DevUtils MCP Server is an open-source developer utility server hosted on GitHub (paladini/devutils-mcp-server), primarily aimed at the Docker MCP Catalog, and it provides 36 everyday development tools for any MCP-compatible AI assistant. Its core goal is to bring together the scattered tools developers use every day so that AI assistants can call them directly in multi-step workflows, instead of having the model "guess" or generate hashes and encoding results on its own.
Purpose: Developers often need to hash strings, encode or decode data, generate UUIDs, decode JWTs, format JSON, calculate CIDR subnets, and convert timestamps. DevUtils MCP Server wraps these operations as MCP tools so they can be called directly by Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible clients. It is officially compared to a "busybox for the developer tools space"—small, essential, and always useful.
Main capabilities: The project provides 36 tools across 8 categories, covering: hashing, encoding, UUID generation, JWT decoding, JSON formatting, network tools, text utilities, and more. All tools run locally, with zero external API dependencies and no network calls. The tech stack is TypeScript + Node.js 22, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk, bcryptjs, nanoid, zod. Tool naming follows a consistent <domain>_<operation> convention, with strict schemas and human-readable output; for example, jwt_decode always returns readable dates with timezone support.
How to use: The prerequisite is Node.js 18+ (Node 22 recommended), which can be verified with node -v. Installation methods include:
- One-click/plugin: use the Add to Cursor / VS Code badges in the README, or install the devutils-cursor-plugin; in Cursor, it can be added in Settings → Customize, or installed from GitHub paladini/devutils-cursor-plugin.
- npx (no installation required).
- Official MCP Registry: registered under the name io.github.paladini/devutils-mcp-server, and can be found by searching io.github.paladini/devutils.
- GitHub Packages: releases are published to both npm and GitHub Packages, with the package name @paladini/devutils-mcp-server; most installations recommend using the public npm package, and GitHub Packages can be used if you are already authenticated to npm.pkg.github.com.
- Smithery.
- Cursor manual method: add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
- Claude manual method: on macOS, add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json; on Windows, add to %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json; the Docker method can also be used.
- VS Code (GitHub Copilot): use the badge for one-click addition, or add to .vscode/mcp.json / user settings.
- Windsurf: add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.
- Docker MCP Toolkit (Docker Desktop): if this server is available in the Docker MCP Catalog, open Docker Desktop → MCP Toolkit and search for DevUtils.
- Local development: you can fork the repository, create a feature branch, commit and push, and open a Pull Request.
Use cases: The officially stated conditions for use include: you use Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible AI assistant; you want reliable and validated utility operations in AI workflows; you want 36 tools in one package.
Limitations and not-recommended scenarios: The official documentation clearly states that DevUtils is not recommended in the following cases: you are writing a regular applicationCode (should use native libraries); you need extreme performance (calling the library directly is faster); your AI client does not support MCP.
Design philosophy:
- Small and focused: 36 tools, zero external APIs, container about 50MB.
- Security first: non-root user, Alpine Linux, minimal attack surface; the Docker image uses a multi-stage build (the build stage compiles TypeScript on Node 22 Alpine, and the runtime stage runs the compiled JS as a non-root user on Node 22 Alpine).
- AI-friendly: unified naming (<domain>_<operation>), strict schemas, human-readable output.
- Client-agnostic: via stdio transport, it works with any MCP-compatible client.
Other information: The license is MIT © Fernando Paladini. For security issues, see SECURITY.md; for questions and ideas, go to GitHub Discussions; for the changelog, see CHANGELOG.md. The official text does not provide business information such as pricing or fees.
