Question: MCP Support Windows

[jakeau]

What is your question?
Are there additional steps required for supporting MCP for windows?

Context (if applicable)
I have tried on 3 windows machines (2 with WSL and 1 with no WSL) to get MCPs to work, tried with multiple MCPs each of them failing:

With error:
"Error reinitializing MCP clients: McpError: MCP error -32000: Connection closed"

MCPs start up in console, in npx, however in both CMD and python I haven't been able to interact with them or get any response from them. When spawning sub process in python I am able to get the subprocess working, but it isn't returning anything with the STDIO, which makes me think it is a windows and MCP server problems as opposed to an aider-desk issue (hence the question and not bug).

Nothing seems to appear in logs for this.

Path variables are correct.

Current config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"sequential-thinking": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
]
},
"memory": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"
]
}
}
}

[wladimiiir]

This is a good starting point to pin point where the issue might be -> https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/tools/inspector.

Try running npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking, open the URL with the 'token pre-filled' and use Connect button.

Let me know and we can continue from there.

[jakeau]

Interesting that, that works with no issues.

[wladimiiir]

@jakeau

Are you able to use MCP servers within some other MCP client application (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Windsurf...)?

[jakeau]

MCPs work with cursor.

I ended up getting it to work with:
{
"mcpServers": {
"thinking": {
"command": "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe",
"args": [
"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\@modelcontextprotocol\server-sequential-thinking\dist\index.js"
]
}
}
}

Also for wsl machine prefacing it with wsl.exe.

If you're happy for me to, I can put together some error checking on windows, where if the command is npx, it can try a global install, then refernce as above. cmd /c npx has also reported to work on windows.

Here are some error messages:

error: MCP Client creation failed for server during reload: context7 MCP error -32000: Connection closed {"code":-32000,"name":"McpError","stack":"McpError: MCP error -32000: Connection closed\n at Client._onclose (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:5708:19)\n at _transport.onclose (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:5683:12)\n at ChildProcess. (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:12691:75)\n at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:518:28)\n at cp2.emit (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:12550:25)\n at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1101:16)\n at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:304:5)","timestamp":"2025-07-06T04:22:15.646Z"}

error: MCP Client creation failed for server during reload: filesystem MCP error -32001: Request timed out {"code":-32001,"data":{"timeout":60000},"name":"McpError","stack":"McpError: MCP error -32001: Request timed out\n at Timeout.timeoutHandler (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:5891:43)\n at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:588:17)\n at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:523:7)","timestamp":"2025-07-06T05:05:24.516Z"}

warn: Error retrieving old MCP connector for server filesystem: MCP error -32001: Request timed out {"code":-32001,"data":{"timeout":60000},"name":"McpError","stack":"McpError: MCP error -32001: Request timed out\n at Timeout.timeoutHandler (C:\Users\...\Documents\GitHub\aider-desk\out\main\index.js:5891:43)\n at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:588:17)\n at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:523:7)","timestamp":"2025-07-06T05:05:24.516Z"}
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

info: Initializing MCP client for server: filesystem {"timestamp":"2025-07-06T05:05:24.517Z"}

[wladimiiir]

cmd /c npx has also reported to work on windows

This is what AiderDesk does in the background for Windows, so it's already using cmd.exe to run the npx.

Not sure if you have previously tested with cmd or PowerShell, but can you try to open cmd in Windows and run npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking if you haven't done so?

It's weird that this happens on multiple windows machines for you. I have also tested on 2 windows machines and MCP servers work fine there. I will need to investigate more, what could be the core issue here.

[wladimiiir]

@jakeau
Additional question - are you running AiderDesk locally via npm run dev (it looks that way from the logs)? If so, could you try to run npm i @modelcontextprotocol/sdk@latest to update the version of the MCP client and try again? Thanks.

[jakeau]

npm i @modelcontextprotocol/sdk@latest

Hey mate, not working with latest modelcontextprotocol/sdk... For non-wsl laptop.

Running via wsl seems to work with nil issues.

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking works in both ps and cmd.

I'm not sure either. I'll dig around and see if I can find a solution.

Totally off topic:

For default aider provider, gemini-pro often does not create / edit files via aider and will do nothing. Adding a simple rule such as:

"Default tool: Use Aider for writing and editing files, using the 'run_prompt' command."

Improved performance significantly.

  // Aider
  {
    ...DEFAULT_AGENT_PROFILE,
    provider,
    model: DEFAULT_AGENT_PROVIDER_MODELS[provider]![0],
    id: 'aider',
    name: 'Aider',
    usePowerTools: false,
    useAiderTools: true,
    includeRepoMap: true,
    toolApprovals: {
      ...DEFAULT_AGENT_PROFILE.toolApprovals,
      [`${POWER_TOOL_GROUP_NAME}${TOOL_GROUP_NAME_SEPARATOR}${POWER_TOOL_AGENT}`]: ToolApprovalState.Never,
      [`${POWER_TOOL_GROUP_NAME}${TOOL_GROUP_NAME_SEPARATOR}${POWER_TOOL_FILE_EDIT}`]: ToolApprovalState.Never,
      [`${POWER_TOOL_GROUP_NAME}${TOOL_GROUP_NAME_SEPARATOR}${POWER_TOOL_FILE_WRITE}`]: ToolApprovalState.Never,
    },
  },
];

}

[wladimiiir]

"Default tool: Use Aider for writing and editing files, using the 'run_prompt' command."

Thanks, I'll look into incorporating this into the system prompt. It already specifies that Aider run_prompt should be used, but in my experience, Gemini isn't consistently following these instructions. Repeating it might improve the flow.