Development Process¶

Welcome to the AutoDocs MCP Server development documentation. This section provides comprehensive guidance for contributors, technical reviewers, and anyone wanting to understand or work with the codebase.

Quick Navigation¶

For New Contributors¶

• Contributing Guide - Start here for contribution workflow, setup, and pull request process
• Development Standards - Code conventions, commit message standards, and quality requirements

For Architecture Understanding¶

• System Architecture - Layered architecture, component design, and module organization
• Technical Decisions - Key design choices, rationale, and trade-offs made

For Testing and Quality¶

• Testing Guide - Testing standards, patterns, and requirements for maintaining code quality

Development Philosophy¶

AutoDocs MCP Server follows a production-first development approach with emphasis on:

• Reliability: Comprehensive error handling and graceful degradation
• Performance: Efficient caching, concurrent processing, and resource management
• Quality: Strict testing standards, type safety, and code consistency
• Maintainability: Clear separation of concerns and well-documented architectural decisions

Project Status¶

Current Phase: Phase 4 Complete ✅ Test Coverage: 91% Type Checking: Clean (0 MyPy errors) Technical Debt: All high-priority items resolved

Development Environment¶

The project uses modern Python tooling for optimal developer experience:

• Package Manager: uv for fast, reliable dependency management
• Testing: pytest with comprehensive plugin ecosystem
• Type Checking: MyPy with strict configuration
• Linting: Ruff for fast, comprehensive code analysis
• Pre-commit: Automated quality checks on every commit

Key Implementation Features¶

MCP Protocol Integration¶

• 8 comprehensive MCP tools for dependency analysis and documentation
• Strict stdio protocol compliance with structured error handling
• Production-ready health checks and monitoring capabilities

Advanced Caching System¶

• Version-based immutable cache keys for maximum efficiency
• Concurrent documentation fetching with connection pooling
• Automatic cache validation and corruption recovery

Network Resilience¶

• Circuit breakers with exponential backoff for API reliability
• Comprehensive retry strategies for transient failures
• Graceful degradation when external services are unavailable

Documentation Context Intelligence¶

• Smart dependency scoping for relevant context selection
• Token budget management for AI model compatibility
• Runtime vs development dependency classification

Getting Started as a Contributor¶

1. Read the Contributing Guide for setup and workflow
2. Review Development Standards for code conventions
3. Understand the Architecture for component organization
4. Follow Testing Guidelines for quality assurance

Documentation Principles¶

This development documentation follows the Diátaxis framework:

• Tutorials - Learning-oriented, step-by-step guidance
• How-to Guides - Problem-solving recipes for specific tasks
• Explanations - Understanding-oriented context and design rationale
• Reference - Information-oriented specifications and lookups

Each document type serves different user needs and learning contexts.

Support and Communication¶

• Issues: Use GitHub Issues for bug reports and feature requests
• Technical Questions: Include context about your development environment and specific challenges
• Architecture Discussions: Reference relevant technical decision documents when proposing changes

The codebase is designed to be self-documenting with comprehensive inline comments and clear module organization. When in doubt, the source code is the authoritative reference.