This section describes how to integrate the dotTEST's MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with AI coding agents, such as GitHub Copilot and Codex CLI.

The MCP server exposes dotTEST's capabilities — including static analysis rule documentation, violation reporting, and dotTEST's feature documentation — directly to AI assistants, enabling context-aware code assistance driven by dotTEST analysis results.

The MCP server is located at <INSTALL_DIR>/integration/mcp/.

Prerequisites:

• dotTEST

   is installed.
• Java is available (the launcher uses  

  dotTEST

  's bundled JRE automatically).

Running the MCP Server Launcher

Run the MCP launcher script: <INSTALL_DIR>/integration/mcp/dottestmcp.batWhen launched, the MCP server starts a local process that communicates over stdio using the Model Context Protocol. The coding agent connects to it and gains access to the following tools:

• Search dotTEST documentation — queries dotTEST feature docs bundled in dottest-ai-docs.zip

• Get static analysis rule documentation — retrieves detailed documentation for specific 

  dotTEST

   rules
• Get relevant rules — finds rules related to a given topic or keyword
• Get violations from a report — parses and filters a 

  dotTEST

   XML report (report.xml) to retrieve violations

• Get a path to dottestcli — returns a path to dottestcli inside the same installation directory as the MCP server. This can be customized by setting the dottest.cli.path property in the mcp/etc/dottestmcp.properties file

The server uses the current working directory as the workspace root and stores its local cache in .dottest/dottestmcp/ within that directory.

Integrating with GitHub Copilot

Add the dottestmcp tool via Copilot's command line (provide the full path to the batch file):

copilot mcp add dottestmcp "<INSTALL_DIR>\integration\mcp\dottestmcp.bat"

Alternatively, create or update the .copilot/mcp-config.json file in your user home with the following content:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dottestmcp": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "<INSTALL_DIR>\\integration\\mcp\\dottestmcp.bat",
      "tools": [
        "*"
      ],
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

• Replace the <INSTALL_DIR> in the command path with the actual path to your dotTEST installation.

• The "tools": ["*"] entry enables all tools provided by the MCP server.
  • User level: ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json — applies globally to all projects.

Integrating with Codex CLI

Add the dottestmcp tool via the Codex command line (provide the full path to the batch file):

codex mcp add dottestmcp "<INSTALL_DIR>\integration\mcp\dottestmcp.bat"

Alternatively, create or update the .codex/config.toml file in your user home directory (user level) or project root (project level) with the following content:

[mcp_servers.dottestmcp]
command = "<INSTALL_DIR>\integration\mcp\dottestmcp.bat"

• Replace the <INSTALL_DIR> in the command path with the actual path to your dotTEST installation.

• The configuration file is typically located at ~/.codex/config.toml.
• Codex CLI will automatically start the MCP server process when needed and communicate with it over stdio.

MCP Server Configuration

The MCP server reads its settings from <INSTALL_DIR>/integration/mcp/etc/dottestmcp.properties. The default configuration is: 

documentation.path=${dottestmcp:root_dir}/dottest-ai-docs.zip
rule.documentation.path=${dottestmcp:root_dir}/dottest-ai-rules.zip
rule.doc.html.location=${dottestmcp:root_dir}/../../rules/doc.zip
product.name=dotTEST

Local Storage

The MCP server stores its runtime cache in the following location:

• Default: 

  <workspace>/.dottest/dottestmcp/

• Fallback (if write access is unavailable): 

  %TEMP%\dottest\dottestmcp\

The workspace directory is automatically set to the current working directory from which the coding agent launches the MCP server process.

Troubleshooting