Brainstem for Cline

You are setting up the RAPP Brainstem (RAPP = Rapid Agent Prototype Platform) for the user and connecting it to Cline as an MCP server named brainstem. Follow these steps in order. Ask the user before approving any sign-in for them, and never type their credentials. The user needs a GitHub account with GitHub Copilot.

0. Ask the user first

Before you run anything, tell the user in a few lines what this setup does and ask them to confirm. It installs the RAPP Brainstem, an open-source local agent server (source: github.com/kody-w/rapp-installer), into ~/.brainstem. It serves on localhost:7071 and signs in with their GitHub account, which they approve themselves in the browser. It also adds a 70-line bridge (source: brainstem_mcp.py) so Cline can talk to it. Only continue once they say yes. It is fine to show them the commands below before running them.

1. Check whether the Brainstem is already running

curl -sf http://localhost:7071/health

If this returns JSON with "status":"ok", skip to step 3. Don't reinstall over a running Brainstem, because the installer restarts it.

2. Install it

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://kody-w.github.io/rapp-installer/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://kody-w.github.io/rapp-installer/install.ps1 | iex

Run it in the background. When it finishes installing it keeps running as the server. Watch its output. If it prints a GitHub device code, show the user the code and https://github.com/login/device, then wait while they approve it. Poll curl -sf http://localhost:7071/health every few seconds until it answers. A first install can take a few minutes. If sign-in was skipped, the user can finish it at http://localhost:7071/login.

3. Connect Cline

Install the bridge next to the Brainstem. macOS / Linux:

mkdir -p ~/.brainstem/mcp-bridge
curl -fsSL https://kody-w.github.io/rapp-brainstem-claude/brainstem_mcp.py -o ~/.brainstem/mcp-bridge/brainstem_mcp.py
~/.brainstem/venv/bin/python -m venv ~/.brainstem/mcp-bridge/venv
~/.brainstem/mcp-bridge/venv/bin/pip install -q "mcp>=2,<3" requests

Windows (PowerShell):

$d = "$env:USERPROFILE\.brainstem\mcp-bridge"; mkdir $d -Force | Out-Null
irm https://kody-w.github.io/rapp-brainstem-claude/brainstem_mcp.py -OutFile "$d\brainstem_mcp.py"
& "$env:USERPROFILE\.brainstem\venv\Scripts\python.exe" -m venv "$d\venv"
& "$d\venv\Scripts\pip.exe" install -q "mcp>=2,<3" requests

Then register it in Cline's MCP settings. For the Cline CLI that's ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json. For the VS Code extension, ask the user to click MCP Servers → Configure MCP Servers, which opens the file (…/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json). Merge this into the file, keeping every server already there. Create the file if it doesn't exist. If a brainstem entry already exists, ask the user before replacing it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brainstem": {
      "command": "/Users/you/.brainstem/mcp-bridge/venv/bin/python",
      "args": [
        "/Users/you/.brainstem/mcp-bridge/brainstem_mcp.py"
      ],
      "timeout": 300,
      "disabled": false
    }
  }
}

Use the user's real absolute paths (run echo $HOME; on Windows $env:USERPROFILE) in place of /Users/you. Config files do not expand ~. On Windows the command is C:\\Users\\you\\.brainstem\\mcp-bridge\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe and the argument is C:\\Users\\you\\.brainstem\\mcp-bridge\\brainstem_mcp.py (backslashes doubled inside JSON). timeout is in seconds.

4. Confirm

The MCP Servers panel should show brainstem with a green dot and its tools. Cline reloads the file on save.

Then call the capabilities tool and tell the user which agents their Brainstem has. The bridge gives two tools. chat(user_input, session_id?) sends a plain-language request; pass the returned session_id to continue the conversation. capabilities() reports status, model and agents.