Custom MCP Clients

LocalLens's MCP server works with any MCP-compatible client, not just Claude.

Transport

LocalLens uses SSE (Server-Sent Events) transport on port 8811 by default.

http://localhost:8811/sse

Connecting from any MCP client

Any client that supports the MCP protocol can connect:

# Example using the mcp Python SDK
from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.sse import sse_client

async with sse_client("http://localhost:8811/sse") as (read, write):
    async with ClientSession(read, write) as session:
        await session.initialize()

        # List available tools
        tools = await session.list_tools()

        # Call a tool
        result = await session.call_tool(
            "locallens_search",
            arguments={"query": "authentication", "top_k": 5}
        )

Available tools

Tool	Description
locallens_search	Search indexed files
locallens_ask	Ask a question with RAG
locallens_index	Index a folder
locallens_status	Get status and health
locallens_files	List indexed files

See Tools Reference for full parameter and response documentation.

Running as a background service

For always-on access:

# Start in the background
nohup locallens serve --mcp > /tmp/locallens-mcp.log 2>&1 &

# Or with a custom port
nohup locallens serve --mcp --port 9000 > /tmp/locallens-mcp.log 2>&1 &

Cursor integration

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "locallens": {
      "command": "locallens",
      "args": ["serve", "--mcp"]
    }
  }
}