Carbon MCP Server: Supercharge AI Development Tools

Hey everyone! Let's dive into a proposal for a Carbon Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server that's designed to seriously boost AI-powered development tools for the Carbon Design System. We're talking about making life easier for developers, streamlining workflows, and ensuring top-notch consistency. So, buckle up and let's get into it!

The Problem: Friction Points in Carbon Development

Carbon Design System developers often face several pain points that slow down the development process. These friction points not only increase development time but also introduce inconsistencies that can compromise the overall quality and adherence to Carbon design principles.

One of the most common issues is repetitive boilerplate when creating new components. Imagine having to manually set up Storybook stories, tests, and TypeScript interfaces every time you create a new component. This is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Another significant challenge is the manual conversion of existing components to Carbon patterns. This involves tedious find-and-replace operations that are both inefficient and frustrating. Maintaining consistency with Carbon design tokens is another hurdle. Without automated tools, developers must manually ensure that all components adhere to the latest design tokens, which can be a daunting task.

Furthermore, the lack of automated validation against Carbon guidelines and accessibility standards poses a major problem. Developers need a way to automatically check if their components comply with Carbon's best practices and accessibility requirements. The current manual process is not only time-consuming but also unreliable. The limited tooling integration for AI-assisted development tools like Cursor and Claude Dev further exacerbates these issues. These AI tools can't easily access Carbon documentation or patterns, which limits their effectiveness.

To illustrate, consider the frustration of creating a new Carbon component and having to manually set up Storybook stories, tests, and type definitions. Or the tedious process of migrating legacy code to Carbon patterns using manual find-and-replace. And what about the lack of an automated way to validate if a component follows Carbon's best practices? These are the kinds of problems that a Carbon MCP Server aims to solve.

The Solution: A Carbon MCP Server

The proposed solution is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server (carbon-mcp) that provides an API for Carbon development tooling. This server acts as a central hub, offering a suite of tools that streamline the development process, ensure consistency, and facilitate integration with AI-powered development tools. By providing a standardized API, the Carbon MCP Server enables developers to automate many of the tedious and error-prone tasks associated with Carbon development.

The core idea is to provide a set of tools accessible via a RESTful API. This API would allow developers to perform various tasks, such as generating components, transforming code, validating components, converting tokens, searching documentation, generating theme previews, and synchronizing Figma tokens. Each of these tools is designed to address specific pain points in the Carbon development workflow, making the entire process more efficient and less error-prone.

Core Features: 7 Essential Tools

This Carbon MCP server isn't just a concept; it's a powerhouse packed with features designed to make your life as a developer way easier. We're talking about seven core tools that address the most common pain points in Carbon development. Let's break them down:

1. Component Generation

Imagine automatically generating Carbon React components with all the necessary bells and whistles. That's what this tool does! It whips up:

• Component file (TSX) with TypeScript interfaces
• Storybook story (.stories.tsx)
• Jest tests (.test.tsx)
• Proper Carbon imports and patterns

No more tedious setup – just focus on the fun stuff!

2. Codemod Tools

Transforming existing code to Carbon patterns can be a real headache. But with these codemod tools, it's a breeze. You can:

• Replace old button implementations with Carbon Button
• Migrate custom components to Carbon equivalents
• Perform automated code transformation with dry-run preview

It's like having a magic wand for your codebase!

3. Validation

Ensuring your components meet Carbon standards is crucial. This tool validates components against:

• Carbon prop patterns
• Accessibility guidelines (WCAG)
• Design token usage
• TypeScript type safety

Say goodbye to manual checks and hello to automated compliance!

4. Token Conversion

Design tokens come in all shapes and sizes. This tool converts design tokens across formats:

• CSS variables (--cds-token-name)
• SCSS maps ($carbon-tokens)
• JavaScript/TypeScript exports

It's the ultimate token translator!

5. Documentation Search

Finding the right information in the Carbon documentation can be a challenge. This tool provides semantic search of Carbon documentation, including:

• Component API references
• Usage patterns
• Accessibility guidelines

Get the answers you need, right when you need them.

6. Theme Previews

Previewing your components in different Carbon themes is essential. This tool generates static HTML previews for all Carbon themes, allowing you to see how your components look in various contexts.

7. Figma Integration

Keeping your Figma designs in sync with your codebase is key. This tool provides scaffolding for Figma token synchronization, ensuring that your designs and code are always aligned.

Benefits: Why This Matters

The benefits of the Carbon MCP Server are substantial. By automating many of the tedious and error-prone tasks associated with Carbon development, this server can significantly improve developer productivity, reduce the risk of errors, and ensure consistency across projects. Let's break down the key advantages:

• Reduce component boilerplate by ~80%: Automating the generation of components, Storybook stories, tests, and type definitions can save developers a significant amount of time and effort.
• Automated validation ensures Carbon compliance: By automatically validating components against Carbon's prop patterns, accessibility guidelines, design token usage, and TypeScript type safety, the server helps ensure that all components adhere to Carbon's best practices.
• Seamless integration with AI development tools: The server's standardized API allows AI development tools to easily access Carbon documentation and patterns, enhancing their effectiveness.
• Lower barrier to entry for new Carbon users: By providing a set of tools that simplify the development process, the server makes it easier for new developers to get started with Carbon.

In short, the Carbon MCP Server is a game-changer for Carbon development. It streamlines workflows, reduces errors, ensures consistency, and facilitates integration with AI-powered development tools. By adopting this server, organizations can significantly improve the efficiency and quality of their Carbon-based projects.

Design Specs: RESTful API

The Carbon MCP Server exposes a RESTful API with JSON schemas. This means that tools are called via HTTP POST requests, making it easy to integrate with various development environments and tools. Here's a quick example of how to generate a component using the API:

# Example: Generate a component
POST /tool/generateComponent
{
  "component_name": "PrimaryCard",
  "dry_run": true
}

In this example, a POST request is sent to the /tool/generateComponent endpoint with a JSON payload that specifies the name of the component to generate (PrimaryCard) and whether to perform a dry run (true). The server then generates the component files and returns a response indicating the result of the operation.

This simple example illustrates the power and flexibility of the Carbon MCP Server's API. By providing a standardized and easy-to-use interface, the server enables developers to automate many of the tedious and error-prone tasks associated with Carbon development.

Examples and Similar Solutions

To give you a better idea of what we're aiming for, here are some similar solutions and concepts:

• Model Context Protocol - Protocol standard for AI tooling
• Other design system tooling (Material-UI codemods, Chakra UI CLI)
• AI-powered development tools (GitHub Copilot extensions, Cursor MCP servers)

Current Implementation: MVP Ready for Review

I'm excited to share that I have a working MVP ready for review! Here are the details:

• Repository: https://github.com/SandeepBaskaran/carbon-mcp
• Status: MVP complete with all 7 tools, tests, documentation
• License: MIT (matches Carbon)

Sample Usage

Here are a couple of examples of how to use the Carbon MCP Server:

# Generate a Carbon component
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/tool/generateComponent \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"component_name": "PrimaryCard", "dry_run": true}'

# Search Carbon docs
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/tool/searchDocs \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "button accessibility", "k": 3}'

Impact Assessment

• Design impact: No
• Documentation impact:
  • [x] The website documentation (carbondesignsystem.com)
  • [ ] Figma kit documentation
  • [ ] Storybook(s) documentation
  • [ ] I'm not sure
• Package: I'm not sure
• Application/PAL: No response
• Business priority: Low Priority = release date is not dependent on fix or not upcoming
• Available extra resources: No response
• Code of Conduct:
  • [x] I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

Let me know what you think, guys! I'm eager to hear your feedback and collaborate on making this a reality.