Ikenga iyke (control bridge)

npm License

A Model Context Protocol server that exposes the Ikenga desktop app's iyke control bridge — so any MCP client (Claude Code, Cursor, custom agents) can drive a running Ikenga session the same way a developer types into the iyke CLI at a shell.

What this is

Ikenga is a Tauri-based AI workspace shell with a manifest-driven package kernel. While the app is running, it exposes a localhost HTTP server (with a bearer token in control.json) that lets external tools introspect and drive the live UI: switch panes, navigate routes, take DOM snapshots, click elements, read logs, capture screenshots.

This package wraps that HTTP server in MCP so an LLM agent can use it natively. Tools mirror the iyke CLI subcommands.

Install

Via Claude Code (recommended)

npm install -g @ikenga/mcp-iyke
claude mcp add iyke -s user -- iyke-mcp

After that, any Claude Code session can call iyke_state, iyke_go, iyke_mode, iyke_open, iyke_split, iyke_focus, iyke_close, plus the runtime-inspection tools (iyke_dom, iyke_logs, iyke_network, iyke_screenshot, iyke_wait, iyke_click, iyke_type, iyke_key, iyke_query_cache, iyke_devtools), iframe tools (iyke_iframe_state, iyke_iframe_send) and project tools (iyke_project_create, iyke_project_update, iyke_project_list, iyke_project_archive, iyke_project_set_active, iyke_project_get_active).

Via npx (no install)

claude mcp add iyke -s user -- npx -y @ikenga/mcp-iyke

From source (for contributors)

git clone https://github.com/Royalti-io/ikenga-pkg-mcp-iyke.git
cd ikenga-pkg-mcp-iyke
npm install
npm run build

Then point your MCP client at node /path/to/ikenga-pkg-mcp-iyke/dist/index.js.

Tools

Layout & navigation

Tool	Purpose
iyke_state	Show current sidebar mode + focused pane's route + full pane tree.
iyke_go	Navigate the focused pane to a route path.
iyke_mode	Switch sidebar activity mode.
iyke_open	Open a new tab in the focused pane (route, terminal, chat, artifact, mini-app).
iyke_split	Split a pane horizontally or vertically.
iyke_focus	Focus a pane by id or 1-based DFS leaf index (⌃1..⌃6).
iyke_close	Close a pane (focused if pane_id omitted).

Runtime inspection & driving

Tool	Purpose
iyke_dom	Accessibility-tree snapshot of the focused pane (Playwright-style refs).
iyke_logs	Last 500 console + error logs from the running webview.
iyke_network	Last 100 fetch/XHR network entries with status + duration.
iyke_screenshot	PNG screenshot of the window or a specific pane.
iyke_wait	Wait until a predicate is satisfied (text/selector/ref/gone).
iyke_click	Click an element by ref, selector, or text.
iyke_type	Type into an input/textarea/contenteditable.
iyke_key	Dispatch a keyboard combo (e.g. Ctrl+S, Meta+K).
iyke_query_cache	Dump the TanStack Query cache for the focused pane.
iyke_devtools	Open Chrome DevTools (debug builds only).

Iframe runtime state

Tool	Purpose
iyke_iframe_state	Read the latest published state object for an iframe pane.
iyke_iframe_send	Send a fire-and-forget postMessage to an iframe pane.

Projects

Tool	Purpose
iyke_project_create	Create a project (slug + display name; optional root_path, icon, color, description).
iyke_project_update	Patch fields on an existing project (display_name, root_path, icon, color, description, position).
iyke_project_list	List projects in switcher order; pass include_archived=true to surface archived ones.
iyke_project_archive	Soft-delete a project; refuses to archive the built-in Default project.
iyke_project_set_active	Switch the shell's active project; refetches project-scoped queries.
iyke_project_get_active	Return the currently active project.

Trust boundary

The MCP server reads control.json from the platform-specific app-local-data directory (~/Library/Application Support/app.ikenga/control.json on macOS, $XDG_DATA_HOME/app.ikenga/control.json on Linux, %APPDATA%/app.ikenga/control.json on Windows). The control file contains:

• port — localhost port the in-app HTTP server is listening on
• token — bearer token required on every request
• pid — owning process PID (used to detect stale files)

A stale control.json left behind by kill -9 is auto-deleted once it's at least 5 minutes old; younger stale files are reported (likely a launch race) so we don't clobber a starting app.

If the Ikenga desktop app isn't running, every tool call fails with a structured error rather than hanging — your agent reads the failure and reports it instead of silently waiting.

The MCP server only ever talks to 127.0.0.1 on the port from control.json, with the bearer token from the same file. No outbound network, no telemetry.

Compatibility

• Ikenga shell: any version exposing the v1 control.json schema.
• Node.js: ≥ 20.
• Bun: runs without compilation (bun src/index.ts).
• MCP SDK: @modelcontextprotocol/sdk ^1.23.0.

Versioning

This package follows SemVer 2.0.0. Major-version bumps may break MCP tool names or argument shapes; minor bumps add new tools or non-breaking improvements; patches fix bugs.

The iyke HTTP protocol version (the in-app server's API surface) is independent — it's pinned via schema_version: 1 in control.json. This package currently supports protocol v1 only.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, conventions, and the DCO. By contributing, you agree your contributions are licensed under Apache 2.0 (matching the repo).

For bugs or feature requests, open an issue. For security issues, see SECURITY.md — please don't open a public issue.

License

Apache License 2.0 — Copyright (c) 2026 Royalti, Inc.

Related

• Ikenga shell — the desktop app this drives.
• @ikenga/contract — shared manifest + iyke runtime constants.
• Model Context Protocol — the protocol this server speaks.