Use Glider with Pi coding agent

Pi Setup

Configure Glider with Pi coding agent.

Pi

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

dotnet tool install --global glider

Pi starts stdio MCP servers through the configured command. Make sure glider is available on PATH.

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

Pi uses the pi-mcp-adapter extension for MCP. Pi packages execute code, so review package source and trust before installing.

pi install npm:pi-mcp-adapter

Create .mcp.json in your project. Pi reads this shared project config automatically and keeps servers lazy by default, so Glider starts when the agent actually uses it. Pi MCP adapter docs: pi.dev/packages/pi-mcp-adapter.

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

Use ~/.config/mcp/mcp.json for user-global shared MCP servers. Use .pi/mcp.json or ~/.pi/agent/mcp.json when you want Pi-specific project or user overrides.

If you prefer Streamable HTTP, start Glider yourself and configure Pi with http://localhost:5001/mcp. The adapter keeps servers lazy by default for either transport.

glider --transport http --default-timeout 30m

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

Pi keeps MCP tools behind one proxy tool by default to save context. If you want selected Glider tools exposed directly, add directTools with the original MCP tool names.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glider": {
      "command": "glider",
      "args": ["--default-timeout", "30m"],
      "directTools": [
        "load",
        "find_code",
        "get_diagnostics",
        "find_references",
        "analyze_change_impact"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Pi after installing the adapter, open the MCP panel, and search for Glider tools.

pi
# Run: /mcp
# Ask: "Search MCP tools for glider diagnostics references."

Add --solution <path> to the launch arguments in the configuration above so Glider loads your solution or project (a .sln, .slnx, or .csproj file) at startup, instead of waiting for the agent to call load. With it set, server_status shows the workspace as loaded — or, on a large workspace, still loading in the background under workspaceLoading — from the first message, so the agent can wait for that load to finish instead of stopping with a "No solution loaded. Use load first." message and reaching for text search. Put the flag after -- for claude mcp add, add it to the args array in JSON and Codex TOML configs, or to the single command array for OpenCode. Prefer an absolute path — it is machine-specific, so keep it in local or user scope — or a relative path (resolved against the launch directory) when the config is shared in a project.

glider --solution C:/repos/app/src/App.sln --default-timeout 30m
# Add --workspace C:/repos/app to watch a different root, or --no-watch to disable file watching.

After connecting Glider, add this product-specific instruction to your MCP client system prompt or project instructions so the agent chooses the right tool surface first.

When working in C#/.NET workspaces, prefer glider mcp semantic tools for symbol identity, code relationships, diagnostics, dependencies, impact analysis, and preview-first refactors. Use Scout for repository retrieval and raw text questions. Use the .NET CLI for build and test commands. Preload the solution with --solution, or call load before semantic queries.