Theia as MCP Server ?

[maheshrajrp]

Hi maintainers,

Wanted to pick your brains on using Theia as MCP Server, by MCP Server I mean, a Custom Theia App should have APIs that are necessary for MCP Clients to connect to,

Example Scenario:

1. Connect via Claude Desktop (One of a MCP Client)
2. Then ask it tell me more about the project that is running, on Theia IDE
3. Maybe ask it to create files in the workspace, etc.

I'm not sure of the advantages here. But would love to pick your brains on this.

And the reason behind this feature request is, we run Theia on Eclipse Che. We were brainstorming ideas like bring your own AI, and all you need to do was integrate with our App as an MCP Server. I don't know if it makes much sense yet, but I'm currently looking at it on how it can grow.

[planger]

Hi @maheshrajrp,

Thanks a lot for sharing this idea and opening up the discussion! 🙌

This is definitely a very interesting direction — and actually something we've been discussing internally as well. I personally have been thinking about leveraging Theia’s generic build and debugging capabilities (via DAP) to expose MCP-style tool functions. Some debug-focused MCPs already exist (e.g., for GDB), but adding a DAP-speaking layer in between would open up the possibility of using one MCP server to let an AI agent debug any project that has a debug adapter.

But your use case makes a lot of sense too — using Theia as a high-level MCP server to explore or edit a project via an "external" AI agent. Having an MCP client (like Claude Desktop) query Theia for context or trigger actions like making file changes could be a really neat way to bridge IDEs with agents that cover a broader overall workflow.

From a technical standpoint, exposing an MCP server endpoint from Theia’s backend sounds quite straightforward. We could start by making common tools and resources available — like listCommands, runCommand, listTasks, runTask, or file access APIs. That would already go a long way in enabling these kinds of interactions.

Curious to hear how you envision the MCP protocol evolving and what features you'd want exposed from Theia. Happy to keep brainstorming together!

Best wishes,

Philip