CHAP Coordinator

@brightbeamai/chap-coordinator-mcp

MCP server adapter for the CHAP Coordinator. Wraps a Coordinator instance and exposes every CHAP method as an MCP tool, so any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, the rest) can drive a CHAP workspace directly.

Spec target: MCP 2026-07-28, serving MCP 2025-11-25 clients as well · CHAP 0.3.

Run it as a server

The package ships a stdio server, so an MCP client can use CHAP without any code. Point the client at it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chap": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brightbeamai/chap-coordinator-mcp"],
      "env": { "CHAP_DB_PATH": "~/chap.db" }
    }
  }
}

All 39 methods arrive as tools named chap.<method>. Two environment variables configure it:

Variable	Effect
CHAP_DB_PATH	Path to a SQLite file. Without it the coordinator runs in memory and every workspace is lost when the client restarts.
CHAP_PROFILES	Comma-separated profiles for new workspaces. Defaults to Core plus review, whisper, deliberation, handoff, control, routing, modes and audit-scitt, so the audit chain is on from the first entry.

Persistence needs better-sqlite3, an optional native dependency of the coordinator. If CHAP_DB_PATH is set and it cannot be loaded the server says so and exits rather than starting in memory and discarding the decisions it was asked to keep.

The server is also listed in the MCP registry as io.github.BrightbeamAI/chap.

Install

npm install @brightbeamai/chap-coordinator-mcp

Node 20+ required. Runtime dependencies: @brightbeamai/chap-coordinator, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and zod. The binary is chap-mcp-server.

Quick start

import { Coordinator } from "@brightbeamai/chap-coordinator";
import { makeChapMcpServer } from "@brightbeamai/chap-coordinator-mcp";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";

const coord = new Coordinator({
  defaultProfiles: ["core/1.0", "review/1.0", "audit-scitt/1.0"],
});

const server = makeChapMcpServer(coord, { name: "chap", version: "0.3.3" });
await server.connect(new StdioServerTransport());

The returned Server is the official MCP SDK's Server class with tools/list and tools/call handlers pre-registered. Attach any MCP transport (stdio, Streamable HTTP, etc.).

A runnable reference server is at reference/mcp-server-ts/.

What gets exposed

All 39 CHAP methods become MCP tools named chap.<method>. Each tool's inputSchema is the JSON Schema for the corresponding method's params. Tool descriptions are tuned for LLM consumption.

The chap. prefix avoids collisions with other MCP servers a client might have loaded simultaneously.

Architecture

• One Coordinator, one MCP server. Multi-workspace is handled inside the Coordinator (workspaces are addressable by id); the MCP layer is stateless and routes every tool call through coord.dispatch().
• Single-sourced schemas. Tool inputs are described by JSON Schemas (not Zod) and passed straight to the Coordinator without re-validation at the MCP layer. The Coordinator's own dispatch validates params and returns spec-correct JSON-RPC error codes, which the adapter surfaces as MCP tool errors.
• Auth deferred. The adapter ships unauthenticated; MCP's OAuth 2.1 auth model attaches at the Streamable HTTP transport, not inside the adapter.

Tests

npm test

The integration tests use the SDK's InMemoryTransport.createLinkedPair() to drive a wrapped Coordinator end-to-end, exercising every major profile.

See also

• The integration narrative: integrations/CHAP-with-MCP.md
• The five-minute walkthrough: examples/drive-chap-from-claude-desktop.md
• The Python counterpart: chap_coordinator.transports.mcp_server

License

Apache 2.0. See the parent repository's LICENSE.