Focal

FOCAL MCP (Framework for Orchestrated Central AI ruLes) is a local MCP server that centralizes AI behavior rules and applies them across tools like Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• uv installed (required for uvx)

Run the server (recommended)

uvx --from focal-mcp-server focal-mcp-server

Open the Web UI:

http://127.0.0.1:8765

MCP endpoint:

http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp

WebSocket notifications:

ws://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp/ws

Configure Your MCP Client

FOCAL MCP uses streamable HTTP, so you start the server yourself and point clients to the URL above.

Codex (example)

Add the following to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.focal]
enabled = true
url = "http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp"

Restart Codex after saving.

Edit Rules (Live)

Rules live outside the repo in:

~/.focal_mcp/workspace/
  core/
    system.md
    style.md
    safety.md
    tool_policy.md
  agents/

Use the Web UI to edit files. Updates are applied immediately.

How Rules Are Applied

FOCAL MCP exposes a tool named focal_rules. Agents should call it before every response to fetch the latest rules.

If rules do not update immediately:

1. Ensure the client is connected to the MCP server.
2. Ensure the client calls focal_rules before responding.
3. Reconnect the client if needed.

Project Prompt (Codex)

The repository-level prompt is stored in:

agents.md

Roadmap

• Project-specific rule management for multi-repo workflows
• UI/UX improvements for rule editing and visibility