MCP in Paqad: what it writes and what it never sends

What MCP is

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard for connecting an AI tool to separate helper programs. The helper programs are called MCP servers. A server might read your database structure, list your app's routes or fetch a design from a design tool, so the AI can ask for that information instead of guessing it from source files. The AI coding tool that starts or connects to the servers is called the host, for example Claude Code or Cursor.

Setting up a server, starting it and deciding what it may do is the host tool's job. Each host has its own way of configuring servers.

What Paqad does with MCP

Paqad does three things, all when it generates your host tool files (during paqad-ai onboard, and again when paqad-ai update or paqad-ai join regenerates them):

It works out a list of recommended MCP server names for your project, from built-in defaults, your stack packs and your project profile. See Default MCP servers and MCP servers added for your stack.
It writes that list to a JSON file for each host tool you selected.
paqad-ai doctor later checks that those files exist and name the servers it expects.

Paqad does not install, start, connect to or call any MCP server. The paqad-ai package contains no MCP client.

Where the files are written

Host tool	File Paqad writes
Claude Code	`.claude/settings.mcp.json`
Codex CLI	`.codex/mcp.json`
Google Antigravity	`.antigravity/mcp.json`
Gemini CLI	`.gemini/mcp.json`
Junie	`.junie/mcp/mcp.json`
Cursor	`.cursor/mcp.json`
GitHub Copilot	`.vscode/mcp.json`
Windsurf	`.windsurf/mcp.json`
Continue	`.continue/mcp.json`
Aider, JetBrains AI Assistant	None. MCP output is switched off for these adapters.

An adapter is the part of Paqad that writes files for one host tool; see Adapters overview. The files are framework-managed, so Paqad may overwrite them when it regenerates.

What the file contains

For a Laravel project that uses Laravel Boost and Tailwind, the file looks roughly like this (two of the four entries shown):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "database-inspector": {
      "enabled": true,
      "stack": "laravel",
      "provides": ["schema", "indexes", "foreign-keys", "query-plans"],
      "replaces": ["migration-scanning"]
    },
    "laravel-boost": {
      "enabled": true,
      "stack": "laravel",
      "provides": ["routes", "models", "services", "middleware", "config"],
      "replaces": ["route-scanning", "model-scanning", "service-scanning"]
    }
  },
  "resolved_artifacts": [
    "capabilities/coding/stacks/laravel/mcp/boost-mcp-config.md",
    "capabilities/coding/stacks/laravel/capabilities/boost/mcp/boost-mcp.md"
  ]
}

provides says what information the server is expected to supply, and replaces names the slower work it saves, such as scanning migration files. resolved_artifacts lists the pack's short guidance notes about these servers, as paths inside the paqad-ai package.

These entries contain no command to start a server and no address to reach one. On their own they do not tell a host tool how to run anything, and whether a host reads a file at that path at all depends on the host. Treat the file as Paqad's record of recommended servers. To actually use a server, install and configure it in your host tool following that tool's documentation. You can add extra keys to an entry through the config field in the project profile (see Default MCP servers).

Does Paqad send data to external services through MCP

No. Paqad's MCP step writes local JSON files and makes no network requests. It sends nothing to any MCP server or online service.

What happens after you set up a server yourself depends on that server program and your host tool. Some servers work only on your machine; others talk to an online service by design. A Figma server, for example, exists to fetch designs from Figma's service. Paqad does not choose which program provides a given server name, so check each server you install. The security page covers Paqad's wider data handling.

Ticket servers in the project profile

A server entry in .paqad/project-profile.yaml can carry a kind of jira, linear, github-issues or generic. Paqad uses this only to tell its delivery workflow which ticket server your host tool already has. Such entries are not written into the MCP files, and Paqad does not test the connection: it treats a ticket server as connected when a matching enabled entry exists in the profile.

The doctor check

paqad-ai doctor includes a check named "MCP servers configured". It gives a warning, not a failure, when none of the MCP files exist, or when the files do not name the servers expected for your main stack (figma is not counted). It reads the files; it does not test whether any server runs. See the doctor command.

MCP servers and Paqad