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DevAll

Claude Code Integration

Control your entire development environment from Claude Code using DevAll’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. This integration lets you manage services, check logs, and control your dev dashboard through natural language commands.

What is Claude Code?

Section titled “What is Claude Code?”

Claude Code is Anthropic’s official CLI tool that brings Claude AI directly into your development workflow. With DevAll’s MCP integration, Claude Code can:

  • Start and stop development services
  • Monitor service status and logs
  • Restart crashed processes
  • View and modify configuration
  • Check system resources

Two Ways to Integrate

Section titled “Two Ways to Integrate”

There are two approaches to integrate DevAll with Claude Code:

Section titled “1. Simple Approach: CLAUDE.md File (Recommended for Quick Start)”

Best for: Quick setup, simple projects, testing DevAll

Add DevAll CLI instructions to your project’s CLAUDE.md file. Claude Code will read these instructions and can execute DevAll commands directly.

Pros:

  • No configuration needed
  • Works immediately
  • Easy to debug (visible CLI commands)
  • Version controlled with your project

Cons:

  • Less natural language interaction
  • Claude executes CLI commands rather than calling functions
  • No rich tool descriptions in Claude Code

See the AI Agents Integration guide for the copyable CLAUDE.md instructions block.

2. Advanced Approach: MCP Integration (This Guide)

Section titled “2. Advanced Approach: MCP Integration (This Guide)”

Best for: Deep integration, rich natural language control, production use

Setup DevAll’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for direct function calling from Claude Code.

Pros:

  • Natural language control (“start the frontend” vs “run npx devall start frontend”)
  • Rich tool integration with descriptions
  • Function calling instead of CLI execution
  • Better error handling

Cons:

  • Requires initial setup and configuration
  • Need to rebuild after updates
  • Depends on MCP server running

This guide covers the MCP approach. For the simpler CLAUDE.md approach, see the AI Agents Integration guide.

MCP Setup for Claude Code

Section titled “MCP Setup for Claude Code”

For detailed setup instructions including manual configuration, config file locations, and troubleshooting, see the MCP Integration guide.

Quick Setup

Section titled “Quick Setup”

The fastest way to get started:

Terminal window
# 1. Setup MCP server
npx devall mcp setup


# 2. Start DevAll dashboard
npx devall


# 3. Start using Claude Code with DevAll!

That’s it! Claude Code will now have access to DevAll’s service management tools.

Verify Installation

Section titled “Verify Installation”

Test that Claude Code can access DevAll:

@claude what DevAll services are configured?

If you see service information, you’re all set! If not, check the MCP Integration troubleshooting section.

Usage Examples

Section titled “Usage Examples”

Starting Services

Section titled “Starting Services”

Start individual or multiple services:

@claude start the frontend service
@claude launch the API and database services
@claude start all autostart services

Checking Status

Section titled “Checking Status”

View service status and health:

@claude what services are running?
@claude is the backend service up?
@claude show me all service statuses
@claude what's the status of the frontend?

Viewing Logs

Section titled “Viewing Logs”

Check service logs for debugging:

@claude show me the last 100 lines of frontend logs
@claude what errors are in the backend logs?
@claude get logs for the API service
@claude show me recent log output

Stopping Services

Section titled “Stopping Services”

Stop services gracefully:

@claude stop the backend service
@claude shut down all services
@claude stop the API

Restarting Services

Section titled “Restarting Services”

Restart services after changes:

@claude restart the frontend
@claude restart all services
@claude restart the API gateway

Configuration Management

Section titled “Configuration Management”

View and understand configuration:

@claude what services are configured?
@claude show me the current config
@claude what ports are services using?

Workflows

Section titled “Workflows”

Starting Your Day

Section titled “Starting Your Day”
You: @claude I'm working on the user authentication feature today. Start the frontend, API, and auth services.


Claude: I'll start those services for you...
[Starts frontend, api, auth services]
All services are now running. Frontend on port 3000, API on 8080, Auth on 8081.

Debugging Issues

Section titled “Debugging Issues”
You: @claude The API is throwing errors. Show me the logs.


Claude: Let me check the API logs...
[Retrieves last 100 lines]
I see several 500 errors related to database connections. The error shows:
"Connection timeout to database on port 5432"


Would you like me to check if the database service is running?

Making Changes

Section titled “Making Changes”
You: @claude I updated the environment variables. Restart the backend services.


Claude: I'll restart the backend services for you...
[Stops and restarts backend, api, database services]
All backend services have been restarted and are now running with the new configuration.

Checking Everything

Section titled “Checking Everything”
You: @claude give me a status report of all services


Claude: Here's the current status:
✓ Frontend: Running on port 3000 (uptime: 2h 15m)
✓ API: Running on port 8080 (uptime: 2h 15m)
✓ Database: Running on port 5432 (uptime: 2h 20m)
✗ Auth Service: Stopped


The auth service appears to be stopped. Would you like me to start it?

Available Tools

Section titled “Available Tools”

Claude Code has access to all DevAll MCP tools for managing services:

  • list_services - List all services and their status
  • get_service_status - Get detailed status for a service
  • start_service - Start a stopped service
  • stop_service - Stop a running service
  • restart_service - Restart a service
  • get_service_logs - Retrieve service logs
  • clear_service_logs - Clear service logs
  • get_config - Get DevAll configuration

For complete tool documentation including parameters, return values, and examples, see the MCP Integration guide.

Tips and Best Practices

Section titled “Tips and Best Practices”

Be Specific

Section titled “Be Specific”

Claude Code works best with clear, specific requests:

✅ “Start the frontend service” ✅ “Show me the last 50 lines of API logs”

❌ “Start stuff” ❌ “Check things”

Use Service Names

Section titled “Use Service Names”

Reference services by their configured names:

@claude start the api-gateway
@claude restart frontend-dev

Combine Commands

Section titled “Combine Commands”

You can ask Claude Code to do multiple things:

@claude Stop the old API instance, then start the new one and show me its logs

Context Awareness

Section titled “Context Awareness”

Claude Code remembers context in a conversation:

You: @claude what services are running?
Claude: Frontend (port 3000), API (port 8080)


You: @claude restart the API
Claude: [Restarts the API service on port 8080]

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Quick Fixes

Section titled “Quick Fixes”

MCP tools not available:

  1. Verify DevAll is running: npx devall
  2. Check MCP setup: npx devall mcp setup
  3. Restart Claude Code session

Commands failing:

  1. Test DevAll API: curl http://localhost:7777/api/health
  2. Check services exist: npx devall list
  3. Verify service names match configuration

For detailed troubleshooting including config file locations, rebuild instructions, and port conflicts, see the MCP Integration troubleshooting guide.

Advanced Workflows

Section titled “Advanced Workflows”

Multi-Step Workflows

Section titled “Multi-Step Workflows”

Chain multiple DevAll operations together:

@claude Stop all services, then start only the frontend and API
@claude Check if the backend is running. If not, start it and show me the startup logs
@claude Restart all crashed services and show me their status

Combining with Code Changes

Section titled “Combining with Code Changes”

Use DevAll alongside code editing:

You: @claude I've updated the API authentication. Restart the backend and check the logs for errors


Claude: I'll restart the backend and monitor the logs...
[Restarts backend service]
[Checks logs for errors]
The backend restarted successfully. I see these log lines about the new auth:
- "Loading JWT authentication middleware"
- "Auth routes registered"
No errors detected. The service is running on port 8080.

Integration with Other MCP Servers

Section titled “Integration with Other MCP Servers”

Combine DevAll with other MCP tools for powerful workflows. See the MCP Integration guide for examples of combining DevAll with filesystem, git, and other MCP servers.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”