Oblique Strategies MCP Server
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides access to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies - a collection of prompts designed to help overcome creative blocks through lateral thinking.
Why?
Why not?
No, seriously, why?
Because I've built Oblique Strategies thingies for various devices & platforms and I wanted to make another one to play with the MCP protocol.
This is a very silly project and you should just go buy a real deck of cards.
Quick Start
No installation required, if you have uvx and you trust my code from github. (Weirdo.)
Run directly from GitHub using uvx:
uvx --from git+https://github.com/lmorchard/oblique-strategies-mcp oblique-strategies-mcp
For Claude Desktop, add to your config file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"oblique-strategies": {
"command": "/path/to/uvx",
"args": [
"--from",
"git+https://github.com/lmorchard/oblique-strategies-mcp",
"oblique-strategies-mcp"
]
}
}
}
For Claude Code:
claude mcp add oblique-strategies -- /path/to/uvx --from git+https://github.com/lmorchard/oblique-strategies-mcp oblique-strategies-mcp
Features
- Get random strategies from multiple editions (1975-1982)
- Search strategies by keyword
- Choose from 7 different collections including programming-specific adaptations
- Default: Edition 2 (1978) with 128 strategies
MCP Tools
get_strategy- Get a random strategy (optionally specify edition)search_strategies- Search strategies by keywordlist_editions- List all available editions
Available Collections
- Edition 1-4: Original Oblique Strategies (1975-1982)
- Condensed: Comprehensive collection (195 strategies)
- Programmers: Programming-specific adaptations (96 prompts)
- Do It: Action-oriented prompts (32 strategies)
Installation
For Development
# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd oblique-strategies-mcp
# Install dependencies with uv
uv sync
Running the Server
Development Mode
From the project directory:
# Using the package entry point
uv run oblique-strategies-mcp
# Or using Python module syntax
uv run python -m oblique_strategies_mcp
# Or using the wrapper script
./run-server.sh
After Global Installation
oblique-strategies-mcp
Configuration
For Claude Desktop
Add to your Claude Desktop config file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):
Development Setup
{
"mcpServers": {
"oblique-strategies": {
"command": "/path/to/uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/path/to/oblique-strategies-mcp",
"run",
"oblique-strategies-mcp"
]
}
}
}
Note: Replace /path/to/uv with the full path to your uv executable (typically ~/.local/bin/uv or use which uv to find it).
Global Installation Setup
{
"mcpServers": {
"oblique-strategies": {
"command": "oblique-strategies-mcp",
"args": [],
"env": {}
}
}
}
For Claude Code
Development Setup
claude mcp add oblique-strategies -- uv --directory /path/to/oblique-strategies-mcp run oblique-strategies-mcp
Using Wrapper Script
claude mcp add oblique-strategies /path/to/oblique-strategies-mcp/run-server.sh
Global Installation
claude mcp add oblique-strategies oblique-strategies-mcp
After adding, restart Claude Desktop or reconnect in Claude Code.
License
MIT
Acknowledgments
- Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt for creating Oblique Strategies
- Strategy collections sourced from: https://github.com/zzkt/oblique-strategies