Use with AI agents

Wire jdx into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Antigravity, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Cline or any MCP client with one command — or let any shell-capable agent call the CLI directly.

Option 1: MCP, wired by jdx setup (recommended)#

jdx mcp is a Model Context Protocol server over stdio. It exposes every query as a typed tool, so the agent never fights shell quoting of # and (, and it keeps the index hot in memory for the whole session — repeated questions are instant.

jdx setup writes the right config entry for your agent:

jdx setup --agent claude-code --scope project   # .mcp.json in this checkout
jdx setup --agent cursor --scope system         # ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project

Then restart the agent. --scope project writes into the current checkout (commit it to share with your team); --scope system writes the user-global config. Setup merges into existing config and never clobbers unrelated entries; re-running is a no-op.

Check or undo it at any time:

$ jdx setup --agent claude-code --scope project --check
claude-code project setup not installed
  ./.mcp.json
  detected: claude-code not found on PATH
next: jdx setup --agent claude-code --scope project
[exit 1]

--check exits 1 when jdx is not wired yet (as above) and 0 when it is; --remove uninstalls cleanly. Per-agent instructions and the exact files written are on the integrations pages.

Option 2: MCP, configured by hand#

Any MCP client that launches stdio servers works with this entry:

{"mcpServers": {"jdx": {"command": "jdx", "args": ["mcp"]}}}

Add "args": ["mcp", "-w", "myproject"] to serve a named workspace. The tool list, with every parameter, is on the MCP tools page.

Option 3: the CLI plus a cheat sheet#

Every agent that can run shell commands can use jdx directly. Paste the output of jdx help --agent into CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, .cursorrules or a system prompt:

$ jdx help --agent
jdx agent cheat sheet (paste into CLAUDE.md / system prompt):
jdx show <type> — Go to declaration
jdx members <type> --inherited — Code completion after `.`
jdx outline <type> — File structure
jdx signature <member> — Parameter info
jdx doc <symbol> — Quick documentation
jdx body <member> — Open the method
jdx source <type> — Open the file / decompile
… 27 more lines (run it yourself to see them all)

The full block is on the agent cheat sheet page.

Tips that make agents better at it#

• Teach the exit codes. 1 means not found (read the did you mean list), 2 means ambiguous (retry with one of the printed candidates), 4 means no classpath resolved. See exit codes.
• Prefer body over source. A method body is tens of lines; a source file is thousands.
• Name the classpath once with a workspace and start the MCP server or daemon on it.
• Use --json when the agent post-processes output; it carries exactly the same information as text.
• Follow the next: line. Single-entity answers end with the most useful follow-up command.