Squawk

Squawk is a macOS menubar app that discovers and monitors MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers across all major AI coding tools. It reads server configurations, deduplicates identical servers found in multiple hosts, and continuously polls their health -- giving you a single place to see what is running and what is not.

Features

• Auto-discovery -- Scans configuration files for 11 supported hosts, detects Claude Code plugins that expose MCP servers, and merges everything into a unified list, deduplicating servers that appear in more than one tool.
• Live health monitoring -- Polls every 10 seconds. Stdio servers are validated by resolving their command in PATH; HTTP servers receive a tools/list JSON-RPC request.
• Menubar status indicator -- Monochrome when all servers are healthy (quiet by design), yellow when any server is down or unavailable, red with a pulse animation when all servers are down.
• Server detail popover -- Click the menubar icon to see each server's status, transport type (stdio / HTTP), and which hosts reference it.
• Tool introspection -- Expand any server row to fetch and display its available MCP tools via the MCP Swift SDK.

Supported Hosts

Host	Config Root Key	Config Location
Claude Desktop	mcpServers	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Claude Code	mcpServers	~/.claude.json
Cursor	mcpServers	~/.cursor/mcp.json
Windsurf	mcpServers	~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
VS Code	servers	~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json
VS Code Insiders	servers	~/Library/Application Support/Code - Insiders/User/mcp.json
Cline	mcpServers	~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json
Roo Code	mcpServers	~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/rooveterinaryinc.roo-cline/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json
Zed	context_servers	~/.config/zed/settings.json
Amazon Q	mcpServers	~/.aws/amazonq/mcp.json
JetBrains IDEs	mcpServers	~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/*/mcp.json
Claude Code Plugins	mcpServers	~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json (via marketplace manifest)

How It Works

1. Config loading -- On launch, Squawk reads every known config path, parses the JSON, and extracts server entries from the appropriate root key (mcpServers, servers, or context_servers). Servers that share the same command+args or URL are merged and tagged with all hosts that reference them. File watchers detect config changes instantly without requiring a manual refresh.
2. Health polling -- A background task runs every 10 seconds. For each server it spawns a concurrent check:
   • stdio servers: resolves the command in PATH and, for Docker-based servers, verifies the daemon is running via docker info. Returns Configured if valid, an error otherwise.
   • HTTP servers: sends a POST with a tools/list JSON-RPC payload and treats any 2xx response as Healthy. Tools returned in that response are cached for display.
3. Tool loading -- After the first health check, Squawk eagerly fetches tools from every server in the background. HTTP tools come from the health check response. Stdio tools are fetched by spawning the server process and performing an MCP handshake via the MCP Swift SDK's StdioTransport. If the fetch fails, the server is marked Unavailable and retries stop until the user manually reloads.
4. Status display -- The menubar icon updates after each polling cycle and animates when a problem is detected. Clicking it opens a searchable tool browser grouped by server. Right-clicking a server reveals options to reload its tools or jump directly to its config file.

Tech Stack

• SwiftUI + AppKit -- NSStatusItem for the menubar icon, NSPopover for the detail view, SwiftUI for all UI content.
• MCP Swift SDK (github.com/modelcontextprotocol/swift-sdk) -- Used for stdio transport tool introspection via Client.connect and Client.listTools.
• @Observable -- Reactive state management for the server list and polling status.
• Structured concurrency -- TaskGroup for concurrent health checks, Task.sleep for the polling interval.

Project Structure

squawk/
  squawkApp.swift      App entry point; sets activation policy to .accessory (no dock icon)
  AppDelegate.swift    NSStatusItem setup, popover management, status icon updates
  MCPConfig.swift      Config source definitions, JSON parsing, server/transport models,
                       ClaudeCodePluginLoader, CustomSourceLoader
  MCPMonitor.swift     Health polling loop, MCP protocol communication, tool fetching
  PopoverView.swift    SwiftUI popover UI (server list, tool rows, empty state)
  AboutView.swift      About window
  SettingsView.swift   Settings window (launch at login, global shortcut info)

Getting Started

Build and install (no Xcode required)

git clone https://github.com/johnfernkas/squawk.git
cd squawk
make install

This builds a release .app and copies it to /Applications/Squawk.app. On first launch, macOS Gatekeeper will block the unsigned app — right-click → Open → Open to bypass it once.

Develop in Xcode

1. Clone the repository and open squawk.xcodeproj in Xcode 15 or later.
2. Add the MCP Swift SDK package dependency:
   • File > Add Package Dependencies
   • Enter https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/swift-sdk
3. Disable the App Sandbox:
   • Select the squawk target > Signing & Capabilities
   • Remove the App Sandbox capability (required for filesystem access and process spawning)
4. Build and run (Cmd+R). The Squawk icon will appear in your menubar.

Requirements

• macOS 14.0+
• Xcode 15+
• App Sandbox disabled (filesystem access and process spawning are required)
• MCP Swift SDK package dependency

Roadmap

• Config management -- Enable or disable individual servers directly from the Squawk popover.
• Historical health data -- Record uptime and status history over time for each server.
• Tool input schema -- Expand a tool to see its parameters and required arguments.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 John Fernkas

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.