Context7 MCP

Context7 (from Upstash) is an MCP server that pulls up-to-date, version-specific documentation for libraries and frameworks into your agent session. Use it when training data is stale or you want API shapes, config flags, and examples that match the version you actually depend on.

Remote endpoint: https://mcp.context7.com/mcp Auth: pass Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY to the remote server, or --api-key to the local npx server. Anonymous access has lower limits; private repositories require a key.

Why use it in a workshop

• Framework homework: "What's the current way to do X in Next.js / Prisma / Tailwind?" without pasting whole doc sites into chat.
• Safer codegen: The model can ground suggestions in retrieved doc snippets instead of inventing deprecated APIs.
• Pairs with skills: You still use project skills for your conventions; Context7 supplies vendor docs.

Option A, Guided setup (recommended)

Context7’s current setup CLI authenticates with OAuth, creates an API key, and installs either MCP or CLI + Skills mode:

npx ctx7 setup --claude

For Cursor, use npx ctx7 setup --cursor. Add --api-key YOUR_API_KEY to use an existing key, or --oauth for an MCP OAuth flow.

Option B, Remote HTTP

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key (or use an env var, see .mcp.json below).

Personal (all projects), user scope:

claude mcp add --scope user --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" --transport http context7 https://mcp.context7.com/mcp

This repo only (team-friendly pattern, commit config, not the secret):

claude mcp add --transport http context7 --scope project https://mcp.context7.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Prefer ${CONTEXT7_API_KEY} in .mcp.json so the key stays in your shell environment or secret store.

Set the variable before starting Claude Code:

export CONTEXT7_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

export CONTEXT7_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

$env:CONTEXT7_API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

set CONTEXT7_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

.mcp.json (project root, merged with other servers)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context7": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.context7.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${CONTEXT7_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set CONTEXT7_API_KEY in your environment (see tabs above) before starting Claude Code, then run /mcp and confirm context7 is connected.

Option C, Local server (stdio via npx)

Runs the MCP transport as a small Node process on your machine. The package still retrieves documentation from Context7’s hosted service; stdio only changes the connection between Claude Code and the local MCP package.

claude mcp add --scope user context7 -- npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Using it in chat

Ask for library id + version explicitly when it matters, then a narrow question.

Use Context7: resolve docs for Next.js (App Router) for the version we use in this repo's package.json, then answer: how should we define a loading.tsx boundary in the app directory?

Context7: Prisma, show the current recommended pattern for interactive transactions in TypeScript and link to the concept names you used.

Context7: Tailwind CSS v4, how do we configure custom fonts in @theme? Keep the answer to bullet steps only.

Workshop checklist

See also