endpoint. The main concern is that ref_read_url will fetch any http or https URL, including private, loopback, and cloud metadata addresses, without restriction, which is a server-side request forgery risk; minor issues include the API key being sent to whatever host REF_API_BASE_URL points to and the read tool requiring a key it never uses. Supply chain analysis found 3 known vulnerabilities in dependencies (0 critical, 2 high severity). Package verification found 1 issue.

8 files analyzed · 9 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

HTTP Network Access

Connects to external APIs or services over the internet.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

What You'll Need

Set these up before or after installing:

REF_API_KEYRequired

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-cloudcorprecords-refdocs": {
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "your-ref-api-key-here"
      },
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@reneturcios/refdocs"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub README.

refdocs

refdocs answers documentation questions and turns web pages into something an agent can actually read. Search runs across public technical documentation and GitHub for the facts or code snippet behind a question, and any URL can be fetched and handed back as clean markdown instead of raw HTML.

It is one small program with two faces: a command-line tool for quick lookups, and a stdio MCP server that gives agents the same two operations as tools.

Configuration

Both operations require a Ref API key:

export REF_API_KEY="your-key-here"

The search endpoint defaults to https://api.ref.tools. Override it with REF_API_BASE_URL when you are pointing at another deployment. The key is checked before any request is made; when it is missing the tool fails with an error that names REF_API_KEY.

Install

npx @reneturcios/refdocs search "How do I stream a response with fetch?"

Or run the container image:

docker run -i -e REF_API_KEY ghcr.io/cloudcorprecords/refdocs

The container defaults to the MCP server (see below). Pass CLI arguments to use it as a CLI instead.

CLI

# Search the documentation
refdocs search "How do I use the cache API in Next.js?"
refdocs search "What does this error mean?" --json

# Read a page as markdown
refdocs read https://example.test/some/guide
refdocs read https://example.test/some/guide --json

# Check the configuration without making a request
refdocs check

refdocs --version

Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 when a lookup fails or the configuration is not ready (the error names the problem), 2 for usage errors.

MCP server

One bin serves both faces. The mcp subcommand starts a stdio MCP server:

npx -y @reneturcios/refdocs mcp

MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "refdocs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@reneturcios/refdocs", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

ToolInputWhat it returns
ref_search_documentationquery (string, required) — a full sentence or question to search forMatching documentation results from public documentation and GitHub, each with its title, URL, and content or snippet when the upstream provides them.
ref_read_urlurl (string, required) — the URL of the webpage to readThe page content converted to markdown: headings, links, lists, emphasis, and code blocks are kept in markdown form, while scripts, styles, and other non-content markup are dropped.

Search responses are parsed tolerantly: a bare array, a results list, and a documents list are all accepted. Reading plain-text URLs returns the text unchanged.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # tsc -> dist/
npm test        # node test runner over test/*.test.ts, no network
npm run dev     # run the CLI from source via tsx

Tests run entirely against a fake fetch function; no live API calls are made.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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