Covate
io.github.SunflowersLwtechPublished by GitHub account SunflowersLwtechv1.2.0Updated Oct 29, 2026
Learning sidebar for AI coding assistants: quizzes on your changes, debug memory, term explanations
Overview
A local learning sidecar for AI coding assistants: quizzes on recent code changes, a project debug memory, and programming term lookups.
- What you can do
- Run an interactive quiz on recent code changes, with focus areas such as logic, security or performance, and wait until it is completed
- Search a project's stored debugging history for past solutions to an error
- Record a debugging experience, with cause, solution and tags, into the project knowledge base
- Fetch programming terms and concepts by domain, tracking shown terms to avoid repeats
- Keep a local spaced-review ledger of concepts and score quiz answers offline
- When to use it
- Useful if you want to actually understand AI-generated code changes rather than just accept them, or if your assistant keeps re-solving the same errors and would benefit from a project-local debugging memory. It is aimed at developers working in an MCP-capable coding IDE.
- Requirements
- Runs locally over stdio; the README lists Python 3.11+ or uv, or Docker as an alternative. No account or API key is needed for the MCP server itself. The optional hosted learning ledger requires signing in with GitHub and setting COVATE_SYNC_URL and COVATE_SYNC_TOKEN. Optional variables MCP_DEBUG, MCP_TIMEOUT and MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_TOKENS tune logging and limits.
Installation
In SourceWeft
- Open Covate in the dashboard and add it to a workspace.
- Enable the server for the chats that should use its tools.
Desktop only via STDIO. STDIO servers start a local process, so they need the SourceWeft desktop host.
Other MCP clients
Follow the launch instructions in the repository.
README
[Image] Covate
A context-aware Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that acts as a learning sidecar for AI coding assistants. It helps developers learn from AI-generated code changes through interactive quizzes and provides agents with a persistent project-specific debugging memory.
[License: MIT] [Python 3.11+] [MCP Standard] [Docker] [Glama MCP] [DeepWiki]
🌐 Resources
🚀 Why Use This?
☁️ Covate learning ledger (free)
The MCP server in this repo is free and open-source (MIT) — run it locally, no account required.
The optional hosted learning ledger is free too: sign in with
GitHub, then run COVATE_SYNC_URL=https://covate.org COVATE_SYNC_TOKEN=<your token> python -m covate.platform_sync from a project to push your local sessions up and review them in a browser:
- ☁️ Sync your learning sessions from any machine
- 📖 Every synced session, newest first, with its score
- 📊 Totals — sessions, questions, correct answers, running accuracy
- 🎯 The topics you answer worst, ranked
- 🔑 Your sync token — reveal or rotate it whenever you want
Not built yet, so not promised: progress-over-time charts, spaced-repetition study plans, team accounts. There is no paid tier and nothing to buy — the MCP works fully without the ledger, and the ledger costs nothing.
🔁 Spaced review (local, offline)
covate review keeps a small local ledger of concepts and when to ask about them again. It
never talks to the network or to a model; your own agent writes the questions and publishes
the page (for example with the FoldRender command line).
Only the first pick on each question counts, so changing an answer after seeing the
explanation cannot raise the score. (FoldRender shows the explanation during its few-second
undo window, so an answer you take back inside that window does not count; one you leave
alone does.) A new concept comes back after 1 day, then 7, then 30
days; a wrong answer sends it back to the 1-day step; passing all three means mastered.
The ledger lives in the global Covate storage (override with COVATE_REVIEW_LEDGER).
questions.json is {"title": ..., "questions": [{"concept", "question", "options": [...], "correct": <0-based index>, "explanation"?}]}.
In Claude Code, install the plugin to get the MCP server plus /covate:review and
/covate:review-record, which walk your agent through the steps above (no hooks, nothing runs
unless you call it):
📦 Available Tools
Tool Details
🎓 learning_session - Interactive Learning Card
Trigger: User explicitly requests (e.g., "Quiz me", "Test my understanding")
Parameters:
Returns: {"status": "completed", "action": "HALT_GENERATION"}
🔍 debug_search - Search Debug History
Trigger: Auto-called when encountering errors (silent, no UI)
Parameters:
Returns: {"results": [...], "count": N}
📝 debug_record - Record Debug Experience
Trigger: Auto-called after fixing bugs (silent, background)
Parameters:
Returns: {"ok": true, "id": "..."}
📚 term_get - Get Programming Terms
Available Domains: programming_basics, data_structures, algorithms, software_design, web_development, version_control, testing, security, databases, devops
Parameters:
Returns: {"terms": [...], "count": N, "remaining": N}
🛠️ Installation
One-Line Install (Recommended)
The installer will:
- Auto-detect your Python environment (uv → conda → venv)
- Clone the repository to
~/covate - Create virtual environment and install dependencies
- Print the exact command to configure your IDE
Manual Installation
Click to expand manual installation steps
Prerequisites: Python 3.11+ or uv
Docker Installation
Click to expand Docker installation steps
Prerequisites: Docker installed on your system
For detailed Docker usage, persistent storage, and Claude Desktop integration, see DOCKER.md.
⚙️ IDE Configuration
Claude Code (CLI) — One Command Setup
After installation, configure your AI coding IDE to use this MCP server.
Claude Code
Option 1: CLI (Recommended)
Option 2: Config File
Add to ~/.claude.json:
For Windows:
Example paths:
- Unix (uv):
~/covate/covate/bin/covate - Windows (uv):
C:\\Users\\YourName\\covate\\covate\\Scripts\\covate.exe - Windows (conda):
C:\\Users\\YourName\\anaconda3\\envs\\covate\\Scripts\\covate.exe
Path breakdown (Unix example):
~/covate→ repository directorycovate→ virtual environment directory created by uv/venvbin/covate→ executable
Cursor
Add to Cursor MCP settings (Settings → MCP → Add Server):
For Windows:
Windsurf
Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:
Docker Configuration
To use Docker with any MCP-compatible IDE:
See DOCKER.md for detailed Docker configuration examples for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other IDEs.
Other IDEs
For any MCP-compatible IDE, use these settings:
- Command:
<install-path>/covate/bin/covate(orcovate\Scripts\covate.exeon Windows) - Transport: stdio
After configuration, restart your IDE.
Usage
Available Tools
For Users: Learning Session
Say to your AI assistant:
- "Quiz me on this change"
- "Test my understanding"
- "Help me learn about what you did"
The agent will create an interactive learning card and wait until you complete it.
Note: Quiz scores are saved locally for your self-tracking but are NOT returned to the agent - this keeps the context clean.
For Agents: Debug Tools
The debug tools work silently in the background:
- Search first: When encountering errors, agent searches past solutions
- Record after: When fixing errors, agent records the solution
- Progressive disclosure: Returns compact summaries, not full records
- Fast lookups: Uses inverted index for keyword-based searches
Updating
One-Line Update (Recommended)
The remote update script automatically detects your installation and works with any path format (including Chinese/non-ASCII paths):
The update script will:
- Auto-detect your installation location (supports multiple installations)
- Pull the latest changes from the repository
- Force-reinstall dependencies to ensure version synchronization
- Verify installation integrity and report any issues
- Detect if MCP server is in use and provide clear instructions
Why remote update?
- ✅ Works with Chinese/non-ASCII paths without
cdnavigation- ✅ Always uses the latest update logic from the repository
- ✅ Auto-detects installation location even if you forgot where it is
- ✅ Handles multiple installations gracefully
Local Update (Alternative)
macOS / Linux:
Windows (PowerShell):
Manual Update
Click to expand manual update steps
🖼️ Screenshots
Learning Session WebUI
🔒 Security & Privacy
🔮 Roadmap
We're building toward a Personalized Learning Center that grows with you. Here's what's coming:
🔍 Advanced Search & Indexing (v1.3)
📱 Mobile App (v2.0)
🎯 Personalized Learning Center (v2.5)
🤖 AI Enhancements (v3.0)
Want to influence the roadmap? Open an issue or join the discussion!
🔧 Environment Variables
🤝 Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please follow these steps:
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch:
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature - Install dev dependencies:
uv pip install -e '.[dev]' - Make changes and run tests:
pytest - Submit a Pull Request
See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.
📬 Contact
📄 License
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
Built with FastMCP • MCP Standard • Glama MCP
Source: README.md at commit 5203713
Tools
0Version history
1- v1.2.0LatestOct 29, 2026
Score
50% of the applicable checks met
How complete this listing is, computed from the registry entry, the endpoint and public sources. Not a rating of the server and not a statement that it is safe or working today: reachability is a dated check, and no installs or reviews go into the score.
- Reached in the last 30 days25 pts
Keep the endpoint answering the MCP handshake; SourceWeft probes it every 30 days.
- Auth declared10 pts
Declare the credential headers in the registry entry, or keep the endpoint answering the probe so its auth can be classified.
- Tools listed15 pts
Answer tools/list without a credential, or ship a package that starts in a sandbox without one.
- DescriptionRequired15 pts
- Logo10 pts
- Documentation15 pts
- License10 pts
