powerdragonfire/platformio.mcp

Give your AI coding agent hands on real hardware.
An MCP server for PlatformIO : build, flash (serial or OTA), watch serial, run tests, decode crashes and core dumps, check partition tables, watch heap and power, debug over GDB, shrink firmware.
Python native · no Node · one line to install · works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Cline
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⚡ 60-second install
You need uv (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh). Then:
No PlatformIO on this machine? Add --with-platformio and the server brings PlatformIO Core along. Optional extras: platformio.mcp[coredump] adds the ESP32 core-dump analyzer, platformio.mcp[power] adds the Nordic PPK2 driver.
Any other MCP client (Cline, Zed, Continue, ...)
Use "args": ["platformio.mcp[platformio]"] to bundle PlatformIO Core.
As a plugin (Claude Code, Cursor: server + a skill that teaches the loop)
The repo follows the Open Plugins layout: .mcp.json, skills/platformio/SKILL.md, rules/platformio.mdc, plugin.json.
Already have PlatformIO?
The server finds platformio / pio on your PATH or in ~/.platformio/penv. Override with PLATFORMIO_MCP_PIO=/path/to/pio. Run uvx platformio.mcp doctor to see what the agent will see.
🎬 What it looks like
> **You:** flash the view env and make sure it boots.
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> **Agent** → pio_flash_and_verify(env="view", expect="setup done")
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> **Agent:** null pointer on line 22 of display_task.cpp, tft_ is used before begin(). Fixing, rebuilding, flashing again.
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No 40 KB build logs in the context window. No human reading the serial monitor. The agent gets a verdict, a file and a line.
🔁 The loop the agent runs
🧰 The 40 tools
Group Tools What the agent gets back
🔍 Discover
pio_system_info · pio_list_boards · pio_board_info · pio_list_devices
PlatformIO version and policy; ~1,700 boards with MCU, clock, RAM and flash sizes; serial ports with the likely dev boards flagged
📁 Project
pio_project_init · pio_project_envs · pio_project_metadata
A real pio project init (never a hand-written ini); every env with board, framework, monitor and upload settings; defines and include paths
🔨 Build & flash
pio_build · pio_upload · pio_upload_ota · pio_clean · pio_list_targets · pio_run_target
Status, parsed errors and warnings (file, line, column), RAM/Flash %, last 40 lines, full log path. Extra targets like buildfs , erase . OTA over Wi-Fi to ArduinoOTA boards. Port failures come back classified (busy, permission, missing, no response) with the fix
📟 Serial
pio_monitor_start / read / write / stop / list · pio_monitor_capture · pio_port_diagnose
Background sessions with a ring buffer, cursor reads, and wait_for regex; or a one-shot capture with nothing to manage. Port diagnosis: who holds it (our session, another process), permissions, the fix
✅ Verify
pio_test · pio_check
Unity tests with per-case pass/fail and messages; cppcheck / clang-tidy defects by severity with CWE ids
📦 Packages
pio_pkg_search / install / uninstall / list / outdated / update · pio_deps_check
Registry search and dependency changes that keep platformio.ini in sync; an audit for name collisions, unpinned specs, leftovers, and circular dependencies
🧠 Analyse
pio_flash_and_verify · pio_decode_backtrace · pio_size_report
Hardware-in-the-loop pass/fail; crash dumps resolved to file:line; where every byte of flash and RAM goes
💾 Flash layout
pio_partition_table · pio_coredump
ESP32 partition CSV checks (alignment, overlap, fit, OTA slots) and a diff against the table actually on the chip; core dump pulled from flash and decoded
📈 Runtime
pio_memory_watch · pio_power_profile
Heap and stack telemetry parsed from serial with a leak verdict and per-task headroom; current draw from a serial meter or a Nordic PPK2 with sleep/active split and battery estimate