Director
MCP Playbooks for AI agents
curl -LsSf https://director.run/install.sh | sh
---
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[](https://github.com/director-run/director/actions/workflows/release.yml)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@director.run/cli)
# Overview
Director allows you to provide **playbooks** to AI Agents. A playbook is a set of **MCP tools**, **prompts** and **configuration**, that give agents new **skills**. You can connect Claude, Cursor and VSCode in 1-click, or integrate manually through a single MCP endpoint.
Playbooks are portable and can easily be switched in and out of context. Director is local-first - setup and client integration takes 30 seconds. In addition, Director provides all of the MCP management functionality that you'd expect: tool filtering, logging, strong isolation, and unified OAuth.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cafc0902-a854-4ee8-ac89-b7535f10c93d
## Key Features
- 📚 **Playbooks** - Maintain sets of tools, prompts and config for different tasks or environments.
- 🚀 **1-Click Integration** - Switch playbooks with a single click. Currently supports Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VSCode
- 🔗 **Shareable** - Playbooks are accessible through a single MCP endpoint, making them easy to share across agents.
- 🏠 **Local-First** - Director is local-first, designed to easily run on your own machine or infrastructure.
- 🔑 **Unified OAuth** - Connect to OAuth MCPs centrally, and use them across all of your agents.
- 🎯 **Tool Filtering** - Select only the MCP tools that are required for the specific task, preserving context.
- 📊 **Observability** - Centralized JSON logging, that allows you to understand exactly what your agent is doing.
- 🔌 **MCP Compliant** - Just works with any MCP server or client. Up to date with the latest MCP spec.
# Quickstart
```bash
# Install Director
$ curl -LsSf https://director.run/install.sh | sh
# Start the onboarding flow
$ director quickstart
```
# Core Concepts
## Playbooks
A playbook is a set of tools, prompts and configuration, used to provide specific capabilities to your agent. Under the hood, playbooks are built on top of the MCP tools & prompts primitives.
The easiest way to author a playbook is via the UI (`director studio`). But you can also use the CLI. You can have many playbooks, typically one per task or per environment. You can connect to them via a single CLI command or directly over a URL.
## Architecture
At a high level, Director is a service that sits between your agents and MCP servers. It's transparent to clients, requiring no additional tokens. It models playbooks, which can be thought of as standalone, portable skills that enhance your AI agent with new capabilities.
# Usage
## Installation
```bash
# Install the director CLI + dependencies (node, npm & uvx) via the 1-liner:
$ curl -LsSf https://director.run/install.sh | sh
# Alternatively, install through npm:
$ npm install -g @director.run/cli
# Start director & open the UI
$ director quickstart
```
## The Studio (Web UI)
The simplest way to interact with director is via the admin interface:
```bash
# Open studio in your browser
$ director studio
```
## CLI Reference
```bash
Playbooks for your AI agent
USAGE
director [subcommand] [flags]
CORE COMMANDS
quickstart Start the gateway and open the studio in your browser
serve Start the web service
studio Open the UI in your browser
ls List playbooks
get [serverName] Show playbook details
auth Authenticate a server
create Create a new playbook
destroy Delete a playbook
connect [options] Connect a playbook to a MCP client
disconnect [options] Disconnect a playbook from an MCP client
add [options] Add a server to a playbook.
remove Remove a server from a playbook
update [serverName] [options] Update playbook attributes
http2stdio Proxy an HTTP connection (sse or streamable) to a stdio stream
env [options] Print environment variables
status Get the status of the director
REGISTRY
registry ls List all available servers in the registry
registry get Get detailed information about a registry item
registry readme Print the readme for a registry item
MCP
mcp list-tools List tools on a playbook
mcp get-tool Get the details of a tool
mcp call-tool [options] Call a tool on a playbook
PROMPTS
prompts ls List all prompts for a playbook
prompts add Add a new prompt to a playbook
prompts edit Edit an existing prompt
prompts remove Remove a prompt from a playbook
prompts get Show the details of a specific prompt
FLAGS
-V, --version output the version number
EXAMPLES
$ director create my-playbook # Create a new playbook
$ director add my-playbook --entry fetch # Add a server to a playbook
$ director connect my-playbook --target claude # Connect my-playbook to claude
```
### TypeScript SDK
Programmatic control for advanced use cases:
```typescript
import { Gateway, GatewayConfig } from "@director.run/sdk";
// Start the gateway
const gateway = await Gateway.start({
config: await GatewayConfig.createMemoryBasedConfig({
defaults: {
server: {
port: 3673,
},
},
}),
baseUrl: "http://localhost:3673",
});
// Add a new playbook
await gateway.playbookStore.create({
name: "test",
servers: [
{
name: "notion",
type: "http",
url: "https://mcp.notion.com/mcp",
},
],
});
```
# Repository Structure
### External Apps
- [`apps/gateway`](./apps/gateway/README.md) - Core gateway and playbook logic
- [`apps/cli`](./apps/cli/README.md) - The command-line interface, the primary way to interact with Director. Available on [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@director.run/cli).
- [`apps/sdk`](./apps/sdk/README.md) - The Typescript SDK, available on [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@director.run/sdk).
- [`apps/docker`](./apps/docker/README.md) - The Director docker image, which allows you to run Director (and all MCP servers) securely inside a container. Available on [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/barnaby/director).
- [`apps/docs`](./apps/docs/README.md) - Project documentation hosted at [https://docs.director.run](https://docs.director.run)
- [`apps/registry`](./apps/registry/README.md) - Backend for the registry hosted at [https://registry.director.run](https://registry.director.run)
- [`apps/studio`](./apps/studio/README.md) - Director frontend application
### Internal Packages
- [`packages/client-configurator`](./packages/client-configurator/README.md) - Library for managing MCP client configuration files
- [`packages/mcp`](./packages/mcp/README.md) - Extensions to MCP SDK that add middleware functionality
- [`packages/utilities`](./packages/utilities/README.md) - Shared utilities used across all packages and apps
- [`packages/design`](./packages/design/README.md) - Design system: reusable UI components, hooks, and styles for all Director apps
*This is a monorepo managed by [Turborepo](https://turbo.build/).*
# Community
If you're using director, have any ideas, or just want to chat about MCP, we'd love to chat:
- 💬 Join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/kWZGvWks)
- 📧 Send us an [Email](mailto:hello@director.run)
- 🐛 Report a [Bug](https://github.com/director-run/director/issues)
- 🐦 Follow us on [X / Twitter](https://x.com/barnabymalet)
# Contributing
We welcome contributions! See [CONTRIBUTING.mdx](./apps/docs/project/contributing.mdx) for guidelines.
## Setting up Development Environment
```bash
# Fork and clone
git clone https://github.com/director_run/director
cd director
./scripts/setup-development.sh
bun run test
```
# License
AGPL v3 - See [LICENSE](./LICENSE) for details.