Using Haystack Docs in Your Coding Agent

Haystack publishes a public Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets coding agents search the official Haystack documentation. Pointing your agent at it means it answers questions from up-to-date docs instead of relying on training data, which can lag behind the framework.

The server exposes a single tool, search_haystack_docs, that returns relevant documentation sections with source URLs. No API key or sign-up is needed.

Server URL

https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/api/mcp

The server speaks HTTP transport. Most agents auto-detect this. If yours asks you to choose, pick http.

Setup

Claude Code

Add the server with the claude mcp CLI:

shell

claude mcp add --transport http haystack-docs https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/api/mcp

Restart your Claude Code session. Verify it's connected by running /mcp — you should see haystack-docs listed with the search_haystack_docs tool.

For more options (project vs. user scope, SSE transport, headers), see the Claude Code MCP docs.

Cursor

Open Cursor settings → Tools & MCPs → Add new MCP server, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per-project) directly:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "haystack-docs": {
      "url": "https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Save the file and reload Cursor. The tool appears in the Available Tools list inside the chat panel.

See the Cursor MCP docs for the full configuration reference.

GitHub Copilot

In VS Code, create or edit .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

json

{
  "servers": {
    "haystack-docs": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Open the Copilot Chat panel, switch to Agent mode, then click the tools icon and enable haystack-docs. You can also register the server globally from the command palette via MCP: Add Server.

See Add and manage MCP servers in VS Code for the full configuration reference.

Verifying it works

Ask your agent a question that requires current Haystack knowledge, for example:

What are the required methods on a Haystack custom component?

The agent should call search_haystack_docs and cite source URLs under docs.haystack.deepset.ai in its answer. If it answers without calling the tool, prompt it explicitly: "Use the haystack-docs MCP server to answer."