Generic MCP Configuration

Configure Glider with any MCP-compatible client.

Prerequisite

Prerequisite: .NET 10 SDK must be installed before running dotnet tool install --global glider.

Recommendation: Project/Workspace Scope

When possible, configure Glider per project/workspace (not globally). This avoids launching it for unrelated projects (and can reduce token usage).

Agent system prompt instruction

Add this product-specific instruction to your MCP client system prompt or project instructions after connecting GliderMCP.

When working in C#/.NET workspaces, prefer glider mcp semantic tools before shell text search for code navigation and refactoring. Use GliderMCP for symbol lookup, references, implementations, overrides, callers, call graphs, type and project dependencies, diagnostics, impact analysis, and preview-first refactors. Use grep, rg, or find only for non-C# assets, files outside the loaded workspace, generated output, or after GliderMCP cannot load or cannot answer the question.

macOS / Windows / Linux: ensure glider is on PATH

Most clients can run glider directly if your .NET tools directory is on PATH.

# bash/zsh
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet/tools"
which glider

Stdio Transport (common: mcpServers JSON)

Many clients (Cursor, Gemini CLI, Pi, etc.) use this format. Replace the file location with your client’s recommended project/workspace config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glider": {
      "command": "glider",
      "args": ["--default-timeout", "30m"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Copilot (mcp.json)

VS Code uses a different config format (see VS Code docs: code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/mcp-servers).

{
  "servers": {
    "glider": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "glider",
      "args": ["--default-timeout", "30m"]
    }
  }
}

HTTP Transport

If your client requires HTTP, start Glider in HTTP mode and point the client at http://localhost:5001/mcp. This example raises the async-tool timeout to 30 minutes; --default-timeout also accepts values like 45s or 0:

# Start Glider in HTTP mode
glider --transport http --default-timeout 30m

# Then configure your client to connect to:
# http://localhost:5001/mcp

HTTP Transport (common: mcpServers JSON)

For clients that accept a URL in mcpServers, use this shape after starting Glider in HTTP mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glider": {
      "url": "http://localhost:5001/mcp"
    }
  }
}

HTTP Transport (VS Code / Copilot)

For VS Code and GitHub Copilot Chat, use type: "http" and the same local endpoint.

{
  "servers": {
    "glider": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:5001/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

# Custom port and timeout for HTTP transport
glider --transport http --port 8080 --default-timeout 30m