Zen MCP: Many Workflows. One Context.
The ultimate development partners for your favorite Coding Agent (Claude OR Gemini CLI) - a Model Context Protocol server that gives you access to multiple AI models for enhanced code analysis, problem-solving, and collaborative development.
Features true AI orchestration with conversations that continue across workflows - Give Claude a complex
workflow and let it orchestrate between models automatically. Claude stays in control, performs the actual work,
but gets perspectives from the best AI for each subtask. With tools like planner for
breaking down complex projects, analyze for understanding codebases,
codereview for audits, refactor for
improving code structure, debug for solving complex problems, and precommit for
validating changes, Claude can switch between different tools and models mid-conversation,
with context carrying forward seamlessly.
Example Workflow - Claude Code:
Perform a codereview using gemini pro and o3 and use planner to generate a detailed plan, implement the fixes and do a final precommit check by continuing from the previous codereview- This triggers a
codereviewworkflow where Claude walks the code, looking for all kinds of issues - After multiple passes, collects relevant code and makes note of issues along the way
- Maintains a
confidencelevel betweenexploring,low,medium,highandcertainto track how confidently it's been able to find and identify issues - Generates a detailed list of critical -> low issues
- Shares the relevant files, findings, etc with Gemini Pro to perform a deep dive for a second
codereview - Comes back with a response and next does the same with o3, adding to the prompt if a new discovery comes to light
- When done, Claude takes in all the feedback and combines a single list of all critical -> low issues, including good patterns in your code. The final list includes new findings or revisions in case Claude misunderstood or missed something crucial and one of the other models pointed this out
- It then uses the
plannerworkflow to break the work down into simpler steps if a major refactor is required - Claude then performs the actual work of fixing highlighted issues
- When done, Claude returns to Gemini Pro for a
precommitreview
All within a single conversation thread! Gemini Pro in step 11 knows what was recommended by O3 in step 7! Taking that context and review into consideration to aid with its final pre-commit review.
Think of it as Claude Code for Claude Code. This MCP isn't magic. It's just super-glue.
Remember: Claude stays in full control — but YOU call the shots. Zen is designed to have Claude engage other models only when needed — and to follow through with meaningful back-and-forth. You're the one who crafts the powerful prompt that makes Claude bring in Gemini, Flash, O3 — or fly solo. You're the guide. The prompter. The puppeteer.
You are the AI - Actually Intelligent.
Because these AI models clearly aren't when they get chatty →
Quick Navigation
-
Getting Started
- Quickstart - Get running in 5 minutes
- Available Tools - Overview of all tools
- AI-to-AI Conversations - Multi-turn conversations
-
Tools Reference
chat- Collaborative thinkingthinkdeep- Extended reasoningchallenge- Prevents You're absolutely right! responsesplanner- Interactive step-by-step planningconsensus- Multi-model consensus analysiscodereview- Code reviewprecommit- Pre-commit validationdebug- Debugging helpanalyze- File analysisrefactor- Code refactoring with decomposition focustracer- Call-flow mapping and dependency tracingtestgen- Test generation with edge casessecaudit- Security audit with OWASP analysisdocgen- Documentation generation with complexity analysis
-
Advanced Usage
- Advanced Features - AI-to-AI conversations, large prompts, web search
- Complete Advanced Guide - Model configuration, thinking modes, workflows, tool parameters
-
Setup & Support
- WSL Setup Guide - Windows Subsystem for Linux configuration
- Troubleshooting Guide - Common issues and debugging steps
- License - Apache 2.0
Why This Server?
Claude is brilliant, but sometimes you need:
- Guided workflows - Developer-centric processes that enforce systematic investigation, preventing rushed analysis by ensuring Claude examines code thoroughly at each phase (
debug,precommit,refactor,analyze,codereview) - Multiple AI perspectives - Let Claude orchestrate between different models to get the best analysis
- Automatic model selection - Claude picks the right model for each task (or you can specify)
- A senior developer partner to validate and extend ideas (
chat) - A second opinion on complex architectural decisions - augment Claude's thinking with perspectives from Gemini Pro, O3, or dozens of other models via custom endpoints (
thinkdeep) - Get multiple expert opinions - Have different AI models debate your ideas (some supporting, some critical) to help you make better decisions (
consensus) - Professional code reviews with actionable feedback across entire repositories (
codereview) - Pre-commit validation with deep analysis using the best model for the job (
precommit) - Expert debugging - O3 for logical issues, Gemini for architectural problems (
debug) - Extended context windows beyond Claude's limits - Delegate analysis to Gemini (1M tokens) or O3 (200K tokens) for entire codebases, large datasets, or comprehensive documentation
- Model-specific strengths - Extended thinking with Gemini Pro, fast iteration with Flash, strong reasoning with O3, local privacy with Ollama
- Local model support - Run models like Llama 3.2 locally via Ollama, vLLM, or LM Studio for privacy and cost control
- Dynamic collaboration - Models can request additional context and follow-up replies from Claude mid-analysis
- Smart file handling - Automatically expands directories, manages token limits based on model capacity
- Vision support - Analyze images, diagrams, screenshots, and visual content with vision-capable models
- Bypass MCP's token limits - Work around MCP's 25K limit automatically
- Context revival across sessions - Continue conversations even after Claude's context resets, with other models maintaining full history
Pro Tip: Context Revival
This is an extremely powerful feature that cannot be highlighted enough:
The most amazing side-effect of this conversation continuation system is that even AFTER Claude's context resets or compacts, since the continuation info is kept within MCP's memory, you can ask it to continue discussing the plan with
o3, and it will suddenly revive Claude because O3 would know what was being talked about and relay this back in a way that re-ignites Claude's understanding. All this without wasting context on asking Claude to ingest lengthy documents / code again and re-prompting it to communicate with another model. Zen manages that internally. The model's response revives Claude with better context around the discussion than an automatic summary ever can.
📖 Read the complete technical deep-dive on how this revolutionary system works
This server orchestrates multiple AI models as your development team, with Claude automatically selecting the best model for each task or allowing you to choose specific models for different strengths.
Prompt Used:
Study the code properly, think deeply about what this does and then see if there's any room for improvement in
terms of performance optimizations, brainstorm with gemini on this to get feedback and then confirm any change by
first adding a unit test with `measure` and measuring current code and then implementing the optimization and
measuring again to ensure it improved, then share results. Check with gemini in between as you make tweaks.
The final implementation resulted in a 26% improvement in JSON parsing performance for the selected library, reducing processing time through targeted, collaborative optimizations guided by Gemini’s analysis and Claude’s refinement.
Quickstart (5 minutes)
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10+ (3.12 recommended)
- Git
- Windows users: WSL2 is required for Claude Code CLI
1. Get API Keys (at least one required)
Option A: OpenRouter (Access multiple models with one API)
- OpenRouter: Visit OpenRouter for access to multiple models through one API. Setup Guide
- Control model access and spending limits directly in your OpenRouter dashboard
- Configure model aliases in
conf/custom_models.json
Option B: Native APIs
- Gemini: Visit Google AI Studio and generate an API key. For best results with Gemini 2.5 Pro, use a paid API key as the free tier has limited access to the latest models.
- OpenAI: Visit OpenAI Platform to get an API key for O3 model access.
- X.AI: Visit X.AI Console to get an API key for GROK model access.
- DIAL: Visit DIAL Platform to get an API key for accessing multiple models through their unified API. DIAL is an open-source AI orchestration platform that provides vendor-agnostic access to models from major providers, open-source community, and self-hosted deployments. API Documentation
Option C: Custom API Endpoints (Local models like Ollama, vLLM) Please see the setup guide. With a custom API you can use:
- Ollama: Run models like Llama 3.2 locally for free inference
- vLLM: Self-hosted inference server for high-throughput inference
- LM Studio: Local model hosting with OpenAI-compatible API interface
- Text Generation WebUI: Popular local interface for running models
- Any OpenAI-compatible API: Custom endpoints for your own infrastructure
Note: Using multiple provider options may create ambiguity about which provider / model to use if there is an overlap. If all APIs are configured, native APIs will take priority when there is a clash in model name, such as for
geminiando3. Configure your model aliases and give them unique names inconf/custom_models.json
2. Choose Your Installation Method
Option A: Quick Install with uvx
Prerequisites: Install uv first (required for uvx)
Claude Desktop Configuration
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"zen": {
"command": "sh",
"args": [
"-c",
"exec $(which uvx || echo uvx) --from git+https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server.git zen-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:~/.local/bin",
"OPENAI_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Claude Code CLI Configuration
Create a .mcp.json file in your project root for project-scoped configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"zen": {
"command": "sh",
"args": [
"-c",
"exec $(which uvx || echo uvx) --from git+https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server.git zen-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:~/.local/bin",
"OPENAI_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Gemini CLI Configuration
Edit ~/.gemini/settings.json and add:
{
"mcpServers": {
"zen": {
"command": "sh",
"args": [
"-c",
"exec $(which uvx || echo uvx) --from git+https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server.git zen-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:~/.local/bin",
"OPENAI_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Note: While Zen MCP Server connects successfully to Gemini CLI, tool invocation is not working correctly yet. See Gemini CLI Setup for updates.
What this does:
- Zero setup required - uvx handles everything automatically
- Always up-to-date - Pulls latest version on each run
- No local dependencies - Works without Python environment setup
- Instant availability - Ready to use immediately
Option B: Traditional Clone and Set Up
# Clone to your preferred location
git clone https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server.git
cd zen-mcp-server
# One-command setup installs Zen in Claude
./run-server.sh
# Or for Windows users using PowerShell:
./run-server.ps1
# To view MCP configuration for Claude
./run-server.sh -c
# PowerShell:
./run-server.ps1 -Config
# See help for more
./run-server.sh --help
# PowerShell:
./run-server.ps1 -Help
What this does:
- Sets up everything automatically - Python environment, dependencies, configuration
- Configures Claude integrations - Adds to Claude Code CLI and guides Desktop setup
- Ready to use immediately - No manual configuration needed
- Also works with Gemini CLI - See Gemini CLI Setup for configuration
After updates: Always run ./run-server.sh again after git pull to ensure everything stays current.
Windows users: Using WSL? See the WSL Setup Guide for detailed instructions.
3. Add Your API Keys
# Edit .env to add your API keys (if not already set in environment)
nano .env
# The file will contain, at least one should be set:
# GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-api-key-here # For Gemini models
# OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key-here # For O3 model
# OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your-openrouter-key # For OpenRouter (see docs/custom_models.md)
# DIAL_API_KEY=your-dial-api-key-here # For DIAL platform
# For DIAL (optional configuration):
# DIAL_API_HOST=https://core.dialx.ai # Default DIAL host (optional)
# DIAL_API_VERSION=2024-12-01-preview # API version (optional)
# DIAL_ALLOWED_MODELS=o3,gemini-2.5-pro # Restrict to specific models (optional)
# For local models (Ollama, vLLM, etc.):
# CUSTOM_API_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1 # Ollama example
# CUSTOM_API_KEY= # Empty for Ollama
# CUSTOM_MODEL_NAME=llama3.2 # Default model
# Note: At least one API key OR custom URL is required
No restart needed: The server reads the .env file each time Claude calls a tool, so changes take effect immediately.
Next: Now run claude from your project folder using the terminal for it to connect to the newly added mcp server.
If you were already running a claude code session, please exit and start a new session.
If Setting up for Claude Desktop
Need the exact configuration? Run ./run-server.sh -c to display the platform-specific setup instructions with correct paths.
- Open Claude Desktop config: Settings → Developer → Edit Config
- Copy the configuration shown by
./run-server.sh -cinto yourclaude_desktop_config.json - Restart Claude Desktop for changes to take effect
4. Start Using It!
Just ask Claude naturally:
- "Think deeper about this architecture design with zen" → Claude picks best model +
thinkdeep - "Using zen perform a code review of this code for security issues" → Claude might pick Gemini Pro +
codereview - "Use zen and debug why this test is failing, the bug might be in my_class.swift" → Claude might pick O3 +
debug - "With zen, analyze these files to understand the data flow" → Claude picks appropriate model +
analyze - "Use flash to suggest how to format this code based on the specs mentioned in policy.md" → Uses Gemini Flash specifically
- "Think deeply about this and get o3 to debug this logic error I found in the checkOrders() function" → Uses O3 specifically
- "Brainstorm scaling strategies with pro. Study the code, pick your preferred strategy and debate with pro to settle on two best approaches" → Uses Gemini Pro specifically
- "Use local-llama to localize and add missing translations to this project" → Uses local Llama 3.2 via custom URL
- "First use local-llama for a quick local analysis, then use opus for a thorough security review" → Uses both providers in sequence
Available Tools
These aren't just tools—they're how you get Claude to think like a real developer. Instead of rushing to reply with surface-level takes or shallow-insight, these workflows make Claude pause, dig into your code, and reason through problems step by step.
It's the difference between a rushed guess and a focused second pair of eyes that actually understands your code. Try them and feel the difference.
Quick Tool Selection Guide:
- Need a thinking partner? →
chat(brainstorm ideas, get second opinions, validate approaches) - Need deeper thinking? →
thinkdeep(extends analysis, finds edge cases) - Want to prevent "You're absolutely right!" responses? →
challenge(challenges assumptions, encourages thoughtful re-evaluation) - Need to break down complex projects? →
planner(step-by-step planning, project structure, breaking down complex ideas) - Need multiple perspectives? →
consensus(get diverse expert opinions on proposals and decisions) - Code needs review? →
codereview(bugs, security, performance issues) - Pre-commit validation? →
precommit(validate git changes before committing) - Something's broken? →
debug(systematic investigation, step-by-step root cause analysis) - Want to understand code? →
analyze(architecture, patterns, dependencies) - Code needs refactoring? →
refactor(intelligent refactoring with decomposition focus) - Need call-flow analysis? →
tracer(generates prompts for execution tracing and dependency mapping) - Need comprehensive tests? →
testgen(generates test suites with edge cases) - Security concerns? →
secaudit(OWASP analysis, compliance evaluation, vulnerability assessment) - Code needs documentation? →
docgen(generates comprehensive documentation with complexity analysis) - Which models are available? →
listmodels(shows all configured providers and models) - Server info? →
version(version and configuration details)
Auto Mode: When DEFAULT_MODEL=auto, Claude automatically picks the best model for each task. You can override with: "Use flash for quick analysis" or "Use o3 to debug this".
Model Selection Examples:
- Complex architecture review → Claude picks Gemini Pro
- Quick formatting check → Claude picks Flash
- Logical debugging → Claude picks O3
- General explanations → Claude picks Flash for speed
- Local analysis → Claude picks your Ollama model
Pro Tip: Thinking modes (for Gemini models) control depth vs token cost. Use "minimal" or "low" for quick tasks, "high" or "max" for complex problems. Learn more
Tools Overview:
chat- Collaborative thinking and development conversationsthinkdeep- Extended reasoning and problem-solvingchallenge- Critical challenge prompt, prevents You're absolutely right!planner- Interactive sequential planning for complex projectsconsensus- Multi-model consensus analysis with stance steeringcodereview- Professional code review with severity levelsprecommit- Validate git changes before committingdebug- Systematic investigation and debugginganalyze- General-purpose file and code analysisrefactor- Code refactoring with decomposition focustracer- Static code analysis prompt generator for call-flow mappingtestgen- Comprehensive test generation with edge case coveragesecaudit- Comprehensive security audit with OWASP Top 10 analysisdocgen- Comprehensive documentation generation with complexity analysislistmodels- Display all available AI models organized by providerversion- Get server version and configuration
1. chat - General Development Chat & Collaborative Thinking
Your thinking partner for brainstorming, getting second opinions, and validating approaches. Perfect for technology comparisons, architecture discussions, and collaborative problem-solving.
Chat with zen about the best approach for user authentication in my React app
📖 Read More - Detailed features, examples, and best practices
2. thinkdeep - Extended Reasoning Partner
Get a second opinion to augment Claude's own extended thinking. Uses specialized thinking models to challenge assumptions, identify edge cases, and provide alternative perspectives.
The button won't animate when clicked, it seems something else is intercepting the clicks. Use thinkdeep with gemini pro after gathering related code and handing it the files
and find out what the root cause is
📖 Read More - Enhanced analysis capabilities and critical evaluation process
3. challenge - Critical Challenge Prompt
Encourages thoughtful reassessment of statements instead of automatic agreement, especially when you're wrong. Wraps your input with instructions for critical thinking and honest analysis.
challenge isn't adding this function to the base class a bad idea?
Normally, your favorite coding agent will enthusiastically reply with “You’re absolutely right!”—then proceed to completely reverse the correct strategy, without ever explaining why you're wrong.
📖 Read More - Critical thinking tool for validating ideas
4. planner - Interactive Step-by-Step Planning
Break down complex projects or ideas into manageable, structured plans through step-by-step thinking. Perfect for adding new features to an existing system, scaling up system design, migration strategies, and architectural planning with branching and revision capabilities.
Pro Tip
Claude supports sub-tasks where it will spawn and run separate background tasks. You can ask Claude to
run Zen's planner with two separate ideas. Then when it's done, use Zen's consensus tool to pass the entire
plan and get expert perspective from two powerful AI models on which one to work on first! Like performing AB testing
in one-go without the wait!
Create two separate sub-tasks: in one, using planner tool show me how to add natural language support
to my cooking app. In the other sub-task, use planner to plan how to add support for voice notes to my cooking app.
Once done, start a consensus by sharing both plans to o3 and flash to give me the final verdict. Which one do
I implement first?
📖 Read More - Step-by-step planning methodology and multi-session continuation
5. consensus - Multi-Model Perspective Gathering
Get diverse expert opinions from multiple AI models on technical proposals and decisions. Supports stance steering (for/against/neutral) and structured decision-making.
Get a consensus with flash taking a supportive stance and gemini pro being critical to evaluate whether we should
migrate from REST to GraphQL for our API. I need a definitive answer.
📖 Read More - Multi-model orchestration and decision analysis
6. codereview - Professional Code Review
Comprehensive code analysis with prioritized feedback and severity levels. This workflow tool guides Claude through systematic investigation steps with forced pauses between each step to ensure thorough code examination, issue identification, and quality assessment before providing expert analysis.
Perform a codereview with gemini pro especially the auth.py as I feel some of the code is bypassing security checks
and there may be more potential vulnerabilities. Find and share related code."
Tips:
- To avoid extra API costs, add
do not use another modelto run the entire codereview workflow locally. - If you want to always consult an external model (recommended for code reviews) regardless of Claude’s confidence level in identifying issues, use
must codereview using <model name>. This ensures the model is consulted even if Claude is certain about identified issues.
📖 Read More - Professional review workflow with step-by-step analysis
7. precommit - Pre-Commit Validation
Comprehensive review of staged/unstaged git changes across multiple repositories. This workflow tool guides Claude through systematic investigation of git changes, repository status, and file modifications across multiple steps before providing expert validation to ensure changes meet requirements and prevent regressions.
Perform a thorough precommit with o3, we want to only highlight critical issues, no blockers, no regressions. I need
100% confidence this covers all the edge cases listed in FIX_ISSUE_ABC.md
Real Example:
- I asked claude (sonnet-4) to refactor some code to fix a known bug; gave it exact instructions
- The fix looked correct — and at a glance, so did the changes.
- More importantly, all existing unit tests passed (540+ unit tests) without a hitch. Zero regressions. Claude seemed confident and eager to commit. Everything looked perfect.
I then ran:
Run a precommit with o3 confirm our changes are sound and diffs are valid. Confirm this won't cause breakage or
regressions and codesmells are out
This passed the tracked and untracked changes / diffs and the related code to o3 for a thorough review via Zen's precommit tool.
Output:
⏺ Precommit Analysis Results - CRITICAL ISSUE FOUND
The O3 model has identified one HIGH-severity regression and several medium/low issues in our refactor. Here's the summary:
🚨 HIGH SEVERITY - MUST FIX BEFORE COMMIT
...
The reported issue was in fact a very subtle bug that slipped through the quick glance — and a unit test for this exact case apparently
was missing (out of 540 existing tests!) - explains the zero reported regressions. The fix was ultimately simple, but the
fact Claude (and by extension, I) overlooked this, was a stark reminder: no number of eyeballs is ever enough. Fixed the
issue, ran precommit with o3 again and got:
RECOMMENDATION: PROCEED WITH COMMIT
Nice! This is just one instance - take a look at another example here.
Tips:
- To avoid extra API costs, add
do not use another modelto run the entire precommit workflow locally. - If you want to always consult an external model (recommended for pre-commit analysis) regardless of Claude’s confidence level in identifying issues, use
must precommit using <model name>. This ensures the model is consulted even if Claude is certain about identified issues.
📖 Read More - Multi-repository validation and change analysis
8. debug - Expert Debugging Assistant
Systematic investigation-guided debugging that walks Claude through step-by-step root cause analysis. This workflow tool enforces a structured investigation process where Claude performs methodical code examination, evidence collection, and hypothesis formation across multiple steps before receiving expert analysis from the selected AI model. When Claude's confidence reaches 100% certainty during the investigative workflow, expert analysis via another model is skipped to save on tokens and cost, and Claude proceeds directly to fixing the issue.
See logs under /Users/me/project/diagnostics.log and related code under the sync folder.
Logs show that sync works but sometimes it gets stuck and there are no errors displayed to
the user. Using zen's debug tool with gemini pro, find out why this is happening and what the root
cause is and its fix
Tips:
- To avoid extra API costs, add
do not use another modelto run the entire debugging workflow locally. This is recommended in most cases, as Claude typically identifies the root cause with high confidence by the end. - If you want to always consult an external model regardless of Claude’s confidence level, use
must debug using <model name>. This ensures the model is consulted even if Claude is certain about the issue.
When in doubt, you can always follow up with a new prompt and ask Claude to share its findings with another model:
Use continuation with thinkdeep, share details with o4-mini to find out what the best fix is for this
📖 Read More - Step-by-step investigation methodology with workflow enforcement
9. analyze - Smart File Analysis
General-purpose code understanding and exploration. This workflow tool guides Claude through systematic investigation of code structure, patterns, and architectural decisions across multiple steps, gathering comprehensive insights before providing expert analysis for architecture assessment, pattern detection, and strategic improvement recommendations.
Use gemini to analyze main.py to understand how it works
📖 Read More - Comprehensive analysis workflow with step-by-step investigation
10. refactor - Intelligent Code Refactoring
Comprehensive refactoring analysis with top-down decomposition strategy. This workflow tool enforces systematic investigation of code smells, decomposition opportunities, and modernization possibilities across multiple steps, ensuring thorough analysis before providing expert refactoring recommendations with precise implementation guidance.
Use gemini pro to decompose my_crazy_big_class.m into smaller extensions
📖 Read More - Workflow-driven refactoring with progressive analysis
11. tracer - Static Code Analysis Prompt Generator
Creates detailed analysis prompts for call-flow mapping and dependency tracing. Generates structured analysis requests for precision execution flow or dependency mapping.
Use zen tracer to analyze how UserAuthManager.authenticate is used and why
📖 Read More - Prompt generation and analysis modes
12. testgen - Comprehensive Test Generation
Generates thorough test suites with edge case coverage based on existing code and test framework. This workflow tool guides Claude through systematic investigation of code functionality, critical paths, edge cases, and integration points across multiple steps before generating comprehensive tests with realistic failure mode analysis.
Use zen to generate tests for User.login() method
📖 Read More - Workflow-based test generation with comprehensive coverage
13. secaudit - Comprehensive Security Audit
Systematic OWASP-based security assessment with compliance evaluation. This workflow tool guides Claude through methodical security investigation steps with forced pauses between each step to ensure thorough vulnerability assessment, security pattern analysis, and compliance verification before providing expert analysis.
Perform a secaudit with o3 on this e-commerce web application focusing on payment processing security and PCI DSS compliance
📖 Read More - OWASP Top 10 analysis with compliance framework support
14. docgen - Comprehensive Documentation Generation
Generates thorough documentation with complexity analysis and gotcha identification. This workflow tool guides Claude through systematic investigation of code structure, function complexity, and documentation needs across multiple steps before generating comprehensive documentation that includes algorithmic complexity, call flow information, and unexpected behaviors that developers should know about.
# Includes complexity Big-O notiation, documents dependencies / code-flow, fixes existing stale docs
Use docgen to documentation the UserManager class
# Includes complexity Big-O notiation, documents dependencies / code-flow
Use docgen to add complexity analysis to all the new swift functions I added but don't update existing code
📖 Read More - Workflow-based documentation generation with gotcha detection
15. listmodels - List Available Models
Display all available AI models organized by provider, showing capabilities, context windows, and configuration status.
Use zen to list available models
📖 Read More - Model capabilities and configuration details
16. version - Server Information
Get server version, configuration details, and system status for debugging and troubleshooting.
What version of zen do I have
📖 Read More - Server diagnostics and configuration verification
For detailed tool parameters and configuration options, see the Advanced Usage Guide.
Prompt Support
Zen supports powerful structured prompts in Claude Code for quick access to tools and models:
Tool Prompts
/zen:chat ask local-llama what 2 + 2 is- Use chat tool with auto-selected model/zen:thinkdeep use o3 and tell me why the code isn't working in sorting.swift- Use thinkdeep tool with auto-selected model/zen:planner break down the microservices migration project into manageable steps- Use planner tool with auto-selected model/zen:consensus use o3:for and flash:against and tell me if adding feature X is a good idea for the project. Pass them a summary of what it does.- Use consensus tool with default configuration/zen:codereview review for security module ABC- Use codereview tool with auto-selected model/zen:debug table view is not scrolling properly, very jittery, I suspect the code is in my_controller.m- Use debug tool with auto-selected model/zen:analyze examine these files and tell me what if I'm using the CoreAudio framework properly- Use analyze tool with auto-selected model/zen:docgen generate comprehensive documentation for the UserManager class with complexity analysis- Use docgen tool with auto-selected model
Continuation Prompts
/zen:chat continue and ask gemini pro if framework B is better- Continue previous conversation using chat tool
Advanced Examples
/zen:thinkdeeper check if the algorithm in @sort.py is performant and if there are alternatives we could explore/zen:planner create a step-by-step plan for migrating our authentication system to OAuth2, including dependencies and rollback strategies/zen:consensus debate whether we should migrate to GraphQL for our API/zen:precommit confirm these changes match our requirements in COOL_FEATURE.md/zen:testgen write me tests for class ABC/zen:docgen document the payment processing module with gotchas and complexity analysis/zen:refactor propose a decomposition strategy, make a plan and save it in FIXES.md
Syntax Format
The prompt format is: /zen:[tool] [your_message]
[tool]- Any available tool name (chat, thinkdeep, planner, consensus, codereview, debug, analyze, docgen, etc.)[your_message]- Your request, question, or instructions for the tool
Note: All prompts will show as "(MCP) [tool]" in Claude Code to indicate they're provided by the MCP server.
Advanced Features
AI-to-AI Conversation Threading
This server enables true AI collaboration between Claude and multiple AI models, where they can coordinate and build on each other's insights across tools and conversations.
📖 Read More - Multi-model coordination, conversation threading, and collaborative workflows
Configuration
Configure the Zen MCP Server through environment variables in your .env file. Supports multiple AI providers, model restrictions, conversation settings, and advanced options.
# Quick start - Auto mode (recommended)
DEFAULT_MODEL=auto
GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-key
DIAL_API_KEY=your-dial-key # Optional: Access to multiple models via DIAL
Key Configuration Options:
- API Keys: Native APIs (Gemini, OpenAI, X.AI), OpenRouter, DIAL, or Custom endpoints (Ollama, vLLM)
- Model Selection: Auto mode or specific model defaults
- Usage Restrictions: Control which models can be used for cost control
- Conversation Settings: Timeout, turn limits, memory configuration
- Thinking Modes: Token allocation for extended reasoning
- Logging: Debug levels and operational visibility
📖 Read More - Complete configuration reference with examples
Testing
For information on running tests, see the Testing Guide.
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please see our comprehensive guides:
- Contributing Guide - Code standards, PR process, and requirements
- Adding a New Provider - Step-by-step guide for adding AI providers
License
Apache 2.0 License - see LICENSE file for details.
Acknowledgments
Built with the power of Multi-Model AI collaboration 🤝
- Actual Intelligence by real Humans
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) by Anthropic
- Claude Code - Your AI coding assistant & orchestrator
- Gemini 2.5 Pro & 2.0 Flash - Extended thinking & fast analysis
- OpenAI O3 - Strong reasoning & general intelligence