NPM Sentinel MCP

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that revolutionizes NPM package analysis through AI. Built to integrate with Claude and Anthropic AI, it provides real-time intelligence on package security, dependencies, and performance. This MCP server delivers instant insights and smart analysis to safeguard and optimize your npm ecosystem, making package management decisions faster and safer for modern development workflows.

Features

• Version analysis and tracking
• Dependency analysis and mapping
• Advanced Security Scanning: Recursive dependency checks, ecosystem awareness (e.g., React), and accurate version resolution.
• Strict Input Validation: Protection against Path Traversal, SSRF, and Command Injection via rigorous input sanitization.
• Package quality metrics
• Download trends and statistics
• TypeScript support verification
• Package size analysis
• Maintenance metrics
• Real-time package comparisons
• Standardized error handling and MCP response formats
• Efficient caching for improved performance and API rate limit management
• Rigorous schema validation and type safety using Zod

Note: The server provides AI-assisted analysis through MCP integration.

Caching and Invalidation

To ensure data accuracy while maintaining performance, the server implements robust caching strategies:

• Automatic Invalidation: The cache is automatically invalidated whenever pnpm-lock.yaml, package-lock.json, or yarn.lock changes in your workspace. This ensures you always get fresh data after installing or updating dependencies.
• Force Refresh: All tools accept an optional ignoreCache: true parameter to bypass the cache and force a fresh lookup from the registry.

Example Usage (JSON-RPC)

When calling a tool, simply include ignoreCache: true in the arguments:

{
  "name": "npmVersions",
  "arguments": {
    "packages": ["react"],
    "ignoreCache": true
  }
}

Installation

Migration to HTTP Streamable

This MCP server now supports both STDIO and HTTP streamable transport. Your existing STDIO configuration will continue to work without changes.

New capabilities:

• HTTP streamable transport via Smithery.ai
• Enhanced scalability and performance
• Interactive testing playground

Development commands:

# Development server with playground
npm run dev

# Build for HTTP
npm run build:http

# Start HTTP server
npm run start:http

Install in VS Code

Add this to your VS Code MCP config file. See VS Code MCP docs for more info.

{
  "servers": {
    "npm-sentinel": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@nekzus/mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Smithery.ai Deployment (HTTP Streamable)

This MCP server now supports HTTP streamable transport through Smithery.ai for enhanced scalability and performance. You can deploy it directly on Smithery.ai: Benefits of HTTP deployment:

• Scalable: Handles multiple concurrent connections
• Streamable: Real-time streaming responses
• Managed: Automatic deployment and monitoring
• Backward Compatible: Still supports STDIO for local development
• Interactive Testing: Built-in playground for testing tools

Configuration for Smithery.ai:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-sentinel": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://smithery.ai/server/@Nekzus/npm-sentinel-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

The server supports the following configuration options:

Environment Variable	CLI Argument	Default	Description
NPM_REGISTRY_URL	config.NPM_REGISTRY_URL	https://registry.npmjs.org	URL of the NPM registry to use for all requests

HTTP Deployment (Smithery/Docker)

When deploying via Smithery or Docker, you can configure these options in your configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-sentinel": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://smithery.ai/server/@Nekzus/npm-sentinel-mcp",
      "config": {
        "NPM_REGISTRY_URL": "https://registry.npmjs.org"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

Build

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t nekzus/npm-sentinel-mcp .

Usage

You can run the MCP server using Docker with directory mounting to /projects:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-sentinel-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-w", "/projects",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=${PWD},dst=/projects",
        "nekzus/npm-sentinel-mcp",
        "node",
        "dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For multiple directories:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-sentinel-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-w", "/projects",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/workspace,dst=/projects/workspace",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/other/dir,dst=/projects/other/dir,ro",
        "nekzus/npm-sentinel-mcp",
        "node",
        "dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: All mounted directories must be under /projects for proper access.

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npmsentinel": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@nekzus/mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration file locations:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: (Claude for Desktop does not officially support Linux at this time)

NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-sentinel-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@nekzus/mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

API

The server exposes its tools via the Model Context Protocol. All tools adhere to a standardized response format:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "string",
      "isError": boolean // Optional
    }
    // ... more content items if necessary
  ]
}

Resources

• npm://registry: NPM Registry interface
• npm://security: Security analysis interface
• npm://metrics: Package metrics interface

Server Resources

The server also provides the following informational resources accessible via MCP GetResource requests:

• doc://server/readme:
  • Description: Retrieves the main README.md file content for this NPM Sentinel MCP server.
  • MIME Type: text/markdown
• doc://mcp/specification:
  • Description: Retrieves the llms-full.txt content, providing the comprehensive Model Context Protocol specification.
  • MIME Type: text/plain

Tools

npmVersions

• Get all versions of a package
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Version history with release dates

npmLatest

• Get latest version information
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Latest version details and changelog

npmDeps

• Analyze package dependencies
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Complete dependency tree analysis including direct dependencies and full transitive graph (count and explicit flatten list) mapping through deps.dev.

npmTypes

• Check TypeScript support
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: TypeScript compatibility status

npmSize

• Analyze package size
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Bundle size and import cost analysis

npmVulnerabilities

• Scan for security vulnerabilities
• Features:
  • Instant Transitive Scanning: Powered by Google's deps.dev API to resolve massive dependency trees (e.g. Next.js, Astro) in a single request, bypassing deep recursion limitations.
  • Ecosystem Awareness: Automatically scans related packages efficiently.
  • Rich Reports: Includes CVE IDs and full summaries from OSV.dev.
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Detailed security advisories, CVEs, and severity ratings

npmTrends

• Get download trends
• Input:
  • packages (string[])
  • period ("last-week" | "last-month" | "last-year")
• Returns: Download statistics over time

npmCompare

• Compare multiple packages
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Detailed comparison metrics

npmMaintainers

• Get package maintainers
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Maintainer information and activity

npmScore

• Get package quality score
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Comprehensive quality metrics

npmPackageReadme

• Get package README
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Formatted README content

npmSearch

• Search for packages
• Input:
  • query (string)
  • limit (number, optional)
• Returns: Matching packages with metadata

npmLicenseCompatibility

• Check license compatibility
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: License analysis and compatibility info

npmRepoStats

• Get repository statistics
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: GitHub/repository metrics

npmDeprecated

• Check for deprecation
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Deprecation status and alternatives

npmChangelogAnalysis

• Analyze package changelogs
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Changelog summaries and impact analysis

npmAlternatives

• Find package alternatives
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Similar packages with comparisons

npmQuality

• Assess package quality
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Quality metrics and scores

npmMaintenance

• Check maintenance status
• Input: packages (string[])
• Returns: Maintenance activity metrics

Build

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build for STDIO (traditional)
npm run build:stdio

# Build for HTTP (Smithery)
npm run build:http

# Development server
npm run dev

License

This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute the software, subject to the terms and conditions of the MIT License. For more details, please see the LICENSE file in the project repository.

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MIT © nekzus