How to use MCP servers on your Mac with OpenDot

What MCP gives your Dots

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI apps to tools and data. An MCP server might read your GitHub pull requests, search Notion, fetch web pages or look through a folder. OpenDot is an MCP client, so you can add as many servers as you like, local or remote, and give each Dot only the ones it needs.

Three ways to add a server

Open Connections in OpenDot and pick whichever route fits.

1. 1

   The Catalog

   One click installs popular servers: Filesystem, Memory, Fetch, Git, GitHub, Notion, Linear, Sentry, Context7 and more.

2. 2

   Add MCP server

   Add any local command or a remote URL. This is the route for a server that is not in the Catalog.

3. 3

   Import JSON

   Paste the mcpServers block from your Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code config, and OpenDot imports the lot in one go.

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "fetch": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-server-fetch"] }
     }
   }

Give a Dot access, tool by tool

Adding a server does not hand it to every Dot. Open a Dot's info panel, then Tools, and switch on the servers that Dot may use. Expand a server to see its individual tools and set each one to Allow, Ask or Block.

A code-review Dot, for instance, might have GitHub switched on with listing and reading set to Allow, commenting set to Ask, and merging set to Block.

Things to know

• Local MCP servers that use npx or uvx need Node.js or uv installed on your Mac.
• Remote MCP servers that need OAuth ask you to sign in the first time a Dot uses them. Their tokens are stored by pi in ~/.opendot/pi/mcp-auth.json (mode 600) rather than the Keychain.
• MCP resources can also act as triggers, so a Dot can react when one changes.

Privacy with MCP

Tool results that go to a cloud model are masked for personal details, and anything that changes the world can be set to ask first. If you use a local model, the Dot's thinking stays on your Mac. Remember that a remote MCP server is, by definition, someone else's service, so choose the ones you trust.

A good first MCP setup

Start with one server and one Dot. Install Fetch from the Catalog, create a Research Dot, switch Fetch on for it in Dot info, then ask the Dot to read a web page and summarise it. Once that works, add GitHub or Notion for a second Dot and set anything that writes to Ask. Giving each Dot a small, specific set of tools makes it easier to trust, and easier to debug when something goes wrong.