Project Status MCP Server

Project Status Initiative

Project Status turns a repository-local manifest into an evidence-backed readiness model. RunGlance is the separate, zero-model-call live-run companion: RunGlance names the portable skill/runtime, while RunGlance HUD names its compact terminal and dashboard surface. Both skills are portable across Claude, OpenAI/Codex, and generic CLIs; each has an optional, bounded, read-only MCP entrypoint.

This repository contains eight related deliverables:

• the canonical portable skill at skill/project-status;
• the standalone RunGlance skill at skill/runglance;
• the dependency-free RunGlance runtime, host adapters, HUD presets, verification runner, and final receipts;
• optional read-only Project Status and RunGlance MCP entrypoints under packages/mcp;
• generated OpenAI/Codex and Claude plugin wrappers under plugins/;
• deterministic Project Status and RunGlance ZIP distributions produced by scripts/package-skill.mjs and scripts/package-runglance.mjs;
• the React/Vite status prototype and its OpenAI Sites worker build.

Trust and safety model

Readiness, evidence validity, live health, and delivery activity remain separate signals. Browser refreshes do not count as monitoring. Read-only inspection is the default; manifest edits, scheduling, installation, publishing, deployment, commits, and remote writes require separate explicit actions.

Activity also separates context-window capacity, provider quota, task budget, monetary cost, progress, heartbeat freshness, and explicit lock ownership. Missing host data stays unknown; it is never displayed as zero or guessed from another metric. Passing verification proves the check and task result recorded by the receipt, not overall project readiness.

Release tooling stays repository-local. It does not install a plugin, change a personal marketplace, publish an archive, create a release, deploy Sites, or write outside its selected artifact directory.

Canonical skill and generated wrappers

skill/project-status is the only source that should be edited for skill behavior. The two plugin wrappers contain physical copies at skills/project-status because marketplace installers copy plugin directories and cannot safely depend on paths outside the plugin root.

skill/runglance is the corresponding canonical source for RunGlance. Its generated wrappers contain skills/runglance, the RunGlance-only MCP entrypoint, and no readiness-manifest runtime. Do not put RunGlance lifecycle or HUD behavior back into the Project Status skill.

Synchronize the wrappers after changing the canonical skill or after building the optional MCP server:

node scripts/release-sync.mjs sync

CI and local preflight use the read-only drift check:

node scripts/release-sync.mjs check

The sync operation deterministically owns the wrapper manifests, wrapper skill trees, optional bundled MCP runtime, and both repository marketplace catalogs. Do not edit generated wrapper files by hand.

The marketplace catalogs use distinct host schemas:

• .agents/plugins/marketplace.json is the OpenAI/Codex repository marketplace.
• .claude-plugin/marketplace.json is the Claude Code marketplace.

The OpenAI plugin always includes .codex-plugin/plugin.json. Both plugin manifests declare mcpServers only when packages/mcp/dist/index.js is a validated self-contained bundle and its locked build metadata exists; otherwise the MCP component is omitted rather than pointing at a broken path. Generated wrappers package that single bundled entrypoint plus the shared core runtime, with no node_modules, package-install step, source maps, or declarations.

RunGlance and RunGlance HUD

RunGlance requires Node.js 20+ and uses no runtime dependencies, network calls, model calls, API keys, remote storage, or shell evaluation. Setup is inspectable and repository-local:

node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs setup plan --json
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs setup instructions --host codex
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs setup instructions --host claude
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs setup instructions --host generic

setup guided remains read-only. setup apply --project-root <dir> --host <host> writes only .runglance/setup.json in that repository; host-level hooks or status-line settings still require a separate user-authorized action.

A direct run can start, render, verify, and finish without involving MCP:

node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs start --name "Release verification"
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs watch --preset compact --interval 1000
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs verify --name "Unit tests" -- npm run test:unit
node skill/runglance/scripts/runglance.mjs finish \
  --outcome complete \
  --summary "Activity stream verified" \
  --final-summary verified

The default compact RunGlance HUD shows the fastest useful context. standard expands Running and Finished work, swarm accounts for delegated agents, and diagnostic exposes troubleshooting detail. watch refreshes the local snapshot once per second only while useful and consumes no model tokens or MCP calls. The renderer degrades to ASCII for simple terminals and emits static output when stdout is not interactive.

Adapters accept normalized events from Codex hooks/App Server, Claude hooks/status line, or any strict generic producer. Every metric retains its exact, derived, estimated, or unknown truth class. Runtime state is permission-restricted, bounded, redacted, and excludes prompts, transcripts, environment variables, raw tool arguments, credentials, and source files.

Final summaries are configurable as off, concise, or verified. A verified receipt includes fixes, recorded checks, safe local rerun commands, remaining work, elapsed time, and agent count. The public activity API and MCP projection omit rerun arguments and command output; those remain a trusted local CLI surface.

The optional runglance-mcp entrypoint exposes only runglance_get_status, runglance_list_work, runglance_get_usage, runglance_get_locks, and runglance://status. It is a query companion, not the HUD refresh engine:

npm run build --prefix packages/mcp
RUNGLANCE_RUNTIME_DIR=/absolute/runtime/path node packages/mcp/dist/runglance-index.js

Generated OpenAI and Claude RunGlance plugins include standard .mcp.json descriptors. Installation can therefore use each host's normal connection-consent UI; no API key, subscription, remote account, or paid service is required.

Development and validation

Node.js 22 is used in CI. Install the root application dependencies, build the optional MCP package when it exists, synchronize generated wrappers, build the Sites output, and run the full suite:

npm ci
npm ci --prefix packages/mcp
npm run build --prefix packages/mcp
node scripts/release-sync.mjs sync
npm run build
node --test tests/*.test.mjs
node scripts/release-check.mjs

The packages/mcp commands apply only when that optional package is present. npm run build produces the Sites handoff at:

• dist/client/index.html
• dist/server/index.js
• dist/.openai/hosting.json

scripts/release-check.mjs validates wrapper drift, version agreement, host-specific marketplace and manifest shapes, the MCP bundle boundary, package safety, changelog coverage, deterministic archive plans, package identities, namespaces, public-policy files, and founder publication authorization. Both publishable MCP packages run scripts/assert-publish-ready.mjs at the prepublishOnly boundary. npm publication is founder-authorized while LLC formation remains pending; the registry still enforces account authentication at the actual publish request, and provider marketplace review is a separate workflow that does not block npm. The test suite also extracts both plugin archives into isolated temporary directories and performs a pinned MCP handshake plus readiness and activity tool calls without installing dependencies.

Third-party notices are generated from the pinned runtime dependency graphs rather than the full development toolchain:

npm run notices:plan
node scripts/third-party-notices.mjs build
npm run notices:verify

The generator covers the site runtime and bundled MCP runtime, retains each distinct upstream license text, and produces THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md deterministically. Packaging refuses to produce release archives without the repository LICENSE, privacy, terms, security, support, and notice files, and includes all of them in every ZIP.

Build deterministic distributions

Inspect the package plan without writing files:

node scripts/package-skill.mjs plan

Build into the default ignored/local artifact directory, or select another directory:

node scripts/package-skill.mjs build
node scripts/package-skill.mjs build --output /tmp/project-status-artifacts

Existing outputs are never replaced implicitly. Use --replace only when replacement is intentional. Verify previously built bytes against a fresh deterministic plan with:

node scripts/package-skill.mjs verify --output /tmp/project-status-artifacts

The output set is:

• project-status-portable-claude-skill.zip
• project-status-openai-plugin.zip
• project-status-claude-plugin.zip
• checksums.json

Every ZIP contains MANIFEST.sha256. The builder rejects symlinks, traversal, absolute paths, tests, dependency trees, .env files, embedded user-home paths, and common secret formats. Archive entry order, metadata, modes, JSON formatting, and bytes are deterministic.

RunGlance has the same plan/build/verify contract:

node scripts/package-runglance.mjs plan
node scripts/package-runglance.mjs build
node scripts/package-runglance.mjs verify

Its output set is runglance-portable-claude-skill.zip, runglance-openai-plugin.zip, runglance-claude-plugin.zip, and checksums.json.

Local marketplace installation

Installation changes host state and is intentionally separate from building or validating this repository. From a trusted checkout, a user can opt in with the host CLI.

For Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add .
codex plugin add project-status@project-status-initiative
codex plugin add runglance@project-status-initiative

For Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add .
claude plugin install project-status@project-status-initiative
claude plugin install runglance@project-status-initiative

Review the generated manifests and skill contents before installing. Marketplace plugins are trusted code, especially when the optional local MCP server is included.

Versioning and release gates

The distribution version is recorded in VERSION, both canonical component metadata files, generated plugin manifests, the Claude marketplace entry, MCP and monitor companion packages, and archive checksums. node scripts/release-check.mjs requires them to agree. Release 1.2.1 is the provenance-aligned patch release for the founder-operated publication gate and normalized npm CLI manifests merged after v1.2.0; the 1.2.0 line had already superseded the unpublished 1.1.0 source identifier because that identifier collided with a materially different cached Project Status distribution.

publisher/publisher.json is the repository mirror/consumer of https://openlyuseful.org/publisher/manifest.json. Openly Useful is the publisher/developer brand. Openly Useful LLC is the planned publisher, operator, and licensee, but remains formation-pending and must not be described as already formed. The .org identity is the canonical open-source, publisher, policy, security, and support surface; .com is the studio/commercial identity. Component metadata points to the canonical public https://github.com/Openly-Useful/project-status repository and https://openlyuseful.org/support.

RunGlance was solely authored by and remains personally owned by the founder. Openly Useful is currently operated by the individual founder, who directly authorizes open-source and npm package publication while LLC formation remains pending. No IP assignment, ownership transfer, or ownership verification is required; a future LLC can later publish, operate, and license RunGlance under documented founder authorization without becoming the copyright owner.

Local distribution readiness and npm package readiness remain separate signals. distributionReady covers source, generated wrappers, license/notices, policies, metadata, and deterministic packages. publishReady additionally requires:

1. direct founder-owner authorization effective while LLC formation is pending;
2. exact npm package and MCP namespace contracts;
3. the canonical privacy, terms, security, and support policy files;
4. current license, notices, generated wrappers, tests, and deterministic package plans.

Account authentication is not fabricated by the static readiness result. npm enforces it separately when an actual registry request is made.

OpenAI/Claude provider review, marketplace submission, MCP Registry submission, deployment, and future LLC operation remain separate workflows. None is inferred from npm readiness, and provider review does not block npm publication.

The repository contains the unmodified Apache License 2.0 text and a deterministic third-party notice bundle. Apache-2.0 does not require a project-specific copyright-holder/year placeholder in the license text.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and PROVENANCE.md for the preserved source and ownership record.