ref-tools-mcp MCP — Use Cases, Install & Live Demo

Name: ref-tools-mcp MCP Server
Author: ref-tools

Why use it

Key features

Search public web technical docs with library awareness
Search private GitHub repos and internal PDFs (indexed by Ref)
ref_read_url returns clean markdown, not HTML soup
Token-efficient — designed to minimize wasted context
Simple npx install

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

ref-tools.replay ▶ ready

0/0

Install

Pick your client

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Restart after saving.

~/.cursor/mcp.json · .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Cursor uses the same mcpServers schema as Claude Desktop. Project config wins over global.

VS Code → Cline → MCP Servers → Edit

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Click the MCP Servers icon in the Cline sidebar, then "Edit Configuration".

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-tools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Same shape as Claude Desktop. Restart Windsurf to pick up changes.

~/.continue/config.json

{
  "mcpServers": [
    {
      "name": "ref-tools",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ref-tools-mcp"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Continue uses an array of server objects rather than a map.

~/.config/zed/settings.json

{
  "context_servers": {
    "ref-tools": {
      "command": {
        "path": "npx",
        "args": [
          "-y",
          "ref-tools-mcp"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to context_servers. Zed hot-reloads on save.

claude mcp add ref-tools -- npx -y ref-tools-mcp

One-liner. Verify with claude mcp list. Remove with claude mcp remove.

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use ref-tools-mcp

How to stop the agent from hallucinating library APIs

👤 Coding agent users ⏱ ~10 min beginner

When to use: Agent confidently writes code that doesn't match the current library version.

Prerequisites

Ref account + REF_API_KEY — Sign up at ref.tools (or whatever current Ref signup URL is)

Flow

Ask a question grounded in docs

Use ref_search_documentation to find how to use Prisma raw SQL queries in v5, then write an example.✓ Copied

→ Search hits with URLs; code cites them
Verify

ref_read_url on the top hit to confirm the API shape.✓ Copied

→ Clean markdown of the doc page

Outcome: Code that compiles against the actual library version.

Pitfalls

Search returns outdated docs for deprecated v-X — Include the version in the query: 'Prisma v5 raw SQL'

Combine with: github

How to search internal engineering docs / PDFs with an agent

👤 Platform teams with internal runbooks ⏱ ~15 min intermediate

When to use: Agent needs to follow company-specific patterns, not whatever StackOverflow says.

Prerequisites

Ref private sources indexed — Upload repos/PDFs to your Ref workspace (see Ref docs)

Flow

Scope search to private

ref_search_documentation 'internal auth pattern' with private sources only.✓ Copied

→ Internal results only
Read the runbook

ref_read_url on the top internal result.✓ Copied

→ Clean text of the runbook

Outcome: Internal-standards-compliant output.

Pitfalls

Internal docs go stale — agent still cites them — Tell the agent to check 'last updated' metadata and flag old content

How to fetch arbitrary URLs as clean markdown

👤 Anyone doing research + summarization ⏱ ~5 min beginner

When to use: You want the article text without nav/ads/JS junk.

Flow

Read the URL

ref_read_url https://some-blog.com/post — give me clean markdown.✓ Copied

→ Body text as markdown
Summarize

Now give me a 5-bullet summary.✓ Copied

→ Summary

Outcome: Clean content, fast.

Combine with: markdownify

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

ref-tools + github

Ground a PR review with official docs citations

For the Prisma migration in PR #1234, use ref_search_documentation to verify each API matches v5 docs, then comment on the PR.✓ Copied

ref-tools + markdownify

Combine Ref's doc search with markdownify for local PDFs not in Ref

Search Ref for our internal auth guidance, then markdownify the additional /specs/auth-v3.pdf that isn't indexed yet.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

Tool	Inputs	When to call	Cost
ref_search_documentation	query: str, sources?: str[]	Ground a library or internal-doc question	1 Ref API call
ref_read_url	url: str	Pull a page as clean markdown	1 Ref API call

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota: Per Ref plan tier
Tokens per call: Search hits: 500-2000 tokens. URL reads: can be 5k-20k
Monetary: Ref is a paid service (free tier available); check current pricing
Tip: Search first, then read only the top hit — chained reads are expensive.

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Minimum scopes: REF_API_KEY stored in env

Credential storage: REF_API_KEY env var

Data egress: Queries go to Ref's service; it in turn hits public web and your indexed private sources

Never grant: Don't share your workspace key broadly; use per-user keys if Ref supports them

Private sources uploaded to Ref live on their infrastructure — review their DPA for sensitive content.

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

401 Unauthorized

Missing or invalid REF_API_KEY.

Verify: echo $REF_API_KEY

Search returns stale results

Private-source re-index may be delayed; force re-index from Ref dashboard.

ref_read_url returns empty

Some sites block scraping. Use webpage-to-markdown via markdownify as a fallback.

Quota exceeded

Upgrade Ref plan or space out search usage.

Alternatives

ref-tools-mcp vs others

Alternative	When to use it instead	Tradeoff
Context7 MCP	You want free public-library docs retrieval	No private source indexing
Apple Docs MCP / pg-aiguide	You only care about a specific platform's docs	Scoped; not general-purpose

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

🔍 Browse all 400+ MCP servers and Skills