MCP
Effective software development is semi-automated. This section is the automated half: five tools, exposed over the Model Context Protocol, that an AI agent in the developer’s editor can call.
MCP is the mechanism rather than the point. What matters is which work is handed over and which is kept:
| Handed to the machine | Kept human |
|---|---|
| Applying a known pattern to known code | Deciding that the pattern is the right one |
| Generating a module from a blueprint | Deciding the module should exist |
| Drawing a model from a codebase | Deciding whether the drawing is the architecture we wanted |
| Drafting a specification from a description | Agreeing the contract with the consumer |
The line is the same in every row: mechanical work goes, decisions stay. A model that decides is a model nobody is accountable for.
The five servers
Section titled “The five servers”- Code patterns — recognise a pattern in existing code, and name what is missing from it.
- Code scaffolding — generate a module in the team’s shape, from the team’s blueprints.
- LikeC4 scaffolding — generate a C4 model skeleton from a described system.
- LikeC4 retro-engineering — derive a C4 model from a codebase that has none.
- Assisted API design — draft an OpenAPI document from a use case, then check it against the guidelines.
Why this order
Section titled “Why this order”The first two work inside a file. The next two work at the scale of a system. The last one works at a boundary between teams — and is therefore the one where the machine’s output is least final, because a contract is an agreement between people and a model cannot be a party to it.
AI multiplies what it finds
Section titled “AI multiplies what it finds”A codebase with contracts, tests and a pattern vocabulary gets faster with these tools, because there is something concrete to generate against and something concrete to check the output with. A codebase without them gets a larger mess sooner.
That is why this section sits after practices and code design rather than before them.
Status
Section titled “Status”None of the five is built. The pages below describe what each one is for and where its boundary sits, which is the part worth reviewing before any of it exists. Each page says what it would take to build it.