---
name: scope-an-mcp-server-for-this-codebase
description: "Works out which tools an MCP server should expose before you write any of it. Use when the user wants help with Scope an MCP Server for This Codebase. Related topics: AI, Engineering, Planning."
---

# Scope an MCP Server for This Codebase

Works out which tools an MCP server should expose before you write any of it.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **What the system does and who uses it** (longer free text)
- **The API surface or main entry points available today** (longer free text)
- **Input 3** (choose one: Read only, Read and write, Write with confirmation on destructive actions)
- **What an agent using this should be able to accomplish end to end** (free text, e.g. "What an agent using this should be able to accomplish end to end")
- **Input 5** (choose one: Yes, No)

## Prompt template

## Before I build the MCP server

I want an agent to be able to work against this system. Help me decide what the server should expose rather than wrapping every endpoint I happen to have.

- {{What the system does and who uses it}}
- {{The API surface or main entry points available today}}
- {{Input 3}}
- {{What an agent using this should be able to accomplish end to end}}
- {{Input 5}} There is data here that must never leave the environment

Propose a tool list: name, one-line description, arguments, and what it returns. Keep the count small and make each tool map to something a caller actually wants to do, not to a database table. Point out where two of my endpoints should collapse into one tool, and where one endpoint needs splitting because the agent will otherwise have to guess at a mode flag.

Then tell me which tools need a confirmation step and what the failure text should say, since that is what the model sees when it goes wrong.

---

Source: [Scope an MCP Server for This Codebase on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/bNKzhrLRB5cHHM2xHFQ9/scope-an-mcp-server-for-this-codebase)