Kilo Code

Kilo Code is an open-source VS Code AI agent. Its project MCP config lives in ./.kilocode/mcp.json.

Connect (one-click)

Open cairn's web UI, go to the sidebar Connect, and click Connect next to Kilo Code. cairn writes the config shown below, launching the cairn binary over stdio with the absolute binary path and --repo set to this project, under the identity agent:kilo, then verifies the connection.

Manual setup

Paste this into ./.kilocode/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cairn": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/bin/cairn",
      "args": ["serve", "--actor", "agent:kilo", "--repo", "/absolute/path/to/project"]
    }
  }
}

command is the absolute path to your built cairn binary (the Connect page fills this in automatically; if writing by hand, use your bin/cairn absolute path), and --repo is this project's absolute path.

Identity

Kilo Code connects as agent:kilo by default. Edit the identity on the card to run multiple instances (e.g. agent:kilo-2). See Sessions for how identity is enforced.

Gotchas

• Kilo creates .kilocode/mcp.json if missing, and project config takes precedence over its global VS Code extension settings.
• You can also edit it via Kilo's MCP panel ("Edit Project MCP").

Alternative: HTTP transport

While the cairn app is running it also exposes an MCP endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:7777/mcp?repo=<project>&actor=agent:kilo (the port may differ; cairn prints CAIRN_WEB_URL= on startup). URL-based MCP clients can point at that instead of the stdio binary. The tradeoff: the app must be running for the endpoint to respond.