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io.github.isaac-levine/forage

Self-improving tool discovery for AI agents. Find, install, and use new MCP servers automatically.

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🌿 Forage

Self-improving tool discovery for AI agents.

Install one MCP server. Your agent finds the rest.

npm · GitHub · Contributing

Forage is an MCP server that lets AI agents discover, install, and learn to use new tools — automatically. When an agent hits a wall, it forages for the right tool, installs it, and teaches itself how to use it. No restarts. No manual config. The agent gets permanently smarter.

Why?

AI coding agents are limited to whatever tools they're configured with at session start. Need to query a database? Deploy to Vercel? Search Slack? The agent apologizes and you manually install the right MCP server.

Forage closes that loop:

Agent encounters a task it can't do
  → forage_search("query postgres database")
  → forage_install("@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres")
  → Tools available IMMEDIATELY (no restart)
  → forage_learn() saves instructions to CLAUDE.md
  → Next session: auto-starts, agent already knows how to use it

Quick Start

Claude Code

claude mcp add forage -- npx -y forage-mcp

Cursor

npx forage-mcp init --client cursor

That's it. Start a new session and Forage is ready.

Tools

Tool	Description
`forage_search`	Search for MCP servers across the Official MCP Registry, Smithery, and npm
`forage_evaluate`	Get details on a package — downloads, README, install command
`forage_install`	Install and start an MCP server as a proxied subprocess (requires user approval)
`forage_learn`	Write usage instructions to CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / .cursor/rules/
`forage_status`	List all installed and running tools
`forage_uninstall`	Remove a tool and clean up rules

How It Works

Forage is a gateway/proxy MCP server:

You install Forage once — it's the only MCP server you configure manually
Forage discovers tools — searches the Official MCP Registry, Smithery, and npm in parallel
Forage installs tools — starts them as child processes, wraps their capabilities
No restart needed — emits list_changed notifications so the agent picks up new tools instantly
Knowledge persists — forage_learn writes to agent rule files, manifest auto-starts tools next session

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Claude Code / Cursor / Codex               │
│                                             │
│  "I need to query a Postgres database"      │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │ MCP
                   ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Forage MCP Server                          │
│                                             │
│  forage_search ─── Official Registry        │
│  forage_install    Smithery                 │
│  forage_learn      npm                      │
│  forage_status                              │
│                                             │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐          │
│  │ Postgres MCP│  │ GitHub MCP  │  ...      │
│  │ (subprocess)│  │ (subprocess)│          │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When you install a tool through Forage:

Forage runs npx -y <package> as a child process
Connects to it via StdioClientTransport (MCP client)
Discovers the child server's tools via listTools
Re-registers each tool on the Forage server with a namespaced name (foraged__<server>__<tool>)
Sends tools/list_changed notification — the agent sees new tools immediately
When the agent calls a proxied tool, Forage forwards the call to the child server

Persistence

Forage stores its state in ~/.forage/:

File	Purpose
`manifest.json`	Installed tools, command/args, auto-start configuration
`install-log.json`	Audit trail of all installs and uninstalls
`cache/`	Cached registry search results

On startup, Forage reads the manifest and auto-starts all previously installed servers. Your agent picks up right where it left off.

CLI

Forage also includes a CLI for humans:

forage search "postgres database"    # Search registries
forage list                          # List installed tools
forage init                          # Set up for Claude Code
forage init --client cursor          # Set up for Cursor

Security

[!IMPORTANT] Forage cannot install tools without explicit user approval. Every forage_install call requires confirm: true.

Audit trail — every install/uninstall is logged with timestamps to ~/.forage/install-log.json
No remote backend — everything runs locally. Registry searches are read-only GET requests to public APIs.
No secrets stored — environment variables for child servers are passed at install time, not persisted.

Development

git clone https://github.com/isaac-levine/forage.git
cd forage
npm install
npm run build

Test locally with Claude Code:

claude mcp add forage-dev -- node /path/to/forage/dist/server.js

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Roadmap

Features

forage update — check for newer versions of installed tools
Support for pip/cargo/brew packages (not just npm)
Smarter search ranking (weight by downloads, stars, description relevance)
Auto-configure environment variables from .env files
forage doctor — diagnose common setup issues

Distribution

Community

Demo GIF / video in README
Write launch blog post
Post to r/ClaudeAI, r/LocalLLaMA, Hacker News (Show HN)
Share in MCP Discord / community channels
Write use-case guides (e.g. "Add Postgres to Claude Code in 30 seconds")
Add GitHub Discussions for Q&A and feature requests

License

MIT