aider-mcp-client

Aider MCP Client: Supercharge Your Coding with AI-Powered Documentation

A Python client that seamlessly integrates MCP (Model Control Protocol) with Aider, creating a powerful AI-assisted development workflow. Fetch precise documentation snippets directly into your coding sessions while efficiently managing token usage.

Why Use MCP with Aider?

• Context-Aware Coding: Get relevant documentation snippets injected directly into your AI coding sessions
• Token Efficiency: Aider's smart token management ensures you get maximum context without wasting tokens
• Reduced Hallucinations: Ground your AI coding in actual documentation rather than made-up examples
• Faster Development: Eliminate context-switching between docs and code
• Precision Answers: Get documentation tailored to your exact coding context

Key Features

• Simple configuration via JSON
• Command-line interface
• Aider-compatible JSON output
• Integration with Context7 MCP servers

Smart Token Management with Aider

Aider was chosen as the foundation for this client because of its excellent token management capabilities:

• Automatic Token Optimization: Aider intelligently manages context window size
• Prioritized Context: Keeps the most relevant documentation in the prompt
• Documentation Chunking: Breaks large docs into manageable pieces
• Session Awareness: Maintains context across multiple queries

This ensures you get the most value from your AI coding sessions without hitting token limits.

Installation

From PyPI:

pip install aider-mcp-client

From GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/alvinveroy/aider-mcp-client.git

For development:

git clone https://github.com/alvinveroy/aider-mcp-client.git
cd aider-mcp-client
pip install -e .

Usage

After installation, you can use the command-line interface:

aider_mcp_client <command> [options] [args...]

Or as a module:

python -m aider_mcp_client <command> [options] [args...]

Command-line Options

usage: aider_mcp_client [-h] [-v] [--debug] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--server SERVER] [--json]
                        {fetch,resolve,list} ...

Aider MCP client for fetching library documentation.

positional arguments:
  {fetch,resolve,list}  Available commands
    fetch               Fetch documentation for a library
    resolve             Resolve a library name to a Context7-compatible ID
    list                List supported libraries

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         Show version information
  --debug               Enable debug logging
  --verbose             Show detailed logs in console
  --quiet               Suppress informational output
  --server SERVER       MCP server to use (default: context7)
  --json                Force JSON output format

Example Workflows

Basic Documentation Fetch

# Get React hooks documentation (automatically optimized for token usage)
aider_mcp_client fetch react --topic "hooks"

# Get Next.js routing docs with 10k token budget
aider_mcp_client fetch vercel/nextjs --topic "routing" --tokens 10000

Integration with Aider

# Start an Aider session with React context
aider --context $(aider_mcp_client fetch react --json)

Advanced Usage

# Resolve library name to ID (useful for scripting)
aider_mcp_client resolve next.js

# Get docs in JSON format for processing
aider_mcp_client fetch react --topic "state" --json

# Debug connection issues
aider_mcp_client fetch react --verbose --debug

Configuration

The client uses a configuration file located at ~/.aider-mcp-client/config.json. If this file doesn't exist, default settings are used.

Default configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context7": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@upstash/context7-mcp@latest"],
      "enabled": true,
      "timeout": 30
    }
  }
}

You can create a custom configuration file:

mkdir -p ~/.aider-mcp-client
echo '{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context7": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@upstash/context7-mcp@latest"],
      "enabled": true,
      "timeout": 30
    }
  }
}' > ~/.aider-mcp-client/config.json

Available Commands

• version: Display version information

  aider_mcp_client
  # or
  aider_mcp_client -v
  # or
  aider_mcp_client --version
  

• fetch: Retrieve documentation for a specific library

  aider_mcp_client fetch <library_id> [--topic "topic"] [--tokens 5000]
  

  or

  python -m aider_mcp_client.client fetch <library_id> [--topic "topic"] [--tokens 5000]
  

Aider Integration

The client outputs JSON in Aider-compatible format:

{
  "content": "...",
  "library": "library_name",
  "snippets": [...],
  "totalTokens": 5000,
  "lastUpdated": "timestamp"
}

Development

Running Tests

# Install pytest first
pip install pytest

# Then run the tests
python -m pytest tests/

You can also use unittest if you prefer:

python -m unittest discover tests

Code Structure

• aider_mcp_client/client.py: Main client implementation with CLI interface
• aider_mcp_client/config.json: Default configuration template
• tests/: Unit tests

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Submit a pull request

License

MIT - See LICENSE for details.