MCP Server Config

Tabnine IDE and Tabnine CLI support. Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. This extends the CLI with additional tools and context providers. MCP servers are configured in settings.json and managed with the tabnine mcp CLI commands or the /mcp slash command in interactive mode.

Configuration File Location

MCP server configurations live in the mcpServers key of settings.json. The CLI loads settings from multiple scopes, merged in this precedence order (highest wins last):

Priority	Scope	Path (macOS/Linux)
1	Schema defaults	Built-in
2	System defaults	Sibling to system settings
3	User	~/.tabnine/agent/settings.json
4	Workspace	<project>/.tabnine/agent/settings.json
5 (highest)	System	/Library/Application Support/TabnineCli/settings.json (macOS) or /etc/tabnine-cli/settings.json (Linux)

MCP servers use a shallow merge strategy: workspace-level servers merge with (not replace) user-level servers. If the same server name exists in both scopes, the higher-priority scope wins.

Workspace settings are only loaded if the workspace is trusted.

Configuration Format

Stdio Transport (Local Process)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "server-name": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/dir"],
      "env": {
        "TOKEN": "your-token"
      },
      "cwd": "/optional/working/directory",
      "timeout": 30000
    }
  }
}

HTTP/SSE Transport (Remote Server)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "remote-server": {
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
      "type": "http",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

When type is omitted, the CLI tries Streamable HTTP first and falls back to SSE automatically if the HTTP connection fails. Set type explicitly to "sse" or "http" to skip auto-detection.

Configuration Fields

Field	Type	Description
command	string	Executable to run for stdio transport.
args	string[]	Arguments passed to the stdio command.
env	object	Environment variables set for the server process.
cwd	string	Working directory for the server process.
url	string	URL for SSE or HTTP transport.
type	"stdio" | "sse" | "http"	Transport type. Defaults to "http" when url is set.
headers	object	HTTP headers sent to the server (useful for authentication).
timeout	number	Request timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 600000 (10 minutes).
trust	boolean	When true and the workspace is trusted, tools from this server are auto-approved without confirmation.
description	string	Human-readable description of the server.
includeTools	string[]	Allowlist of tools to enable. When omitted, all tools are enabled.
excludeTools	string[]	Tools to disable even if exposed by the server.

MCP Management Commands

Adding a Server

tabnine mcp add <name> <commandOrUrl> [args...]

Flag	Description
-s, --scope	"user" or "project" (default: "project")
-t, --transport, --type	"stdio", "sse", or "http" (default: "stdio")
-e, --env	Environment variables as KEY=value (repeatable)
-H, --header	HTTP headers as "Key: value" (repeatable)
--timeout	Connection timeout in milliseconds
--trust	Bypass all tool call confirmation prompts
--description	Server description
--include-tools	Comma-separated tool allowlist
--exclude-tools	Comma-separated tool blocklist

Example:

tabnine mcp add filesystem npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /path/to/dir --scope user

Listing Servers

tabnine mcp list

Status indicators: ✓ Connected, ✗ Disconnected, ⛔ Blocked, ○ Disabled.

Enabling and Disabling Servers

tabnine mcp enable <name>
tabnine mcp disable <name>

Both accept a --session flag for session-only changes. Persistent enablement state is stored in ~/.tabnine/agent/mcp-server-enablement.json, separate from the server configuration. Servers are enabled by default.

Removing a Server

tabnine mcp remove <name>

Accepts --scope ("user" or "project", default: "project").

Interactive Mode: /mcp Slash Command

In interactive mode, the /mcp slash command provides these subcommands:

Subcommand	Aliases	Description
list	ls, nodesc	List configured MCP servers and tools
desc	description	List servers and tools with descriptions
schema	—	List servers, tools, descriptions, and schemas
auth	—	Authenticate with an OAuth-enabled MCP server
reload	refresh	Reload MCP servers
enable	—	Enable a disabled MCP server
disable	—	Disable an MCP server

Running /mcp with no subcommand defaults to list.

Runtime Flags

Filtering MCP Servers

tabnine --allowed-mcp-server-names server1,server2

When this flag is set, only the named servers are loaded. The comma-separated format and space-separated format are both accepted.

Examples

Filesystem Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/home/user/projects"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remote HTTP Server with Authentication

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "custom-api": {
      "url": "https://my-api.example.com/mcp",
      "type": "http",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer my-token"
      },
      "trust": true
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Verify your servers are configured and reachable:

tabnine mcp list

For detailed connection diagnostics, start the CLI with debug logging:

tabnine --debug

Using Environment Variables in MCP Server Configuration

MCP server configurations in .tabnine/mcp_servers.json support environment variable interpolation, so you can reference secrets and tokens stored in your OS environment instead of hardcoding them into config files.

Supported Syntax

Syntax	Example	Resolves to
$VARIABLE_NAME	$SONARQUBE_TOKEN	Value of SONARQUBE_TOKEN env var
${VARIABLE_NAME}	${SONARQUBE_TOKEN}	Value of SONARQUBE_TOKEN env var

On Windows, %VARIABLE_NAME% is also supported. Both $VAR and ${VAR} syntaxes are equivalent and follow POSIX/Bash conventions via dotenv-expand.

The ${env:VAR_NAME} syntax used by some other tools is not supported.

Environment variables are resolved in the following fields:

• env values in stdio transport configurations (environment variables passed to child processes)

• requestInit.headers values in SSE and Streamable-HTTP transport configurations

Other fields such as url, command, args, and cwd are passed through as-is and do not undergo interpolation.

Variables are resolved at connection time, not when the config file is loaded. If you update an environment variable, the new value takes effect the next time the MCP server connection is established.

If a referenced environment variable is not set, it is replaced with an empty string. No warning is displayed.

The following configuration uses environment variable interpolation for both SSE header authentication and stdio environment variables:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sonarqube-mcp": {
      "url": "https://sonar.example.com/api",
      "requestInit": {
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer ${SONARQUBE_TOKEN}"
        }
      }
    },
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-gitlab"],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${MY_GITLAB_TOKEN}",
        "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4"
      }
    }
  }
}

Multiple placeholders and literal text can be combined in a single value. For example, "Bearer ${TOKEN}" resolves to "Bearer sk-abc123". This feature is supported in VS Code and JetBrains. The CLI has built-in environment variable expansion.