version: "1.0.1" name: docs-manage description: >- Manage the Grounded Docs MCP Server documentation index. Covers scraping and indexing documentation from URLs or local files, refreshing existing indexes with changed content, removing libraries from the index, and compacting the SQLite store. Use when you need to add, update, or delete indexed documentation, or reclaim disk space after removals. compatibility: Requires Node.js 22+ and npx metadata: author: grounded.tools

Docs Manage

Index, refresh, and remove library documentation in the local Grounded Docs store. These commands modify the index and produce plain-text status messages on stdout.

When to use

• A library is not yet indexed and you need its docs available for search.
• Documentation may be stale and you want to pull in updated pages.
• You want to remove a library or version from the index to free space.
• The store file is still large after removals and you want to compact it.

Commands

scrape

Download and index documentation from a URL or local directory.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape <library> <url> [options]

Examples:

# Scrape React docs, version-tagged
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape react https://react.dev/reference/react --version 19.0.0
 
# Scrape local files
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape mylib file:///Users/me/docs/my-library
 
# Scrape with depth and page limits
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape nextjs https://nextjs.org/docs --max-pages 200 --max-depth 3
 
# Scrape with custom headers (e.g. authentication)
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape internal-api https://docs.internal.com \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer tok_xxx"
 
# Exclude changelog pages
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape react https://react.dev/reference/react \
  --exclude-pattern "**/changelog*"

Output is a plain-text status line, e.g. Successfully scraped 42 pages. Progress updates appear on stderr during the run.

refresh

Re-scrape an existing library version, skipping unchanged pages via HTTP ETags.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest refresh <library> [options]

Example:

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest refresh react --version 19.0.0

The library and version must already be indexed. Use scrape for first-time indexing.

remove

Delete a library (or a specific version) from the index.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest remove <library> [options]

Example:

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest remove react --version 18.3.1

This is destructive and cannot be undone. Re-run scrape to re-index. Bulk deletes checkpoint the WAL without locking readers. Use compact when idle if the main store file is still large.

compact

Reclaim unused SQLite pages and truncate the WAL file so the store shrinks on disk. This takes an exclusive lock and may block searches until it finishes. VACUUM uses temporary files to keep memory usage low, so make sure there is enough free disk space for SQLite's temporary copy of the database.

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest compact [options]

Example:

npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest compact

Removing documentation does not shrink the main SQLite file. Bulk deletes only run a non-blocking WAL checkpoint. Run this command when the store is idle to VACUUM and reclaim free pages. Add --force only when you want to rewrite the store even if SQLite reports no free pages.

Output behaviour

All three commands write plain-text status messages to stdout and diagnostics to stderr. The global --output flag is accepted but has no effect because the output is plain text, not structured data.

In non-interactive sessions, diagnostics are suppressed by default. Use --verbose (or set LOG_LEVEL=INFO) to re-enable them. Use --quiet to suppress all non-error diagnostics regardless of session type.

Typical workflow

# 1. Index documentation for the first time
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest scrape react https://react.dev/reference/react --version 19.0.0
 
# 2. Later, refresh to pick up any changes
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest refresh react --version 19.0.0
 
# 3. Clean up old versions
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest remove react --version 18.3.1
 
# 4. Reclaim unused store space if needed
npx @arabold/docs-mcp-server@latest compact

Important notes

• Scraping can take time. Large documentation sites with hundreds of pages

may run for several minutes. Use --max-pages and --max-depth to limit scope when you only need a subset.

• Local files must use the file:// URL scheme

(e.g. file:///absolute/path/to/docs).

• `--clean` is on by default for scrape, meaning existing documents for

the same library+version are removed before re-indexing. Pass --no-clean to append instead.

• `refresh` only works on previously indexed content. It uses HTTP ETags to

skip pages that have not changed, making it much faster than a full re-scrape.