`mcpctl config claude --project X` writes user scope and never rewrites a
checkout's `.mcp.json`. The status line, however, preferred that file
unconditionally — so a legacy project-named entry an older mcpctl left behind
(`homeautomation` -> `mcpctl mcp -p homeautomation`) kept naming the old project
for good, and every switch looked like it had done nothing.
Reproduced live: with user scope on `sre`, `mcpctl statusline --directory
~/developer/michalzxc/claude/debug` printed `mcpctl:homeautomation` — a project
Claude Code also had in `disabledMcpServers` for that directory, so the line
named a server that was not even mounted.
Rank the sources by how deliberate each one is instead: a canonical `mcpctl`
pin, then user scope, then legacy residue, then the marker. A pin is a decision
and still wins; residue is not and no longer does. At every step, skip a server
Claude Code has switched off for that directory.
`config claude` now also warns when the working directory's `.mcp.json`
contradicts the switch, naming the file — the two scopes are merged rather than
chosen between, so nothing else would tell you.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019wUmrfkVQR6CKcYKxENq7k
`config claude` named the `.mcp.json` entry after the project, and the file is
merged rather than rewritten — so configuring a second project left the first
one mounted alongside it. Every project you had ever configured stayed
connected, with duplicate tool names and nothing saying which was active.
The entry is now always `mcpctl`, and switching rewrites what sits behind that
name. Claude Code can reconnect an existing MCP server from inside a session, so
a switch lands without restarting the app, and the tool prefix stays stable
across switches. Entries an older CLI wrote are retired on the next run —
recognised by the pairing that makes retiring them safe: our command, named
after the very project it bridges to. A hand-configured server is never touched.
The shaping lives in config/claude-mcp.ts as pure functions so the merge,
migration and active-project detection are unit-tested rather than inferred from
a command's side effects.
Also brings two parity gaps in line with `config opencode` / `config prime-agent`:
--dry-run, and --skip-marker for when the caller must not re-scope the directory
it runs in.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BVwuCjuMoA13gmzYEfcrNP
