How do I install Prefab?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Prefab need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Prefab use?

Prefab runs locally over stdio.

When was Prefab last checked?

Last checked 2026-10-28. List, create and deploy your Prefab project templates from any MCP agent.

Prefab MCP server

Power your agent

Add this server

The publisher's own command. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Local command

npx -y [email protected]

Claude Code has no install link for a local command. Copy the command below and run it in a terminal.

shClaude Code

1claude mcp add io.prefabapp-prefab -- npx -y prefab-mcp@0.1.1

Run in a terminal.

jsonClaude Desktop

1{2  "mcpServers": {3    "io.prefabapp-prefab": {4      "command": "npx",5      "args": [6        "-y",7        "[email protected]"8      ]9    }10  }11}

claude_desktop_config.json

Local · npmPublisher installStep-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

Launch

Server facts

Local

Transport: stdio
Version: 0.1.1
Last checked

Tools

No tool list yet. Remote servers get one after the first health check.

FAQ

Questions

prefab-mcp

An MCP server for Prefab, so an agent can see your templates and deploy one for you.

"Set up a new client folder for Northwind, autumn campaign, on my Desktop"

What it exposes

Tool	Does
`list_templates`	Every template, what it creates, what it asks for
`describe_template`	One template in full: structure, placeholders, actions
`preview_deploy`	What a deploy would create, and what values are still missing. Creates nothing
`deploy_template`	Creates the folders, filling in the values given
`list_watched_folders`	Folders Prefab is watching, and the rules on them
`list_globals`	Library-wide placeholders, actions and value presets

Setting it up

Works with any client that speaks MCP over stdio.

As a bundle - download prefab.mcpb from the releases page and double-click it. Clients that install MCP bundles, Claude Desktop among them, bring their own Node, so there is nothing else to install.

From the command line (Claude Code, and anything with the same idea):

claude mcp add prefab -- npx -y prefab-mcp

In a config file - Cursor, Zed, and most others:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prefab": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "prefab-mcp"] }
  }
}

Then switch on Let agents and scripts control Prefab in Prefab's Settings ▸ Permissions. It is off by default; reading your templates works without it, creating and deploying does not.

That switch arrives in Prefab 1.1.6. On an earlier version the reading tools work and the rest say so.

Requires macOS, Prefab installed and opened once, and Node 18+ (except for the .mcpb route).

How it works

Prefab is sandboxed and has no network access, so it cannot host anything. This server runs beside it instead: it reads the library straight out of the app group (~/Library/Group Containers/group.VFDG327T66.prefab) and asks the app to deploy through the same prefab:// URL the Finder extension uses. Two consequences worth knowing:

Prefab has to be running for a deploy. Reading works either way.
The destination has to be a folder Prefab has been granted. macOS keeps a sandboxed app out of your folders until you point it at one. preview_deploy and deploy_template both check first and say so, rather than leaving a permission dialog on screen that an agent cannot answer. Grant folders in Prefab, under Settings ▸ Permissions.

Nothing here writes to Prefab's library. The app owns those files, and editing them behind its back would be overwritten the next time it saves.

Development

npm test    # checks placeholder resolution matches the app's Swift, case for case
npm run try '[["list_templates",{}]]'    # call a tool the way a client does

src/resolve.js is a deliberate duplicate of RenamePattern.swift. If you change one, change the other - npm test compiles the Swift and compares the two.

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Prefab?

Does Prefab need an API key?

What transport does Prefab use?

When was Prefab last checked?

Documentation

prefab-mcp

What it exposes

Setting it up

How it works

Development