Installation

Prerequisites

Rust toolchain (for building from source)
Language servers for the languages you want to use (see Language Servers)

Install Catenary

cargo install --git https://github.com/TwoWells/Catenary catenary-mcp

Connect to Your AI CLI

The catenary binary must be on your PATH before configuring any client. Plugins and extensions provide hooks and MCP server declarations but do not include the binary.

Claude Code (recommended: plugin)

claude plugin marketplace add TwoWells/Catenary
claude plugin install catenary@catenary

The plugin registers the MCP server and all hooks (post-edit diagnostics, editing state enforcement, root sync, agent lifecycle).

Gemini CLI (recommended: extension)

gemini extensions install https://github.com/TwoWells/Catenary

The extension registers the MCP server and all hooks.

Manual MCP registration

For other clients, or if you prefer manual setup:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "catenary": {
      "command": "catenary"
    }
  }
}

This registers the MCP server only. Without the plugin/extension, you will not get post-edit diagnostics or editing state enforcement.

Verify

catenary doctor

For each configured server, doctor reports:

Status	Meaning
`ready`	Server spawned, initialized, and capabilities listed
`command not found`	Binary not on `$PATH`
`spawn failed`	Binary found but process failed to start
`initialize failed`	Process started but LSP handshake failed
`skipped`	No files for this language in the workspace

Use --root to check a different workspace:

catenary doctor --root /path/to/project

Next Steps

Configure your language servers
Install language servers for your languages

Keyboard shortcuts

Catenary