dart_pubdev_mcp 0.10.1

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for pub.dev, Dart SDK, and Flutter. Gives AI agents live package search, API docs, AST source slices, and breaking change diffs.

dart-pubdev-explorer

Package name: dart_pubdev_mcp  |  Executable / MCP identity: dart-pubdev-explorer

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Roo Code, Cline, Antigravity) structured access to the pub.dev package registry, the Dart SDK, and the Flutter framework.

Instead of guessing package names, hallucinating APIs, or relying on outdated training data, your agent can search, compare, and inspect packages down to exact AST source slices and changelogs.

---

Overview

• Package discovery and evaluation: Search by keywords, SDK, and platform. Compare 2 to 5 packages side by side on score, popularity, and maintenance.
• AST-accurate API docs and source slices: Fetch method signatures, doc comments, throw statements, and AST code slices without downloading tarballs manually.
• Breaking changes and version diffs: Parse changelogs and diff symbol additions or removals between dependency versions.
• Dart and Flutter SDK internals: Inspect internal framework code (dart:core, dart:async, package:flutter) and release notes that live outside pub.dev.
• Security advisories: Check version-specific vulnerabilities directly against the Open Source Vulnerability (OSV) database.

---

Quick start

1. Install

Requires Dart SDK >=3.9.0.

dart install dart_pubdev_mcp

Verify that dart-pubdev-explorer is on your PATH:

dart-pubdev-explorer --version

(To update later, run dart install dart_pubdev_mcp again. Add --overwrite if prompted.)

---

2. Configure your MCP client

dart-pubdev-explorer communicates over standard I/O (stdio).

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add dart-pubdev-explorer -- dart-pubdev-explorer

Cursor / VS Code / Antigravity / Windsurf (.mcp.json or MCP settings)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dart-pubdev-explorer": {
      "command": "dart-pubdev-explorer"
    }
  }
}

Zed (settings.json)

{
  "context_servers": {
    "dart-pubdev-explorer": {
      "command": {
        "path": "dart-pubdev-explorer"
      }
    }
  }
}

Roo Code / Cline (cline_mcp_settings.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dart-pubdev-explorer": {
      "command": "dart-pubdev-explorer",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

---

3. Example prompts

Once configured, you can ask your AI assistant questions such as:

• "Find actively maintained state-management packages for Flutter supporting Web and iOS."
• "Compare dio and http for a Flutter project with file uploads: check maintenance, pub points, and platform support."
• "Show the signature and doc comment for http.Client.send."
• "What breaking changes were introduced in go_router between version 12.0.0 and 14.0.0?"
• "How does StreamController handle cancellation in dart:async? Show the throw statements."

---

Why use dart-pubdev-explorer

Challenge	Without dart-pubdev-explorer	With dart-pubdev-explorer
Package recommendations	Recommends deprecated or abandoned packages from training data.	Queries live pub.dev scores, popularity, maintenance status, and supported platforms.
API signatures	Hallucinates deprecated methods or incorrect argument types.	Inspects exact doc comments, type signatures, and AST slices from the targeted version.
Dependency upgrades	Guesses what broke between versions.	Performs automated API symbol diffs and extracts structured breaking-change changelogs.
Exception handling	Guesses what exceptions a method might throw.	Scans AST throw statements (get_throw_statements) for exact exception types.
SDK and framework source	Has no direct access to Dart SDK or Flutter framework code.	Navigates dart:core, dart:async, and package:flutter source directly.

---

Tools reference

All tools return structured JSON. When version is omitted, tools resolve to the latest stable release.

Package discovery and evaluation

• search_packages: Search pub.dev with keyword queries, SDK filters, platform targets, and custom sorting.
• get_package: Complete package metadata, pub points score breakdown, verified publisher, and dependencies.
• compare_packages: Side-by-side comparison matrix (scores, platforms, maintenance, popularity) for 2 to 5 packages.
• list_package_versions: All published versions bucketed into stable, prerelease, and retracted.
• get_security_advisories: Version-specific vulnerability audits against the OSV registry.

API and AST source inspection

• browse_api_symbols / find_symbols: Search and fuzzy-match public API classes, methods, and typedefs.
• get_symbol_documentation: Retrieve exact declaration signatures and dartdoc comments.
• get_source_slice: Extract precise source code by line range or symbol name via analyzer AST.
• get_throw_statements: Extract every throw within a method or class for accurate try/catch blocks.
• list_package_source_files: Browse package directory structure and example files.
• grep_package_source: Regex and literal string search across the full extracted package source tree.

Version diffs and upgrades

• get_changelog: Structured release notes and breaking-change highlights across versions.
• get_api_diff: Detailed additions, removals, and breaking changes in public API symbols between two versions.

Dart and Flutter SDK internals

• get_sdk_release_notes: Structured release notes and breaking changes for the Dart SDK and Flutter framework.
• list_sdk_source_files / get_sdk_source_slice: Browse and slice source code in dart:* and package:flutter/*.
• get_sdk_throw_statements / grep_sdk_source: Identify throw sites and search across SDK internals.

---

MCP resources

Exposes read-only pub:// resources for fast markdown and yaml inspection:

Resource URI	Description
pub://meta/resources	Manifest of all available MCP resources and MIME types.
pub://meta/scoring	Detailed explainer of pub.dev's 160-point scoring rubric.
pub://meta/sdk-versions	Current stable Dart and Flutter SDK release versions (JSON).
pub://package/{name}@{version}/readme	Full README markdown for a specific package version (or @latest).
pub://package/{name}@{version}/changelog	Verbatim CHANGELOG.md.
pub://package/{name}@{version}/example	Working code from the package's Example tab.
pub://package/{name}@{version}/pubspec	Verbatim pubspec.yaml from the package archive.

---

Configuration

Settings can be passed via CLI flags or environment variables:

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
--log-level <level>	dart_pubdev_mcp_LOG_LEVEL	warning	Minimum logging level (debug, info, warning, error).
--cache-dir <path>	dart_pubdev_mcp_CACHE_DIR	~/.cache/dart_pubdev_mcp	Directory for disk-cached tarballs and AST index.
--max-cache-size <size>	dart_pubdev_mcp_MAX_CACHE_SIZE	500 MiB	Maximum disk cache capacity (e.g. 1 GB, 500 MiB).
--max-concurrent-requests <n>	dart_pubdev_mcp_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS	5	Cap on concurrent pub.dev HTTP requests (1 to 64).
--wire-trace	dart_pubdev_mcp_WIRE_TRACE	false	Enable detailed diagnostic log of outbound HTTP requests.
--wire-trace-dir <path>	dart_pubdev_mcp_WIRE_TRACE_DIR	<cache-dir>/wire-trace	Output directory for wire trace logs.
--wire-trace-max-preview <bytes>	dart_pubdev_mcp_WIRE_TRACE_MAX_PREVIEW	2048	Preview byte limit per HTTP response in wire logs.
--no-update-check	dart_pubdev_mcp_UPDATE_CHECK	true	Disable startup check for server version updates on pub.dev.

---

Complementary tooling

• Official Dart MCP Server (dart mcp-server): Provides general runtime, debugging, DTD, and analysis tools for your local workspace.
• dart-pubdev-explorer (dart_pubdev_mcp): Focuses on package registry lookup, symbol browsing, AST source slicing, SDK internals, and multi-version dependency diffing.

Running both servers together in your MCP client provides a complete Dart and Flutter development setup.

---

Contributing and issues

• Repository: agentic_dart
• Issues and requests: agentic_dart/issues

Pull requests and bug reports are welcome.

---

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.