AssistAI - Eclipse IDE as an MCP Server for AI Agents

AssistAI is an Eclipse IDE plugin that exposes your entire development environment as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. External AI agents — Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Claude Desktop, or any MCP-compatible client — can read, navigate, edit, build, test, run, and debug your Java projects directly through Eclipse, preserving workspace sync, local history, and incremental compilation.

AssistAI also includes a built-in LLM chat view for quick inline interactions with any supported model.

Why MCP through Eclipse?

When AI agents edit files through the filesystem directly, Eclipse doesn't know anything changed. Editors show stale content, incremental compilation misses updates, and local history gaps appear.

AssistAI solves this by routing all operations through Eclipse APIs:

• Edits go through JDT — incremental compilation fires immediately, errors update in real time
• Refactorings use Eclipse's refactoring engine — renames, moves, and package restructures update all references across the workspace
• File reads reflect the editor buffer — agents always see the latest unsaved content, not the on-disk version
• Local history is preserved — every change is tracked, undoable through Eclipse's local history
• Tests run inside Eclipse — JUnit results, console output, and compilation errors are accessible as tool responses

Getting Started with External Agents

1. Enable the HTTP MCP Server

1. Open Window > Preferences > Assist AI > HTTP MCP Server
2. Check Enable HTTP MCP Server
3. Set Hostname and Port (defaults: localhost:8124)
4. Click Generate to create an authentication token
5. Click Apply — the server starts immediately

The status panel shows all available endpoints:

• http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-ide — code analysis, navigation, search, testing, builds
• http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-coder — file editing, refactoring, patching, formatting
• http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-runner — launch, debug, breakpoints, stepping
• http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-context — resource cache, file local history, version tracking

2. Connect Your Agent

Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code MCP settings (.claude/settings.json or project-level):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eclipse-ide": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-ide",
        "--allow-http",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
      ]
    },
    "eclipse-coder": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-coder",
        "--allow-http",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
      ]
    },
    "eclipse-runner": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:8124/mcp/eclipse-runner",
        "--allow-http",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
      ]
    }
  }
}

On Windows with WSL, use "command": "wsl" and prepend "npx" to the args array.

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Use the same mcpServers format as above.

OpenAI Codex / Other MCP Clients

Any client that supports MCP over Streamable HTTP can connect directly to the endpoint URLs. Use the Authorization: Bearer <token> header for authentication.

3. What Agents Can Do

With the MCP tools, an external agent can:

• Read and navigate code — project layout, class outlines, method source, type hierarchies, call hierarchies, find references
• Edit code — create files, apply unified diffs, replace strings, delete lines, replace entire files
• Refactor — rename types/packages, move types, organize imports — all through Eclipse's refactoring engine
• Build and test — run Maven builds, execute JUnit tests (all, by package, class, or method), read compilation errors, get quick-fix suggestions
• Search — text search, regex search, file glob search, search-and-replace across the workspace
• Run and debug — launch Java applications, set breakpoints (including conditional), step through code, inspect stack traces, evaluate expressions, hot-swap code
• Access context — read JavaDoc, console output, editor selection, effective POM, project dependencies
• Browse and restore file history — list Local History versions, view old content, restore to any previous version, diff current vs. historical
• Inspect the resource cache — see what files/classes are loaded in the conversation context, read cached content without I/O

4. Guiding Agents with Eclipse Context

External agents don't know what you're looking at in Eclipse — unless they ask. AssistAI provides MCP tools that let agents pick up context from your IDE session, so you can guide their work by simply opening files, selecting code, or running programs:

Workflow tip: When asking an agent to fix something, open the relevant file in Eclipse first, select the problem area, and tell the agent to check your selection. This gives the agent precise context without you having to describe file paths or paste code.

Token-efficient navigation: Instead of reading entire files, agents can use getClassOutline to see the structure (~30 lines for a 500-line class), then getMethodSource to read only the methods they need, or getFilteredSource to see the full file with irrelevant methods collapsed to one-line signatures. The readProjectResource tool supports excludeImports to further reduce token usage.

Resource cache: Files and classes read through Eclipse MCP tools are automatically cached with version tracking and file modification timestamps (tied to Eclipse's Local History). Agents can call listCachedResources to see what's already loaded, or getCachedResource to re-read cached content instantly — no disk I/O, no re-parsing.

Local History: Eclipse automatically maintains a Local History for every file modified through the IDE. Agents can browse past versions (getFileHistory), read historical content (getFileHistoryContent), compare with the current version (compareWithHistory), or restore to any previous state (restoreFileVersion). This is more powerful than a simple undo — it preserves every edit across the entire session, including changes made by the agent itself.

MCP Tool Reference

eclipse-coder — Code Editing

eclipse-ide — Code Analysis, Navigation & Build

eclipse-runner — Launch, Debug & Breakpoints

eclipse-context — Resource Cache & Local History

Utility Servers

Configuration

Per-Server Tool Filtering

Each MCP server can have individual tools enabled or disabled to reduce token overhead or exclude irrelevant tools.

1. Navigate to Window > Preferences > Assist AI > MCP Servers
2. Select a server (works for both built-in and user-defined)
3. In the Tools section, uncheck tools you want to exclude

Changes take effect immediately — both the internal MCP client and the HTTP server restart automatically. Excluded tools won't appear in tools/list responses.

Adding External MCP Servers

AssistAI is also an MCP client — you can connect external MCP servers (stdio-based) and use their tools through any of the supported LLMs.

1. Open Window > Preferences > Assist AI > MCP Servers and click Add
2. Configure the server:

   Name: server-filesystem
   Command: npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ${workspace_loc}
   

3. Define environment variables if needed (e.g., API keys)

The ${workspace_loc} variable resolves to the workspace folder. Other Eclipse variables are available (${project_loc}, etc.).

Security: MCP servers grant LLMs access to read and modify data. Use them cautiously.

HTTP MCP Server Security

• Local network only by default — only expose externally if necessary
• Authentication token — always use one when exposing beyond localhost
• Firewall rules — allow connections only from trusted sources
• HTTPS — consider a reverse proxy with TLS for production use
• Access control — connected agents have access to all tools on enabled endpoints

Built-in Chat View

AssistAI includes a built-in LLM chat panel for direct interaction without external agents. Open it via Window > Show View > Other > Code Assist AI > AssistAI Chat.

Features:

• Refactor, document, or generate tests for selected code via context menu
• Fix compilation errors with LLM guidance
• Discuss code with full file context
• Generate git commit messages from staged changes
• Drag-and-drop images for vision model discussions
• LaTeX and table rendering in responses
• In-text code completion with Alt+/
• Smart resource caching — LLM always sees the latest version of attached files
• Customizable pre-defined prompts
• Switch between models on the fly

Supported Models

Configure models in Window > Preferences > Assist AI > Models.

Screenshots

1. claude-code controlling the Eclipse IDE via MCP

   

2. Agentic coding with Eclipse MCP tools

   

3. Discussing code in the built-in chat

   

4. Refactoring selected code

   

5. Generating documentation

   

6. Generating JUnit tests

   

7. Git commit message generation

   

8. Fixing compilation errors with patches

   

9. Tool calls for context-aware answers

   

10. Vision model — discuss images

11. LaTeX and table rendering

    

12. Configuring MCP servers

    

Installation

Eclipse Marketplace

Drag the button below into your running Eclipse workspace:

Update Site

1. In Eclipse, open Help > Install New Software
2. Click Add, enter AssistAI as Name and https://gradusnikov.github.io/eclipse-chatgpt-plugin/ as Location
3. Select "Assist AI" from the plugin list and proceed through the wizard
4. Accept certificate warnings (self-signed plugin)

Initial Setup

1. Open Window > Preferences > Assist AI
2. Configure your models in Preferences > Assist AI > Models
3. To use with external agents, enable the HTTP MCP Server (see above)