Hoshin Kanri X-Matrix

Hoshin Kanri — MCP server

The MCP server behind hoshin.app: a living X-Matrix your AI agent can read, challenge and update — 3-to-5-year objectives, annual objectives, initiatives, KPIs, the correlations between them, the review cadences that keep them alive, and a completeness score that gives a verdict instead of a vibe.

16 tools · 9 guided prompts · 3 transports · MIT.

Registry entry: io.github.wellknownmcp/hoshin-kanri · npm: hoshin-kanri-mcp

Why this exists

Agents are good at doing the work and bad at knowing which work matters. The missing piece is not more memory — it is structured strategic memory: an object with quadrants, correlations and a score, so an agent can answer "does this initiative actually serve a stated objective?" and be wrong out loud when it does not.

That object is the X-Matrix, a Hoshin Kanri artifact that predates all of this by forty years. This server exposes it over the Model Context Protocol.

Install

Sovereign local mode — nothing leaves your machine

Your matrix lives in plain JSON files on your own disk. No account, no cloud, no telemetry. This is the default binary of the npm package, on purpose.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hoshin-kanri": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hoshin-kanri-mcp"],
      "env": { "HOSHIN_DATA_DIR": "/path/to/your/data" }
    }
  }
}

HOSHIN_DATA_DIR defaults to ~/hoshin-data/. The files are the export: readable, diffable, versionable, yours. See docs/data-residency.md.

Hosted mode — OAuth 2.1, nothing to install

claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Cursor connect straight to https://hoshin.app/mcp. Dynamic client registration + PKCE, so there is no token to paste and no config file to edit — add the URL as a connector and authorize.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hoshin-kanri": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "hoshin-kanri-mcp", "hoshin-kanri-mcp-remote"],
      "env": { "AUTH_TOKEN": "hk_..." }
    }
  }
}

What is in here

Tool and prompt definitions are shared across transports by design: only the handlers differ. A tool that exists in hosted mode and not in local mode would quietly make the sovereign mode a second-class citizen, so parity is a rule, not an aspiration — with one deliberate exception, documented below.

Tools

get_matrix_data · get_matrix_summary · get_matrix_completeness · list_objectives · update_element_status · add_idea · search_ideas · get_management_architecture · diagnose_theme_deployment · suggest_meeting_for_topic · share_matrix · create_matrix · upsert_element · set_correlation · get_cascade · set_matrix_parent

A few worth calling out:

• get_matrix_completeness returns a 0–100 score across five metrics (coverage, correlation density, orphan elements, end-to-end strategic chains, leading/lagging indicator balance) with the specific suggestions behind it. This is the part that makes an agent useful rather than agreeable.
• update_element_status accepts an external_ref — the URL or key of the Linear/Jira/GitHub project implementing that initiative. Strategy lives here, tasks live in your execution tool, and the weekly_sync prompt walks an agent across both.
• create_matrix, upsert_element and set_correlation let an agent build a strategy from nothing, then keep it current.
• get_cascade reads a deployment across levels — a group matrix, its business units, their sites. A matrix points to the one above it (parent_matrix_id, or set_matrix_parent later); an element points to the element of the parent matrix it deploys (parent_element_id). The report gives, for each level, the annual objectives and initiatives the children took up, the ones nobody took up, the child objectives anchored to nothing above, and a coverage percentage. Same org, no cycles, four levels at most.

share_matrix publishes a revocable, read-only public page of a matrix. It is refused in local mode — by design: in sovereign mode there is no cloud for your data to leak into, so there is nothing to publish from.

Prompts

weekly_sync (pull execution progress from your issue tracker's MCP, update statuses, prepare the weekly agenda) · matrix_artifact (a boardroom-ready interactive X-Matrix) · strategic_review · deployment_diagnosis · indicator_balance · meeting_setup_guide · visual_matrix · export_data · idea_triage

Development

cd mcp-server
pnpm install
pnpm start:local    # sovereign JSON mode
pnpm start:stdio    # hosted API mode (AUTH_TOKEN, API_BASE_URL)
pnpm start          # Streamable HTTP (server-side; MCP_PORT, API_BASE_URL, OAUTH_ISSUER)

Smoke-test the local transport without any client:

printf '%s\n' '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"smoke","version":"1"}}}' \
  | HOSHIN_DATA_DIR=/tmp/hoshin-smoke node index-local.js 2>/dev/null

stdout carries JSON-RPC only; logs and the startup banner go to stderr.

This repository holds the MCP server and its specifications. The hosted web application (Next.js, Prisma, the OAuth 2.1 authorization server) is a separate, closed codebase — the MIT code here is what you run, and what you can audit before running it.

Issues and pull requests are welcome, in English or French.

Learn more

• What is Hoshin Kanri?
• AI in lean management: start with steering
• Model Context Protocol

MIT — the code is a commodity; your strategy is not.