AI & MemoryOfficial referencenpm1 toolsA · 93

Sequential Thinking MCP server

MIT

Structured, revisable step-by-step reasoning — lets a model branch, backtrack and refine a plan as it works.

At a glance

Sequential Thinking is the official MCP reference server in the AI & Memory category. It runs locally over stdio via `npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking`, and declares no required credentials. It exposes 1 tool, including sequential_thinking. It scores A (93/100) on the MCP Skills Hub health score as of Oct 27, 2026.

Source 92k

One-click install

VS Code VS Code Insiders Cursor

Opens your editor and pre-fills the config. Your editor will ask before adding it.

How to install Sequential Thinking in your AI client

Setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Cline and VS Code — copy-paste ready.

How to install Sequential Thinking in Claude CodeAnthropic's agentic CLI

Add the server

bash

claude mcp add sequentialthinking -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

2
Verify it's connected
bash
```
claude mcp list
```
Sharing it with your team?
Add `--scope project` to write it to .mcp.json in the repository root, which you can commit (with the secrets left as environment variables).
Use it in a session
Ask Claude to use the tools this server exposes (e.g. sequential_thinking). It discovers them automatically.

How to install Sequential Thinking in Claude DesktopDesktop app (MCP config)

Open your MCP config
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add this server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sequentialthinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop
The tools appear under the 🔌 menu once the app reloads.

How to install Sequential Thinking in CursorAI-first code editor

Create / edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sequentialthinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Enable it
Cursor Settings → MCP → toggle the server on. Tools become available to the Composer/Agent.

How to install Sequential Thinking in Codex CLIOpenAI coding agent

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml

toml

[mcp_servers.sequentialthinking]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"]

Run Codex
Codex loads MCP servers from config.toml on startup and exposes their tools to the agent.

How to install Sequential Thinking in WindsurfCodeium's agentic IDE

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sequentialthinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Reload
Windsurf → Cascade → refresh MCP servers. Cascade can now call the tools.

How to install Sequential Thinking in ClineVS Code autonomous agent

Open Cline → MCP Servers → Configure
Adds to cline_mcp_settings.json.

Add the server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sequentialthinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

How to install Sequential Thinking in VS CodeCopilot / MCP support

Create .vscode/mcp.json

json

{
  "servers": {
    "sequentialthinking": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Start it
VS Code shows a ▶ Start action above the server entry. Agent mode (Copilot Chat) can then use the tools.

What tools does Sequential Thinking expose? (1)

Taken from the project's README — the server itself was not queried, so check its docs for the exact schemas.

sequential_thinkingFacilitates a detailed, step-by-step thinking process for problem-solving and analysis.

What the code can do

Read from the published package source — never executed. Parsed 3 of 3 source files.

This server can read and write files and read your environment variables.

How it was published

Published by a verified CI identity (github trusted publishing) rather than a personal token.
Has a provenance attestation tying this artifact to the commit it was built from.
6 npm maintainers · last published by GitHub Actions.

Maintainer of this package and think something here is wrong? Tell us and we'll correct it.

Before you install

Signals gathered from the source repo and package registry — not a safety verdict.

What it can reach

Runs code on your machine — Executes as a local process with your user's permissions, including filesystem access.
Downloads at launch — The package is fetched from its registry each run unless you pin a version.

Last commit today — Actively maintained.
92k GitHub stars — Community adoption signal.
138k weekly downloads — Regularly installed by other developers.

Client compatibility

Claude Code: NativeClaude Desktop: NativeCursor: NativeCodex CLI: NativeWindsurf: NativeCline: NativeVS Code: Native

Health score

A · 93

Maintenance, adoption, transparency and packaging — not a safety audit. How this is calculated

Maintenance30%100%
Last commit 0 days ago.
Adoption20%100%
91630 stars, 137632 weekly downloads.
Transparency20%100%
4/4: ✓ public source repo, ✓ declared license, ✓ documentation, ✓ discoverable tool list.
Provenance15%100%
Official reference implementation, maintained by the MCP steering group.
Packaging15%50%
No pinned version — installs resolve to whatever is latest at launch.

Documentation

Full README

Sequential Thinking MCP Server

An MCP server implementation that provides a tool for dynamic and reflective problem-solving through a structured thinking process.

Published on npm as `@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking`.

Features

Break down complex problems into manageable steps
Revise and refine thoughts as understanding deepens
Branch into alternative paths of reasoning
Adjust the total number of thoughts dynamically
Generate and verify solution hypotheses
Serves both protocol eras on stdio: 2026-07-28 clients (server/discover, no handshake) and 2025-era clients (initialize). The thought history lasts as long as the client's connection, on either era

Tool

sequential_thinking

Facilitates a detailed, step-by-step thinking process for problem-solving and analysis.

Inputs:

thought (string): The current thinking step
nextThoughtNeeded (boolean): Whether another thought step is needed
thoughtNumber (integer): Current thought number
totalThoughts (integer): Estimated total thoughts needed
isRevision (boolean, optional): Whether this revises previous thinking
revisesThought (integer, optional): Which thought is being reconsidered
branchFromThought (integer, optional): Branching point thought number
branchId (string, optional): Branch identifier
needsMoreThoughts (boolean, optional): If more thoughts are needed

Usage

The Sequential Thinking tool is designed for:

Breaking down complex problems into steps
Planning and design with room for revision
Analysis that might need course correction
Problems where the full scope might not be clear initially
Tasks that need to maintain context over multiple steps
Situations where irrelevant information needs to be filtered out

In practice, you do not call sequential_thinking directly by hand unless your client exposes raw tool calls. Instead, connect the server to an MCP-aware host and ask the model to think through a problem step by step. The host can then decide to call the tool one or more times while it works.

Excerpt — the full document is on GitHub.

Alternatives to Sequential Thinking

Maintain Sequential Thinking? Add a badge to your README

Shows its health grade, and links readers to install steps for every client.

markdown

[![Sequential Thinking on MCP Skills Hub](https://mcp-skills-hub.vercel.app/badge/official-sequentialthinking)](https://mcp-skills-hub.vercel.app/mcps/official-sequentialthinking)

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