Hamster MCP Server
io.github.gethamster/hamster
Search and manage Hamster briefs, tasks, plans, and knowledge; trigger delivery from your agent.
What is the Hamster MCP server?
The Hamster MCP server integrates Hamster's workspace planning and execution platform with AI agents like Claude and Cursor. It provides skills for planning, shipping briefs, code review, QA, and retrospectives, with a hosted MCP endpoint at https://tryhamster.com/mcp or CLI-based access when MCP is unavailable.
Hamster is a workspace orchestration platform that keeps your development plan on disk and ships it through AI agents. It exposes skills for asking workspace context, planning and executing briefs, reviewing code, running systematic QA, and analyzing team metrics. Install the plugin on Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Grok Build, Antigravity, or Pi, then use `/hamster:<skill>` commands to plan work, execute briefs in parallel waves, review code, and run retrospectives.
How to install Hamster
Copy-paste configuration for popular MCP clients.
Tools & capabilities
Tools this server exposes to the agent.
ask-hamster— Connect current code with workspace priorities, blockers, blueprints, or related work; perform workspace actions like creating briefs from prototypes.ship— Execute a brief: merge base, implement tasks in parallel waves, test, review, create bisectable commits, and optionally open a PR.plan-hamster— Analyze a brief with optional CEO (founder mode) or engineering (architecture mode) review without making changes.resume-hamster— Resume interrupted execution from where you left off, auto-detecting the brief from git branch or in-progress tasks.review-hamster— Paranoid two-pass code review (CRITICAL then INFORMATIONAL) for the current feature branch with interactive resolution.qa— Systematic testing with four modes: diff (changed files only), full (suite + coverage), quick (lint + typecheck + smoke), or regression (changed + dependents).retro— Engineering retrospective from git history with metrics, hourly distribution, session analysis, hotspots, PR sizes, and per-contributor deep dive.setup— Install the CLI, sign in, and sync the plan into your repository.
Use cases
- Execute a multi-task brief in parallel waves with automated testing, review, and bisectable commits
- Analyze a brief with optional founder or architecture review before implementation
- Resume an interrupted feature branch from where you left off
- Run paranoid two-pass code review (CRITICAL and INFORMATIONAL) on a feature branch
- Conduct systematic QA with diff-aware, full, quick, or regression testing modes
- Generate engineering retrospectives with metrics, trends, and per-contributor analysis
Hamster MCP server FAQ
Hamster is a workspace orchestration platform that integrates with AI agents to plan, execute, review, and ship development work. It keeps your brief and task plan on disk and coordinates execution through skills like ship, plan, review, and qa.
The README does not specify pricing. Visit https://tryhamster.com for details.
Go to Customize → Add Marketplace → Import from GitHub, paste https://github.com/gethamster/plugin at User scope, then open the Personal tab and select Add next to Hamster. On Enterprise, an admin must allow marketplace imports first.
Run `/plugin marketplace add gethamster/plugin` then `/plugin install hamster@hamster-plugins`.
Yes. Run `/hamster:setup` to install the CLI, sign in via `hamster auth login`, and sync your plan. On hosted MCP, your client owns the Hamster sign-in. On GitHub Copilot CLI, run `/mcp auth hamster`.
Yes. When MCP tools are unavailable, use `hamster chat` from the CLI (requires the CLI to be installed and signed in). The setup skill handles installation and authentication.
README (reference)
Source of truth, from the repository.
Hamster
Install Hamster. One plugin. Talk through hosted MCP or the CLI. Keep the plan on disk, then ship from it.
This is the Hamster product: Agent Plugins skills on every supported client, hosted MCP on every client that supports MCP and installs from GitHub or a marketplace, plus generated native execution workers on Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Grok Build. The CLI is how the plan stays in this repo. It is not a second install.
Install
Installation differs by client. If you use more than one, install Hamster separately for each one.
Cursor
- Customize → Add Marketplace → Import from GitHub.
- Paste
https://github.com/gethamster/pluginat User scope and select Import. - Open the Personal tab and select Add next to Hamster.
On Enterprise, an admin must allow marketplace imports. Once Hamster is on the Cursor marketplace, /add-plugin hamster works too:
/add-plugin hamster
Grok Bot is not a separate Hamster package. It uses the same Cursor account and plugin library, so the Cursor install above is the Grok Bot install. Do not run /add-plugin in the Grok Bot chat. If Grok Bot shows "Complete GitHub auth to sync installed plugins", complete GitHub auth when Grok Bot asks.
Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add gethamster/plugin
/plugin install hamster@hamster-plugins
Codex CLI
codex plugin marketplace add gethamster/plugin
codex plugin add hamster@hamster-plugins
You can also launch codex, run /plugins, and install hamster@hamster-plugins.
Codex Plugins Directory
The Hamster listing in Codex's Plugins Directory is a skills-only build of this same skills tree, produced by node scripts/build-codex-skills-bundle.mjs. A directory install carries the skills and nothing else, so it does not register the hosted MCP connector: Ask Hamster answers through hamster chat there unless you add the connector yourself, as described in Advanced: hosted MCP without the plugin. The GitHub and marketplace installs above are unaffected and keep the connector.
Antigravity
From this repository:
agy plugin install .
Or from GitHub:
agy plugin install https://github.com/gethamster/plugin
If Hamster 3.2 is already installed, uninstall it before you install 3.4. An in-place Antigravity install retains the four skill directories renamed in 3.4.
agy plugin uninstall hamster
agy plugin install https://github.com/gethamster/plugin
In the Antigravity app (2.15 or newer), authenticate hamster_hamster under Settings → Customizations → Installed MCP Servers. The plugin registers that server itself, so a manual hamster entry in mcp_config.json would add a second copy of every tool.
Using GitHub Copilot CLI, Grok Build, or Pi? See More install options.
More install options
GitHub Copilot CLI
copilot plugin marketplace add gethamster/plugin
copilot plugin install hamster@hamster-plugins
To sign in to the hosted MCP server, run /mcp auth hamster.
Grok Build
grok plugin install gethamster/plugin --trust
To sign in to the hosted MCP server, open /mcps, select hamster, and press i.
Pi
pi install git:github.com/gethamster/plugin
Pi has no MCP support, so Hamster runs through the CLI. Run /skill:setup to install it and sign in.
After install
- Talk — hosted MCP at
https://tryhamster.com/mcp, orhamster chatwhen MCP tools are unavailable and the CLI is signed in. Your client owns the Hamster sign-in. - Plan on disk — say Install Hamster, or run ship. The setup skill installs the CLI if needed, runs
hamster auth login, and syncs the plan. - Ship — execute the brief already on disk. Nothing runs automatically on session start.
Skills
Claude Code and Copilot CLI list these as /hamster:<skill>. Cursor and Grok Build list them as /<skill>, and Pi as /skill:<skill>. The table uses the Claude form.
| Skill | Persona | Description |
|---|---|---|
/hamster:setup | — | Install the CLI, sign in, and sync the plan into this repo |
/hamster:ask-hamster [request] | Workspace Copilot | Connect current code with workspace priorities, blockers, blueprints, or related work (hosted MCP when the client has it; hamster chat otherwise) |
/hamster:ship [slug-or-url] | Release Engineer | Ship a brief: merge base, implement in parallel, test, review, bisectable commits, PR |
/hamster:plan-hamster [slug-or-url] | Tech Lead + CEO/Eng modes | Analyze brief with optional founder or architecture review |
/hamster:resume-hamster [slug] | — | Resume interrupted execution from where you left off |
/hamster:review-hamster | Staff Engineer | Paranoid two-pass code review (CRITICAL then INFORMATIONAL) |
/hamster:qa [mode] | QA Lead | Systematic testing: diff-aware, full, quick, regression |
/hamster:retro [days] | Eng Manager | Engineering retrospective with metrics, trends, team analysis |
Four skills carry a -hamster suffix because Cursor invokes plugin skills as a bare /skill-name, and ask, plan, and resume are Cursor's own concepts — cursor-agent --mode takes plan and ask, --resume selects a session — so short names compete with them there. review is renamed with that family so Cursor's command list stays one convention. Claude Code namespaces plugin skills as /<plugin>:<skill> and they cannot conflict, so on Claude the suffix is redundant and you type /hamster:ask-hamster. One skills tree serves every client, so that is the cost of being unambiguous on Cursor. ship, qa, retro, and setup shadow nothing and stay short.
/hamster:setup
The readiness path. Noninteractive check first (ensure-ready). If the CLI is installed and you are signed in, it runs hamster sync to refresh the plan. Otherwise it installs the CLI, opens login, and inits/syncs — only when you asked.
/hamster:ask-hamster
The direct gateway to Hamster's connected workspace context. Uses the Hamster MCP tools when the client has them; otherwise hamster chat is the same ask path over the CLI. Explicit requests can also perform supported workspace actions:
/hamster:ask-hamster I'm modifying auth middleware in apps/web/app/api/. What does our blueprint say about third-party integrations?
/hamster:ask-hamster I prototyped rate limiting in apps/api/middleware/rate-limit.ts. Create a brief for this work.
Follow-up questions continue the same Hamster conversation when they depend on the previous response.
/hamster:ship
The main orchestrator. Accepts a brief slug, UUID, or Hamster Studio URL:
/hamster:ship user-authentication
/hamster:ship https://tryhamster.com/home/hamster/briefs/2de8d546-50ab-4dbd-a678-579ec8119f60
If no argument is given, presents an interactive picker of actionable briefs.
Flow: Readiness (setup/ensure-ready) → Setup (prereqs + live sync) → Brief selection → Inline wave scheduling (one confirmation) → Branch + merge base → Parallel wave execution (implement → validate + test → wave review → bisectable commits) → Final validation → Ask about PR creation
No plan generation or task elaboration occurs at any step — scheduling only organizes the pre-generated tasks into parallel waves.
/hamster:plan-hamster
Read-only analysis with optional deep review. Produces the execution plan without making changes.
/hamster:plan-hamster api-rate-limiting
After analysis, choose a review mode:
- CEO Review (Founder Mode) — 10-section deep dive from first principles
- Eng Review (Architecture Mode) — 4-section technical review with ASCII diagrams and test plan
- Quick Analysis — Just the plan
/hamster:resume-hamster
Resumes an interrupted execution. Auto-detects the brief from the git branch name (feature/{key}-{id}-{slug}), in-progress tasks, or a provided argument.
/hamster:resume-hamster
/hamster:resume-hamster user-authentication
/hamster:review-hamster
Paranoid two-pass code review for the current feature branch:
- Pass 1 (CRITICAL): SQL safety, race conditions, auth boundaries, enum completeness, secrets
- Pass 2 (INFORMATIONAL): Side effects, magic numbers, dead code, test gaps, type coercion, time safety
- Interactive resolution for critical findings with fix/acknowledge/false-positive options
/hamster:review-hamster
/hamster:qa
Systematic testing with 4 modes:
/hamster:qa diff # Test only what changed (default on feature branches)
/hamster:qa full # Full test suite with coverage
/hamster:qa quick # 30-second lint + typecheck + smoke tests
/hamster:qa regression # Changed files + dependents, flag new failures
Includes issue taxonomy (functional/type-safety/integration/performance/coverage-gap) and optional fix loop.
/hamster:retro
Engineering retrospective from git history:
/hamster:retro # Last 7 days (default)
/hamster:retro 14 # Last 14 days
/hamster:retro 30 # Last 30 days
/hamster:retro 24h # Last 24 hours
Produces: metrics table, hourly distribution, session analysis, hotspots, PR sizes, per-contributor deep dive with praise and growth suggestions, trends vs last retro, and a narrative summary.
Execution workers
| Worker | Persona | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| task-executor | Senior Engineer | Implements one parent task + subtasks; loads project skills, blueprints, and methods |
| wave-reviewer | Staff Engineer | Reviews a whole wave's diff (per-parent verdicts + cross-parent integration checks), then simplifies |
Canonical worker protocols live in plugins/hamster/skills/ship/references/agents/. plugins/hamster/agents/task-executor.md and plugins/hamster/agents/wave-reviewer.md are generated native adapters (registration + model metadata) over those bodies, and every client with native agents registers them from that one folder — run node scripts/sync-adapters.mjs after editing the canonical files; CI checks drift. Ship prefers the registered native agent when the client exposes it (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, and Grok Build do), otherwise launches a generic subagent and injects the matching canonical body, otherwise runs the same protocol inline. On the generic path, prefer the strongest available coding model for task-executor and a mid-tier model for wave-reviewer when the client can pin one; otherwise inherit. Wave scheduling, branch creation, commits, and PR creation stay inline.
Executors implement unambiguous brief/spec authority over contradictory tasks and record resolved plan issues; only unresolved or unbuilt work blocks completion, and resumed PR updates retain earlier task and plan-feedback resolutions.
Every skill directory is self-contained: no SKILL.md reads a sibling skill's files, because clients are free to install or load one skill on its own. Each skill is SKILL.md plus optional scripts/ and references/; longer procedures live in references/ so the skill body stays within client size limits (Codex reads the first 8,000 bytes). Shared material — readiness scripts under each skill's scripts/, and protocols under references/ that plan-hamster and resume-hamster re-enter — is duplicated into every skill that needs it, and scripts/validate-plugin.mjs hashes every copy and fails the build if they drift apart. Root scripts/ is maintainer tooling (sync-adapters.mjs, validate-plugin.mjs, build-codex-skills-bundle.mjs); it is not part of the installed plugin.
plugins/hamster/ is the plugin: every client installs this one folder, and it is the folder submitted to the Claude plugin directory, which scans only the folder it is given. It holds each client's manifest (.claude-plugin/, .codex-plugin/, .cursor-plugin/, and the plugin.json Antigravity needs to register the MCP server), .mcp.json and Antigravity's mcp_config.json, skills/, agents/, and its own README.md, which lists what the plugin runs, sends, and fetches, so update it when that changes. The repository root keeps only the marketplace catalogs that point at ./plugins/hamster (.claude-plugin/, which Copilot CLI also reads, .cursor-plugin/, and .agents/plugins/), the root package.json whose pi.skills points Pi at the same skills, and maintainer tooling, CI, and listing images. validate-plugin.mjs fails if a plugin manifest, skills/, or agents/ reappears at the root, because Antigravity then installs the root and finds 0 skills, and it fails on any symbolic link or image inside plugins/hamster/ except .claude-plugin/icon.svg, the Claude plugin directory's listing icon, which must stay a self-contained SVG with no raster, script, or external reference. The Codex manifest there names no images, so a Codex marketplace install shows no plugin icon; build-codex-skills-bundle.mjs adds the root assets/ to the Codex Plugins Directory bundle. The Cursor logo is a URL to the root assets/logo.svg. That plugin.json must not declare the Agent Plugins $schema: with it, Copilot CLI reads agents only from com.github.copilot/agents/ and registers neither worker.
The one plugin manifest at the root is .grok-plugin/plugin.json. Grok Build's plugin install <repo> reads a manifest at the repository root and doesn't follow a marketplace catalog, so this file points its skills, agents, and mcpServers into plugins/hamster/. It keeps grok plugin install gethamster/plugin --trust working and lets existing Grok installs update onto this layout. agents must stay a directory path: Grok loads no agents from an array of files. sync-adapters.mjs writes its name, version, and description from plugins/hamster/plugin.json, and validate-plugin.mjs checks that each path resolves and that no other <client>-plugin/plugin.json appears at the root. Antigravity and Pi don't read .grok-plugin/, and the Claude plugin directory scans only plugins/hamster/.
Editing shared material is a multi-file edit. The first path in each group below is the source of truth; the rest are copies that must stay byte-identical. Change the source, copy it over the others, then run the validator — it names the exact cp commands when a group has drifted.
| Source of truth | Copies |
|---|---|
plugins/hamster/skills/setup/scripts/ensure-ready.sh | ship, plan-hamster, resume-hamster |
plugins/hamster/skills/setup/scripts/ensure-ready.ps1 | ship, plan-hamster, resume-hamster |
plugins/hamster/skills/ship/references/brief-selection.md | plan-hamster, resume-hamster |
plugins/hamster/skills/ship/references/execution-loop.md | resume-hamster |
plugins/hamster/skills/ship/references/agents/task-executor.md | resume-hamster |
plugins/hamster/skills/ship/references/agents/wave-reviewer.md | resume-hamster |
Execution loop
For each wave of independent parent tasks (executed in parallel):
Wave N (parallel):
[task-executor A] || [task-executor B] || [task-executor C]
Post-wave (orchestrator):
Validation + test gate (one pass, stop on test failure)
[wave-reviewer] — one worker for the whole wave
(small low-risk waves: orchestrator reviews inline, no worker)
Bisectable commits per parent (direct bash)
Git conventions
- Branch:
feature/{key}-{lowest-id}-{brief-slug}, where{key}is the task display ID's key, lowercased (HAM-42→feature/ham-42-…,ACME-7→feature/acme-7-…) - Parent task commits:
feat({key}-123): concise description(split by concern for bisectability) - Simplification commits:
refactor({key}-123): simplify description - Review fix commits:
fix({key}-123): address review findings - QA fix commits:
fix(qa): test-file — description - PR: Created on request (not auto-created), targets detected default branch
Advanced: CLI binary
Use this only when you want the hamster binary without a plugin client.
curl -fsSL https://tryhamster.com/cli/install | bash
hamster auth login
hamster init
hamster sync
Or download a binary from the latest release.
Supported platforms: macOS (amd64, arm64), Linux (amd64, arm64), Windows (amd64).
The plugin package and source files in this repository are licensed under MIT. Prebuilt hamster binaries distributed through GitHub Releases are provided under Hamster's Commercial Terms.
CLI commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
hamster auth login | Authenticate via browser (OAuth 2.1 + PKCE) |
hamster auth logout | Log out and clear stored credentials |
hamster init | Initialize Hamster data and run first sync |
hamster sync | One-time sync from Hamster Studio |
hamster sync --watch | Continuous real-time sync via WebSocket |
hamster chat "<request>" | Ask Hamster from the terminal (--continue for follow-ups); same ask path as hosted MCP when plugin tools are unavailable |
hamster status | Show sync status and statistics (hamster --no-tui status for plain output, which is what the skills' readiness gate runs) |
hamster task status <id> <status> | Update task status (todo, in_progress, done) |
hamster brief status <slug> <status> | Update brief status |
What gets synced
Skills read .hamster/ in the current repo:
.hamster/
.state.json # Sync metadata (don't edit)
{account}/
briefs/
{brief-slug}/
brief.md # The brief itself
tasks/ # Parent tasks and subtasks
blueprints/ # Architecture documents
methods/ # Team conventions
Skills take the account directory name from account_slug in .state.json. HAMSTER_ACCOUNT_ID holds an account UUID, so when it is set the skills check it against account_id and stop rather than guess.
The hosted MCP tools work on one active team per user, which isn't tied to any repo. So before its first Hamster MCP call, and before each ask or change, ask-hamster calls switch_account with this repo's account_slug (your CLI team as of the last hamster sync here) and checks that the team it lands on has the same account_id. Otherwise a user in more than one team can get "not found" for tasks that exist. The server stores that choice per user, so switching also changes the team your other Hamster MCP clients use until they switch again. If the switch fails or lands on a different team, the skill stops and points you at hamster init --force or the right MCP sign-in. The other skills use the CLI, not Hamster MCP, so they don't switch.
Advanced: hosted MCP without the plugin
Use this only when you want the hosted MCP tools in a client without installing the plugin. Add https://tryhamster.com/mcp as a remote MCP connector and sign in through OAuth; see the MCP server docs for setup, the tool list, and client registration. Skills, slash commands, the CLI, and /ship come with the plugin.
License
MIT. Copyright Hamster Studio. See Hamster's Privacy Policy for how Hamster handles your data. The MIT grant covers the plugin package and source files in this repository; prebuilt hamster binaries distributed through GitHub Releases are provided under Hamster's Commercial Terms.
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