Daml/Canton Docs

This repository builds and serves local MCP-searchable documentation indexes for the Daml, Canton, Canton Network, DPM, CN Quickstart, and Splice documentation sources.

The installed command is docs-mcp. It can:

• sync configured documentation sources into .docs/
• build SQLite FTS5 indexes for local search
• query an index from the command line
• serve an index over stdio or streamable HTTP as an MCP server

The primary docset is daml, which combines:

• daml-sdk from digital-asset/daml
• canton from digital-asset/canton
• dpm from digital-asset/dpm
• cn-quickstart from digital-asset/cn-quickstart
• canton-network from docs.canton.network
• splice from canton-network/splice

Setup

Requirements: Python 3.10+, uv, and Git.

uv sync
uv run docs-mcp list

Build or refresh indexes

Build the combined Daml/Canton index:

uv run docs-mcp update daml \
  --export-dir .docs/daml \
  --db-path .docs/daml/docs_index.db

Build an individual source index by replacing daml with a configured docset, for example canton, daml-sdk, canton-network, or splice.

Generated sources, caches, and indexes live under .docs/ and .cache/ and are ignored by Git.

Use through mcporter

This is the expected usage path for agents: register the daml docs server with mcporter, then call the generated tools on demand instead of loading the MCP server directly into every session.

Add a server entry to ~/.mcporter/mcporter.json or to a project-local config/mcporter.json. Use absolute paths because mcporter may start the server outside this checkout.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "daml": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory",
        "/absolute/path/to/daml-docs-mcp",
        "docs-mcp",
        "--root",
        "/absolute/path/to/daml-docs-mcp",
        "serve",
        "daml",
        "--export-dir",
        "/absolute/path/to/daml-docs-mcp/.docs/daml",
        "--db-path",
        "/absolute/path/to/daml-docs-mcp/.docs/daml/docs_index.db"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Verify the registration and call the search tool:

mcporter list daml --schema
mcporter call daml.search_daml --args '{"query":"contract keys","scope":"chunks","limit":8}'

Refresh the index through the same registered server:

mcporter call daml.refresh_daml_index

Query locally

uv run docs-mcp query daml \
  --db-path .docs/daml/docs_index.db \
  --scope chunks \
  --limit 8 \
  "contract keys"

Combined daml results prefix categories with their member docset, such as canton:sdk, so callers can tell which source matched.

Serve as MCP

Serve over stdio for an MCP client:

uv run docs-mcp serve daml \
  --db-path /absolute/path/to/daml-docs-mcp/.docs/daml/docs_index.db

Serve over streamable HTTP:

uv run docs-mcp serve daml \
  --db-path .docs/daml/docs_index.db \
  --transport streamable-http \
  --port 8765

MCP client configs should use absolute paths for this repository and for --db-path, because clients may start the server from a different working directory.

Configurations

Docsets are configured in configs/*.json. configs/daml.json is the combined index; the other Daml/Canton-related files define the source repositories, website source, public URL mapping, and file suffixes copied into the export.

configs/hermes.json, configs/claude_code.json, and configs/template.json remain from the upstream docs MCP template and are not part of the Daml/Canton package workflow.

Development checks

Run these before changing CLI, export, indexing, or MCP behavior:

uv run ruff format --check .
uv run ruff check .
uv run mypy
uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Project map

• docs_mcp/cli.py: docs-mcp command entry point.
• scripts/sync_docset.py: syncs sources and rebuilds exports/indexes.
• scripts/export_docs.py: copies docs and writes sitemap/export files.
• scripts/build_fts_index.py: builds SQLite FTS5 indexes.
• scripts/query_fts.py: queries indexes from the CLI.
• scripts/docs_mcp_server.py: serves MCP tools.
• configs/: docset configuration files.
• tests/: regression tests.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.