zygi/rstudiomcp

rstudiomcp

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for RStudio - Bridge your RStudio session with Claude Code.

What is this?

This R package runs a local MCP server inside your RStudio session, allowing Claude Code to:

• Execute R code in your session
• Inspect objects and environments
• Read and edit open documents
• Source R scripts
• Capture plots from the Plots pane
• Access HTML content from the Viewer pane

Installation

RStudio MCP Extension

To install the RStudio MCP extension, run the following lines in your RStudio Console:

# Install from GitHub
install.packages("remotes")
library("remotes")
remotes::install_github("zygi/rstudiomcp")

Per-project Setup

Option 1: Auto-load

Use the RStudio Addin: "Enable Auto-load (per project)"

This adds library(rstudiomcp) to your project's .Rprofile configuration, so the server starts automatically when you open the project.

Restart your RStudio session after enabling auto-load. You should see the following output:

Starting MCP Server on http://localhost:16751
MCP Server started successfully!
Endpoint: http://localhost:16751
Transport: Streamable HTTP (JSON responses, no SSE)
Run stop_mcp_server() to stop the server
Added RStudio MCP server to C:/Users/zygi/Documents/test_proj/.mcp.json

Option 2: Manual start (For development/testing)

library(rstudiomcp)
start_mcp_server()

Usage with Claude Code

1. Start the MCP server in RStudio
2. Open Claude Code inside the project folder (from either the integrated RStudio terminal, or external terminal)

[!IMPORTANT] For easy setup, you should open Claude Code inside the same folder that RStudio uses as project home. (This might not be the same as the "active directory" you set in the RStudio filesystem pane.) If in doubt, look inside the RStudio console for the log message Added RStudio MCP server to <path>/.mcp.json - this means Claude Code will automatically connect if you start it inside <path>.

3. Claude Code should automatically detect the server and connect to it! You should verify that by typing /mcp and looking at the details.

You can now ask Claude Code to interact with your R session!

Concurrent sessions

Concurrent sessions - having two RStudio windows open, both with RStudio MCP servers running - currently aren't supported out of the box. A somewhat manual way to achieve this is to NOT activate auto-load, and instead load the servers manually in the sessions by providing different ports:

library(rstudiomcp)
start_mcp_server(port=12345)

in one session, and start_mcp_server(port=12346) in another. Then start two Claude Code sessions, in the corresponding RStudio project paths, and they should just connect!

Simple Troubleshooting

If you're having problems setting this up, paste the following into Claude:

Hi! I'm trying to set up RStudio-MCP to use with a Claude Code session but it's not working.
Could you please help me debug? The project readme is at https://github.com/zygi/rstudiomcp/blob/master/README.md
(but maybe fetch it as a raw file.)

Available Tools

Claude Code can use these tools:

Code Execution

• eval_r - Execute R code in the R session
• source_active_document - Run the currently active R script (like clicking Source button). Optional: specify start_line and end_line to source only specific lines

Environment Inspection

• list_environments - List available R environments
• list_objects - List objects in an environment
• get_object - Get detailed object information (type, class, structure, preview)
• get_console_history - View recent console commands

Document Editing

Note: All document editing tools work on the currently active document only. Use create_document to create new docs or open_document_file to open saved files.

• create_document - Create a new document with optional file path (becomes active automatically)
• open_document_file - Open or refocus a saved document file by path
• get_active_document - Read the active document (shows ID, path, and contents)
• insert_text - Insert text at cursor or specific location in the active document
• replace_text_range - Replace text with exact string matching in the active document

Visualization

• get_current_plot - Capture the current plot as an image
• get_latest_viewer_content - Get HTML content of the last rendered page in the Viewer pane

Configuration

Check Status

mcp_status()

Or use the RStudio Addin: "MCP Server Status"

Change Port

configure_mcp_server()

Default port is 16751.

Restart Server

restart_mcp_server()

Or use the RStudio Addin: "Restart MCP Server"

Disable Auto-start

disable_autoload()

Or use the RStudio Addin: "Disable Auto-load (per project)"

Technical Troubleshooting

"Address already in use"

The port is occupied. Restart the server:

restart_mcp_server()

If that prompts to kill a process, type yes to confirm.

Or change the port:

configure_mcp_server()

Server won't start after sleep/wake

The server may get orphaned. Use:

restart_mcp_server()

Development

See CLAUDE.md for developer notes and architecture details. Once the server is up, you can also use MCP Inspector for debugging:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector http://localhost:16751/

Technical Details

• The R package runs in RStudio's R session and starts up an HTTP MCP server on 127.0.0.1
• It also writes (or updates) a .mcp.json file in the project directory.
• Once you start Claude Code, it sees this file and attempts to connect to the MCP server.

Notes:

• To allow MCP to access what's on the Viewer panel, the server needs to wrap the viewer function. This is obviously hacky, I haven't seen it break anything yet but please report if you find it a real problem.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome! The author isn't an R expert so some stupid decisions may have been made. This is not an official RStudio product.