MCP Integration¶

Nova supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing it to connect to external tools and services through MCP servers.

Configuration¶

MCP servers are configured in ~/.nova/config.json:

Stdio Transport (subprocess)¶

{
  "mcp_servers": {
    "drawio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "drawio-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "DRAWIO_WEBAPP_CACHE": "/path/to/cache"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP Transport¶

{
  "mcp_servers": {
    "my-server": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer token"
      },
      "timeout": 120
    }
  }
}

How It Works¶

1. MCP servers are started in parallel during Nova's initialization
2. Each server is given a 10-second timeout for its initialize handshake
3. Tools from all MCP servers are merged into Nova's tool registry
4. The agent can call MCP tools alongside built-in tools
5. Failed servers are logged but don't block startup

Protocol¶

Nova uses MCP protocol version 2025-03-26. The following operations are supported:

• initialize -- server handshake
• list_tools -- discover tool schemas
• call_tool -- invoke a tool with arguments