MCP servers manager extension

[brichet]

Problem

There is no extension to handle MCP servers, and there is no frontend UI to configure them.

My understanding of the MCP server in jupyter-ai (correct me if it's wrong):

• MCP servers are available from jupyter-ai-persona-manager https://github.com/jupyter-ai-contrib/jupyter-ai-persona-manager/blob/45465be0a513e00ab2cbc649c1772a776c3e99ef/jupyter_ai_persona_manager/persona_manager.py#L558
• jupyter-server-mcp is a default MCP server
• it looks for a config file (mcp_settings.json) at root/.jupyter for additional MCP servers

Proposed Solution

Add an extension including an MCP servers manager, that would be available for jupyter-ai-acp-client and jupyter-ai-jupyternaut.

• look for MCP config files in jupyter config directories (system and user)
• have jupyter-server-mcp as default (with a flag to disable it if not expected)
• Add a UI panel (probably in a general jupyter-ai settings panel) to manage the MCP server (disabling the system one, and adding/removing/disabling user ones).

Additional context

MCP servers should be supported by jupyternaut after jupyter-ai-contrib/jupyter-ai-jupyternaut#50.

Other extensions could benefit of a standalone extension for an MCP servers manager.

[dlqqq]

@brichet Thanks for opening this issue! Your understanding is totally correct.

We've been thinking the same thing. Here's a rough sketch of the implementation I had in mind:

• Jupyter AI would like to add a new button to the top of the chat panel that says "Configure MCP servers", possibly a settings icon. There should be a plugin interface for this already, right?

• This should open up a new view - we're not sure if this should be within the same chat side panel or in the main area, or both. I'm thinking they should work like chats - they open in the same side panel by default, but can be moved to the main area.

There are a couple of technical challenges:

• It's not possible to update the list of MCP servers during a chat session with an ACP agent. I think this is because MCP servers expect to be injected into the context of an agent when the chat session starts, so it's not obvious how agent harnesses can add/remove them during a live session. They should apply to new chats however.

  • For now we could just communicate that to users, until ACP accepts an RFD to allow MCP servers to be configured at runtime. We might push on that.

• Right now the PersonaManager only checks for .jupyter/mcp_settings.json in the workspace root. We don't go up and traverse the system & user Jupyter config directories.

• Where would new MCP servers go? Do we allow users to edit the list provided by system & user directories too, or should all new MCP servers go into the workspace's .jupyter/ folder?

[brichet]

• Jupyter AI would like to add a new button to the top of the chat panel that says "Configure MCP servers", possibly a settings icon. There should be a plugin interface for this already, right?

• This should open up a new view - we're not sure if this should be within the same chat side panel or in the main area, or both. I'm thinking they should work like chats - they open in the same side panel by default, but can be moved to the main area.

Do we want to set it up per chat or per persona or for all chats and persona ? We can start with the second option and see if we want to improve it later.

It's not possible to update the list of MCP servers during a chat session with an ACP agent.

Does /refresh_personas command update the list of MCP servers ?

Where would new MCP servers go? Do we allow users to edit the list provided by system & user directories too, or should all new MCP servers go into the workspace's .jupyter/ folder?

IMO the user config directory seems fine, but maybe that would not work for all the use cases.

[brichet]

I started jupyter-mcp-manager that adds MCP managers server side and frontend side, and use server side config and Jupyterlab settings system.