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MCP Commander

by dpc00 ST4 New

MCP server for Sublime Text 4 — lets Claude Code read and control a running ST instance

Labels ai, mcp

Details

Installs

  • Total 0
  • Win 0
  • Mac 0
  • Linux 0
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Windows 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mac 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Linux 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Readme

Source
raw.​githubusercontent.​com

MCP Commander

Exposes Sublime Text to AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) via the Model Context Protocol. The MCP server is built directly into the ST plugin — no separate process or external dependency required.

63 tools covering reading, navigation, editing, searching, build, Terminus integration, settings, layout, menus, console log, and live Python scripting.

Architecture

The plugin runs two local servers on startup:

Server Default port Purpose
MCP SSE 9502 (Win) / 9503 (Mac/Linux) MCP 2024-11-05 SSE transport — connect your agent here
HTTP bridge 9500 (Win) / 9501 (Mac/Linux) Internal REST API used by the SSE dispatcher 
Claude Code (MCP client)
        │  MCP SSE  (port 9502)
        ▼
  sublime_mcp.py  ←  ST plugin — MCP server + HTTP bridge, all in one file
        │  sublime API
        ▼
  Sublime Text 4

Installation

1. Install via Package Control

  1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
  2. Run Package Control: Install Package
  3. Search for MCP Commander and install

The plugin loads automatically. Check View › Show Console for:

sublime-mcp: MCP SSE on 127.0.0.1:9502, HTTP bridge on 127.0.0.1:9500

Manual install: copy sublime_mcp.py (and optionally sublime_mcp_browse.py) into your Packages/User/ folder.

2. Register with Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json under "mcpServers":

Windows: “json "sublime-mcp”: { “type”: “sse”, “url”: “http://127.0.0.1:9502/sse” }

**Mac / Linux:**
```json
"sublime-mcp": { "type": "sse", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9503/sse" }

Restart Claude Code. Tools appear with the mcp__sublime-mcp__ prefix.

Server management

The MCP server starts automatically when ST loads the plugin. To stop or restart it, open the Command Palette and run:

MCP Commander: Server Status

The panel shows whether the server is running and on which port, and lets you start or stop it with a single keypress.

Tab and Sheet Indexing

IMPORTANT: Users refer to tabs by 1-based numbering (tab 1, tab 2, etc.), but get_sheets() returns 0-based indexes. Always convert user tab references before using: - User tab 1 = index 0 - User tab 2 = index 1

When targeting a specific tab, call get_sheets() first to verify the index.

Tools

Read / Introspect

Tool Description
get_active_file Path, full content, cursor line/col, dirty flag, and syntax name
get_selection Current selection(s): text and begin/end line+col for each
get_cursor_context lines lines above and below cursor, with 1-based line numbers prepended
get_open_files All files open in the current window (path, name, is_dirty)
get_sheets All sheets (tabs) in the window by index — includes images and untitled buffers
get_sheet_content Content of any tab by sheet index (from get_sheets)
get_project_folders Project root folder paths
get_file_content Full content of any already-open file by path
get_view_content Full content of any open tab by name (partial match, case-insensitive)
get_view_size Total character count of any open tab
get_view_chars Text at character offsets begin..end (0-based, end exclusive)
get_view_phantoms Phantom HTML and extracted plain text from a named view
get_output_panel Text content of a named output panel (name='exec' for build output)
get_active_panel Active panel id and, if it is an output panel, its content
get_symbols All symbols (functions, classes, etc.) in the active file with line numbers
lookup_symbol Find where a symbol is defined across all open files
get_project_data Raw .sublime-project JSON for the current project
get_variables ST build variables: $file, $project_path, $platform, etc.
get_command_palette Command Palette entries from installed *.sublime-commands resources
get_commands Runnable command ids from loaded command classes
get_menu_items Menu items from *.sublime-menu resources
get_syntaxes All syntax definitions available in ST (name + path)
get_scope_at_cursor Full syntax scope string at the cursor position
get_word_at_cursor Word under the cursor and its line/col
get_bookmarks All bookmarked positions in the active file
get_line_count Total number of lines in the active file
get_encoding Character encoding of the active file
get_setting A ST setting by key. scope='view' (default) or 'window'
get_layout Current window layout (groups, cells) and which files are in each group

Navigate

Tool Description
open_file Open a file, optionally jumping to a specific line and column
goto_line Move cursor to line (and optional column) in the active file
show_panel Bring an output panel to the front. Default name='exec' for the build panel
focus_group Move focus to a pane group by 0-based index

Edit

Tool Description
str_replace_based_edit_tool ST-native editor: str_replace, insert, create, view. Full undo, gutter diff, 30s highlight
replace_selection Replace the current selection(s) with text
replace_lines Replace lines begin..end (inclusive, 1-based) in the active file
insert_snippet Insert at the cursor using ST snippet syntax
duplicate_line Duplicate the current line(s)
toggle_comment Toggle line comment, or block comment if block=True
sort_lines Sort selected lines, or all lines if nothing is selected
select_lines Select lines begin..end (1-based, inclusive)
fold_lines Fold (collapse) lines begin..end in the active file
undo Undo the last edit
redo Redo the last undone edit
run_command Run any ST command with optional args

Search

Tool Description
find_in_file Find all occurrences of a pattern in the active file
find_in_files Search across project folders. Skips .git, __pycache__, node_modules, .venv

File / Project

Tool Description
save_file Save the active file (or a specific file by path)
save_all Save all open files
close_file Close a file by path, or the active file if path is omitted
revert_file Revert the active file to its last saved state
add_folder Add a folder to the current project
remove_folder Remove a folder from the current project by path

Syntax / Encoding

Tool Description
set_syntax Set the syntax of the active file by name (case-insensitive partial match)
set_encoding Set the character encoding of the active file

Settings / Window

Tool Description
set_setting Set a ST setting by key
toggle_sidebar Show or hide the sidebar
set_layout Set the window pane layout
set_status Write a message to ST's status bar

Build

Tool Description
run_build Trigger the current build system, or pass cmd/shell_cmd for a custom command

Terminus Integration

Terminus is a popular ST terminal package. send_to_view is Terminus-aware: when targeting a Terminus tab it uses terminus_send_string to type text into the terminal session.

Tool Description
send_to_view Send text to any open tab. For Terminus tabs, types as if the user typed it. Include \n to execute

Scripting

Tool Description
eval_python Execute arbitrary Python in ST's main thread. Returns captured stdout in output
eval_python_latest Execute Python in the system interpreter outside ST's sandbox
get_console_log Recent ST console output. tail=N limits to last N entries
get_console_full Entire captured ST console buffer since startup

Configuration

Ports

Server Windows Mac/Linux Env var override
MCP SSE 9502 9503 SUBLIME_MCP_MCP_PORT
HTTP bridge 9500 9501 SUBLIME_MCP_PORT

Telling Claude how to use the tools

Add a section like this to your project's CLAUDE.md (or ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md):

Error: language “markdown” is not supported
## Sublime Text MCP tools

MCP Commander is connected. Prefer it over standard file tools when working in ST:

- Read files with `get_active_file` or `get_file_content` rather than the Read tool
- Edit with `str_replace_based_edit_tool` — edits appear live with gutter diff and undo
- Use `find_in_files` for project-wide search
- Use `send_to_view` to run commands in a Terminus terminal tab
- Use `eval_python` for one-off ST scripting (no plugin file needed)
- Check `get_console_log` when a plugin isn't behaving as expected

Tab indexing: `get_sheets()` returns 0-based indexes; users refer to tabs
1-based. Always call `get_sheets()` first when targeting a specific tab.

Security note

Both servers bind to 127.0.0.1 only and accept any request without authentication. Do not expose these ports to a network interface.

Requirements

  • Sublime Text 4
  • Terminus package (optional — only required for send_to_view on terminal tabs)

Known limitations

  • No multi-window support — tools target the most recently focused ST window
  • No image editing — get_sheet_content returns the path for image tabs, not pixel data
  • No ST3 support — the plugin uses ST4 APIs throughout

Testing

The test suite requires Sublime Text to be running with sublime_mcp.py loaded.

cd /path/to/sublime-mcp
pip install httpx pytest
pytest tests/ -v

Contributing

Adding a tool: 1. Add a handler function in sublime_mcp.py (run via _on_main for ST API calls) 2. Add an entry to _MCP_TOOLS and the _GET / _POST routing dicts 3. Add a row to the Tools table in README.md

Good first issues: - Multi-window support (sublime.windows() instead of sublime.active_window()) - get_diagnostics — expose LSP error/warning annotations - set_bookmark / clear_bookmarks — write counterparts to get_bookmarks

Open an issue or PR on GitHub.