A tool to fetch and summarize developer documentation from MDN Web Docs.
MDNlookup is a developer productivity tool that streamlines access to MDN Web Docs documentation directly from your development environment. Designed for seamless integration with MCP-compatible clients and editors like VS Code, mdnlookup enables developers to quickly search for and retrieve concise, relevant documentation summaries for web APIs, JavaScript methods, and other web technologies—without leaving their workflow.
By exposing an MCP-compatible tool server over stdio, mdnlookup makes it easy to automate documentation lookups and integrate them into custom toolchains or editor extensions. This helps developers save time, reduce context switching, and stay focused on coding.
- Search MDN for documentation using a query string.
- Returns a summary (first paragraph) and a link to the full documentation.
- Exposes an MCP-compatible tool server over stdio.
- Description: Fetches and summarizes developer documentation from MDN based on a search query.
- Parameters:
query(string): The search term or API/method name you want documentation for.
Clone the repository and install dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/mdn-lookup.git
cd mdn-lookup
npm installThis tool is designed to be used as an MCP tool server. You can run it directly using Node:
node index.jsIt will start an MCP server over stdio, ready to accept requests.
{
"mcpServers": {
"SmartDeveloperAssistant": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"</absolute/path/to>/mdn-lookup/index.js"
]
}
}
}
VS Code (.vscode/settings.json)
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"mdnlookup": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "node",
"args": ["</absolute/path/to>/mdn-lookup/index.js"]
}
},
"inputs": []
},
You can use Docker to run the mdnlookup MCP server without installing Node.js or dependencies locally or using https://hub.docker.com/r/babymanisha/mdnlookup
Pull the Docker image from Docker Hub:
docker pull babymanisha/mdnlookup:latestOr build the Docker image locally:
docker build -t mdnlookup .Run the server:
docker run -i babymanisha/mdnlookup:latestor, if you built locally:
docker run -i mdnlookupThis will start the MCP server over stdio inside the container, ready to be used by any MCP-compatible client or editor (such as VS Code).
To configure VS Code to use the Dockerized server, set the command to:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mdnlookup": {
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run", "-i", "mdnlookup"
]
}
}
}You can use the mdnlookup tool by sending a request from any MCP-compatible client:
{
"tool": "mdnlookup",
"params": {
"query": "Array.prototype.map"
}
}The response will look like:
{
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "The map() method creates a new array populated with the results of calling a provided function on every element in the calling array.\n\nMore info: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/map"
}
]
}Below are screenshots of the tool in action for various queries:
No additional configuration is required. The tool uses the MDN public API and fetches documentation in English.
ISC
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Thanks
Happy Coding!!



