Root-caused two real issues Rune hit with Obsidian/Homepage external MCP
servers:
1. Toggling a server's enable switch silently wiped transportKind/env/
url/bearerToken/headers back to stdio defaults (only id/name/command/
args/isEnabled/timeout/createdAt were preserved) — almost certainly
how Obsidian's config got corrupted into an empty-command stdio entry
despite never being edited directly. Fixed via
ExternalMCPServer.withEnabledToggled(), which flips only isEnabled.
2. npx (installed via Homebrew) was invisible to Confab because GUI apps
only inherit launchd's minimal PATH, not the Terminal PATH. Tried
spawning the user's login shell to ask for its real PATH — this
caused two real hangs in one session (first an -ilc pipe deadlock,
then a waitUntilExit()/CFRunLoop reentrancy issue even after fixing
that) and was abandoned entirely in favor of LoginShellEnvironment:
deterministic, subprocess-free directory probing (Homebrew, MacPorts,
Volta, nvm's alias file) that can't hang by construction.
Also added:
- Edit capability for existing External MCP servers (previously only
Add/Toggle/Delete) — the second thing Rune explicitly asked for, and
the way to fix a corrupted entry like Obsidian's without deleting it.
- MCPClientError.commandNotFound: a stdio server's command is checked
against PATH up front in StdioMCPTransport.prepare() and fails
immediately with a clear reason instead of cycling through 3 rounds of
crash/restart backoff (5s/15s/30s) for a permanently-missing binary.
- A "Get Node.js" button appears when this happens, opening a sheet with
a copyable `brew install node`, a one-click install (via
NodeInstallHelper, using the terminationHandler/readabilityHandler
pattern already proven safe elsewhere in this file — deliberately not
waitUntilExit()), or a nodejs.org link if Homebrew isn't present.
- ExternalMCPManager.retryClient(id:) to manually retry after fixing the
underlying cause.
- Help book: new "Servers That Use npx" section, updated Server Status
section, updated Settings blurb.
37 new/changed tests covering the toggle fix, PATH probing, the
commandNotFound fast-fail path, and missing-command detection — full
suite (374 tests) passes clean.
External MCP Servers previously only spoke stdio (spawn a local
command + args). Adds:
- env vars for stdio servers (merged into the subprocess environment,
not embedded in the args string), with a masked key-value editor
- a native Streamable HTTP transport (URL + Bearer token + custom
headers), so HTTP-based MCP servers like Obsidian's Local REST API
plugin connect directly without needing npx/Node.js as a bridge
Introduces an MCPTransport abstraction (stdio/HTTP) so ExternalMCPClient
stays transport-agnostic — mirrors how Provider.swift already abstracts
AI backends in this codebase.
Also fixes a real crash found via live testing against Obsidian:
convertInputSchema force-unwrapped a tool parameter's `type`, which
isn't required by JSON Schema — Obsidian's plugin was the first real
server to send a parameter without one. Live-verified end to end
(vault search/read/write/edit) before this commit, per the project's
standing rule to hold external-service-dependent changes until they're
actually confirmed working, not just compiling and passing tests.
Switches the project from AGPL to a source-available license that
restricts commercial use — selling oAI or any part of it, standalone
or bundled into another product/service, now requires a separate
commercial license from the copyright holder. Noncommercial use,
study, modification, and sharing remain fully permitted.
Updates: LICENSE (canonical PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 text +
commercial licensing contact note), SPDX headers and file-header
boilerplate across all Swift source files, the in-app About dialog's
license link (+ its localization catalog entry), README.md and
DEVELOPMENT.md license sections.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lets the AI connect to any external stdio MCP server (e.g. safaridriver
--mcp) configured in Settings, with tools auto-discovered and prefixed
by server slug. Includes crash detection with backoff restart (5s/15s/30s)
and a Settings UI to add/enable/disable/remove servers.
Fixes the temp-dir allowlist in MCPService.isPathAllowed to also match
/tmp and /private/tmp (not just NSTemporaryDirectory(), which resolves
to a different per-user Darwin temp dir) so the MCP file tools can
actually read files external servers and image generation write there.
Also switches the Add Server sheet's argument parsing to a quote-aware
tokenizer so args containing spaces survive intact.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
rune
