CLI and MCP automation

Dory can expose a local documentation project to an MCP client. The client can inspect dory.json, read and write MDX pages, validate compilation, build the site, and capture screenshots of the result.

Connect an MCP client#

From the directory containing dory.json, run:

dory mcp config

Add the printed mcpServers.dory entry to your MCP client's configuration. It pins the current project with DORY_PROJECT_ROOT, so the client does not need to launch from that directory. To start it directly:

dory mcp serve --project /path/to/docs-project

The server uses stdio. Its stdout carries MCP messages; build logs are returned inside tool results.

Connect to hosted documentation#

A Dory site served with dory preview also exposes a public, read-only Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint at /mcp (or /docs/mcp when basePath is /docs). It provides site_guide, list_pages, search_docs, and read_page. These tools read only files in the built dist/ directory. The local stdio MCP server above remains the way to write pages, build, and take screenshots.

Add the endpoint once in your MCP client:

codex mcp add example-docs --url https://docs.example.com/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http example-docs https://docs.example.com/mcp

Replace the example URL with your Dory site. If the docs run behind a reverse proxy, forward /mcp to the Dory preview server. Its dory.json url must match the public hostname; for an additional preview hostname, set DORY_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS to a comma-separated list. The endpoint rejects other hostnames and cross-origin browser requests.

You can also give a browsing agent just the documentation URL. Dory advertises llms.txt in its HTML, with links to the published .mdx pages and llms-full.txt. MCP clients still need the one-time connector command above before they can call MCP tools.

Build and review loop#

Ask the MCP client to call dory_guide first. A typical loop is:

1. dory_project reads the site configuration and page list.
2. dory_reference provides Dory's packaged component and configuration guides.
3. dory_read_page and dory_write_page update the relevant MDX.
4. dory_verify_page checks MDX compilation.
5. dory_check catches broken navigation and links, then dory_build generates the site.
6. dory_screenshot captures a route in light and dark themes; review the images and repeat as needed.

The same operations are available from the CLI:

dory inspect
dory reference components/cards.mdx
dory check
dory verify:content --file getting-started/quick-start.mdx
dory build
dory screenshot --route /getting-started/quick-start --theme light
dory screenshot --route /getting-started/quick-start --theme dark --width 390 --height 844

Screenshot capture uses Chrome or Chromium. Set DORY_CHROME_PATH if the browser is outside the standard installation paths. Screenshots are written as PNG files under .dory/screenshots/; --output must stay in that directory.

Discover published MDX from one URL#

Dory sites advertise their llms.txt index in the page HTML. The index links to every navigation page's published .mdx source and to llms-full.txt for combined text. Give a hosted site URL to the CLI or MCP client:

dory discover https://docs.example.com

The dory_discover_site MCP tool returns the index and MDX URLs. dory_read_remote_page retrieves an individual published MDX page. For sites hosted under a path such as /docs, the HTML discovery link points to the correct index automatically. Remote discovery accepts public HTTP or HTTPS sites; local and private network addresses are blocked.

The server only edits local project pages. Hosted URL discovery reads published source; it does not change the remote site.