Context7: A Potential tool for Archon?
Hey crew,
This helpful little tool caught my attention yesterday, it delivers quality, targeted code snippets from documentation repositories, delivering them via MCP. It was created targeting use with Windsurf and Cursor but it sparked a thought as another tool for Archon.
A niche sidekick to Archon
Here is my thought process; as we evolve to storing multiple documentation sources with Archon we will probably find a few main sources that we use all the time and some more niche sources that are only used for a few projects. This might be a useful tool for those one off integrations.
Example: You want to build an agent that needs Apache airflow integration but don’t plan on using Airflow again. This could give Archon the code snippet needed to fully code the process and you don’t have to mess with crawling the docs.
What’s Context7’s Deal?
Context7 grabs up-to-date docs (think Next.js or Redis, and yes Pydantic AI is in there) and serves them via MCP. Cool bits:
- Web version: Free up to 50 queries/day, hosted by them. Might cost extra for more queries.
- *Local version *: (big caveat) Free, open-source MCP server you run yourself, no query limits.
- MCP: Designed for MCP use with “use context7” commands, spitting out snippets in text/JSON.
- Docs handled: Their API serves public docs, so no need to gather them unless you want custom stuff.
Two-ish Versions:
-
Web Version: Hosted by Context7, free for up to 50 queries/day, with likely costs for higher usage.
-
Local Version: As far as I can tell (it’s still pretty new to me), The local MCP server doesn’t automatically gather or host documentation—it acts as a bridge to Context7’s API (https://context7.com), which provides the documentation. This means the local server still relies on Context7’s hosted documentation database unless you modify it to point to your own data.
- Responsibility for Docs: If you use the local MCP server as-is, you’re not responsible for gathering docs—Context7’s API handles that, pulling from their indexed repositories (e.g., public docs for React, Next.js). However, if you want custom or private documentation, you’d need to:
* Submit a Pull Request to their repo with a JSON file detailing your project’s docs in supported formats
* Alternatively, modify the local server to index your own documentation, which would require significant custom development (e.g., building your own parsing and indexing pipeline) So… better off adding it as a new source in Archon
- Responsibility for Docs: If you use the local MCP server as-is, you’re not responsible for gathering docs—Context7’s API handles that, pulling from their indexed repositories (e.g., public docs for React, Next.js). However, if you want custom or private documentation, you’d need to:
Picture Archon nailing our Agent config while Context7 serves up the latest [insert whatever you’re getting into] snippets via MCP—sweet combo!
Thoughts…
Anyone tried Context7?
I know someone’s familiar with it because Archon is in the Context7 library.
Think an additional MCP resource could juice up Archon? Or is this thought the redundant department of redundancy?
Drop your thoughts
Best,
Mike