MCP Setup Guides

Prerequisites

Install and authenticate the Pretorin CLI:

uv tool install pretorin
pretorin login

Install the Pretorin Skill

The skill teaches your AI agent how to use MCP tools for compliance workflows — control ID formats, narrative authoring rules, gap analysis methodology, and more. Install it before setting up MCP:

pretorin skill install                # both Claude Code and Codex CLI
pretorin skill install --agent claude # Claude Code only
pretorin skill install --agent codex  # Codex CLI only
pretorin skill status                 # check what's installed

The skill is copied to ~/.claude/skills/pretorin/ and/or ~/.codex/skills/pretorin/ and auto-discovered by each agent.

Claude Code

Quick setup — run a single command:

claude mcp add --transport stdio pretorin -- pretorin mcp-serve

This registers the server for your current project. To make it available across all your projects, add --scope user.

Team setup — add a .mcp.json file to your project root so every team member gets the server automatically:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pretorin": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "pretorin",
      "args": ["mcp-serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code detects the file automatically.

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

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

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

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

Restart Cursor after saving.

OpenAI Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.pretorin]
command = "pretorin"
args = ["mcp-serve"]

If you installed Pretorin with uv tool install or pipx, prefer pinning the absolute path from command -v pretorin to avoid PATH drift between shells and GUI apps.

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

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

Restart Windsurf after saving.

Other MCP Clients

The Pretorin MCP server follows the standard Model Context Protocol and works with any MCP-compatible client. The server communicates via stdio.

To test the server manually:

pretorin mcp-serve

The server accepts JSON-RPC messages on stdin and responds on stdout.

PATH Considerations

If your AI tool can’t find the pretorin command, use the full path:

# Find the full path
command -v pretorin

Then use that path in your configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pretorin": {
      "command": "/home/user/.local/bin/pretorin",
      "args": ["mcp-serve"]
    }
  }
}

This is especially important for uv tool and pipx installations where the binary may not be on the PATH available to GUI applications.

Before debugging scoped MCP write failures, validate the active CLI scope:

pretorin context show --quiet --check