AI Agent Integration

DPM includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor and GitHub Copilot can search DPM packages and understand Delphi projects.

The server is started with the dpm mcp command. It communicates over stdio and is read only - the agent can search packages, inspect package details and walk a project's dependency tree, but nothing it exposes can install, download or modify anything. When the agent decides to act, it runs the DPM CLI in its own shell, e.g.

dpm install VSoft.HttpClient MyApp.dproj --compiler=12.0

Requirements

• DPM installed with the "add to path" option enabled (the default), so the agent can launch dpm without a full path. See Installing DPM.
• A recent DPM release - if dpm mcp reports an unknown command, update from the releases page.

In every client below the configuration is the same: run dpm with the single argument mcp. Options such as a default project or a source filter can be appended - see the command reference for the full list.

Claude Code

Register the server from a terminal:

claude mcp add dpm -- dpm mcp

By default this applies to the current project only. To make it available in every project, use the user scope:

claude mcp add --scope user dpm -- dpm mcp

To share the server with your team, commit a .mcp.json file at the root of the repository instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dpm": {
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Verify with the /mcp command inside Claude Code - dpm should be listed as connected.

Claude Desktop

Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dpm": {
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop does not start the server in your project directory, so there is no default project. That is fine - the agent passes the project path on each tool call - but you can also set a default:

      "args": ["mcp", "-project=C:\\src\\MyApp\\MyApp.dproj"]

If dpm is not found, use the full path to the executable, e.g. C:\\Users\\<you>\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\DPM Package Manager\\dpm.exe.

Codex CLI

codex mcp add dpm -- dpm mcp

Or edit %USERPROFILE%\.codex\config.toml:

[mcp_servers.dpm]
command = "dpm"
args = ["mcp"]

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add dpm dpm mcp

Or add the server to %USERPROFILE%\.gemini\settings.json (all projects) or .gemini\settings.json in the project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dpm": {
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Verify with gemini mcp list.

Cursor

Create .cursor\mcp.json in the project (or %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json for all projects):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dpm": {
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Create .vscode\mcp.json in the workspace - note the top-level key is servers, not mcpServers:

{
  "servers": {
    "dpm": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Alternatively run MCP: Add Server from the command palette and choose the stdio type.

Windsurf

Add the server to %USERPROFILE%\.codeium\windsurf\mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dpm": {
      "command": "dpm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

Any MCP client that supports stdio servers will work - configure it to run command dpm with arguments ["mcp"]. The server implements both the current stateless MCP protocol and the older handshake-based revisions (back to 2024-11-05), so both new and old clients connect.

What the agent can do

Once connected, the agent has five read-only tools:

Tool	Purpose
dpm_search_packages	Find packages by name or capability ("http client", "json serialization").
dpm_package_info	Details of one package - licence, platforms, dependencies.
dpm_package_versions	All published versions of a package for a compiler version.
dpm_project_info	Compiler version, platforms and full dependency tree of a .dproj.
dpm_why_package	Why a package is in a project's dependency tree.

A typical session: the agent calls dpm_project_info to learn which compiler version and platforms the project targets, dpm_search_packages to find a suitable library, dpm_package_info to check its licence and what it would pull in, and then runs dpm install in its shell to actually add it.

Because packages are published separately for each Delphi compiler version, every query is scoped to one compiler, and every result states which compiler was used.

Troubleshooting

• The client cannot start the server - make sure dpm is on the PATH (re-run the installer with "add to path" checked, then restart the terminal or editor), or configure the full path to dpm.exe.

• The client connects but does not work - start the server with a frame log and read what actually crossed the wire:

  dpm mcp -logfile=%TEMP%\dpm-mcp.log

  Every request and response is appended to the file. Server diagnostics go to stderr, which most clients capture in their MCP logs; stdout carries nothing but protocol.