Google Developer Knowledge MCP Server

The Google Developer Knowledge MCP server is a remote, Google-hosted server that exposes the Developer Knowledge API to AI applications via the Model Context Protocol. It gives coding agents grounded access to Google's official developer documentation across products like Firebase, Google Cloud, Android, Chrome, and Google Maps Platform, helping LLMs answer implementation, debugging, and migration questions with up-to-date source material instead of stale pretraining data.

The server exposes three tools. search_documents returns snippet-sized chunks optimized for retrieval-augmented generation, get_documents fetches the full page surrounding a snippet via its parent reference, and answer_query (Preview) produces a synthesized natural-language answer grounded in the corpus. Because the server is hosted at https://developerknowledge.googleapis.com/mcp, there is nothing to install locally, clients just connect over HTTP with either an API key header or Application Default Credentials.

It is officially supported in Gemini CLI, Gemini Code Assist, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and Antigravity. The corpus is limited to public Google developer documentation and returns English results only.

Tools

Prerequisites

• A Google Cloud project with the Developer Knowledge API enabled
• Either an API key (restricted to the Developer Knowledge API) or Application Default Credentials (gcloud auth application-default login, scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform)

Claude Code

claude mcp add google-dev-knowledge \
  --transport http https://developerknowledge.googleapis.com/mcp \
  --header "X-Goog-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Gemini CLI

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-developer-knowledge": {
      "httpUrl": "https://developerknowledge.googleapis.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-Goog-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot

{
  "servers": {
    "google-developer-knowledge": {
      "url": "https://developerknowledge.googleapis.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-Goog-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Edit .cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) using the same httpUrl + X-Goog-Api-Key header pattern as Gemini CLI.

Windsurf

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json with the server URL and X-Goog-Api-Key header.

Notes

• For OAuth instead of API key, authenticate with gcloud auth application-default login and omit the X-Goog-Api-Key header.
• Quota for your API key is visible in the Google Cloud Console under APIs & Services.

• Ground a coding agent in current Firebase or Google Cloud docs before generating SDK calls, IAM policies, or Terraform configs
• Look up Android API behavior and migration notes (for example Jetpack Compose, Kotlin coroutines, target SDK upgrades) while writing or refactoring app code
• Resolve runtime errors from Google Cloud services by searching for the exact error message and pulling the relevant troubleshooting page
• Generate working Google Maps Platform integrations (Places, Routes, JS API) with code that matches the latest documented parameters
• Produce summaries or comparisons of Google product features (for example Cloud Run vs Cloud Functions, Firestore vs Spanner) backed by official docs

• "Search Google Cloud docs for how to grant a service account permission to invoke a private Cloud Run service, then write the gcloud command."
• "Find the Firebase Authentication docs on linking an anonymous user to a Google sign-in credential and show me a code sample."
• "Look up the current Android docs on Foreground Service types required for Android 14 and explain which one applies to a music player."
• "Use answer_query to explain the difference between Firestore in Native mode and Datastore mode."
• "Get the full Maps JavaScript API page on the Advanced Markers migration so I can update my legacy Marker code."

• Officially hosted and maintained by Google, so the corpus tracks the live documentation
• No install step, just an HTTPS URL plus an API key or ADC
• Three-tool design (search, get, answer) cleanly supports both RAG-style chunked retrieval and direct Q&A
• Works out of the box with Gemini CLI, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and Antigravity

• Requires a Google Cloud project with the Developer Knowledge API enabled, which is extra setup for users who do not already use GCP
• English-only results and limited to publicly visible Google developer documentation
• The answer_query tool is in Preview and has limited quota; heavy use can return 429 errors

• Context7 MCP for general up-to-date library and framework documentation across many ecosystems
• Ref MCP which indexes a broad set of developer docs including Google products
• The official Google Cloud MCP and Firebase MCP servers for product-specific actions beyond documentation lookup