Open and Async — MCP Server

Open and Async MCP Server — async-first working practices as tools your AI assistant can use

Bring async-first working practices into your editor and AI assistant. ThisModel Context Protocol server gives your AI thetools to draft a decision doc, turn a meeting into an async artifact, pressure-test astatus update, or settle a sync-vs-async debate — without leaving the tools youalready work in.

It's the method from Open and Async — thecollaborative software-development playbook for remote and distributed teams — asworking tools, not reading.

What you can do with it

Stop writing decision docs from a blank page. Hand your AI the decision and theoptions; get back a structured ADR scaffold — context, tradeoffs, the call, and howreversible it is.
Turn "let's hop on a call" into an artifact. Give it a meeting's purpose andagenda; get the async equivalent with an owner and a deadline.
Ship status updates that don't blindside anyone. Score a draft against the"work loudly / no surprises" rubric and get concrete fixes before you post it.
Settle sync vs. async in seconds. Describe the task; get a recommendation andthe rule behind it.
Run a standup without a meeting. Drop in a structured async-standup templateyour team can adopt today.
Win the "async is too slow" argument. Map common objections to a ready reframe,pull role-aware guidance, or search the book's principles — each answer cited andlinked.
Get coached end to end. Run the coach prompt with a situation and it triagessync vs. async, generates the right artifact, adds role guidance, and caps with ashareable line — one composed answer, or a nudge to just have the conversation whenthat's the better call.

Install

Claude Code:

claude mcp add open-async -- npx -y @open-and-async/mcp

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "open-async": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@open-and-async/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Any MCP client that speaks stdio works the same way: run npx @open-and-async/mcp.

The toolbox

Method tools — pure utility, use them on any project

Tool	What it does
`draft_decision_doc`	Decision + options → a structured ADR/decision-doc scaffold (context, options, tradeoffs, decision, reversibility).
`convert_meeting_to_async`	Meeting purpose/agenda → the async equivalent (artifact, owner, deadline).
`score_status_update`	Scores a draft update against the "work loudly / no surprises" rubric and suggests fixes.
`run_async_standup`	A structured async-standup template a team can adopt.
`triage_sync_vs_async`	Recommends sync vs async for a task, with the decision rule.

Reference tools — the book's thinking, on demand

Tool	What it does
`book_outline`	Sections + chapters + one-line TL;DRs. The map.
`get_chapter_summary`	A chapter's TL;DR + taglines + read-the-chapter link.
`search_principles`	Keyword search over the summary corpus; short cited snippets.
`handle_objection`	Maps skepticism ("async is slow") to the book's reframe.
`get_guidance`	Role-aware (`manager`/`ic`) guidance for a topic.
`get_taglines`	Taglines + their `/q/<slug>` quote-card URLs.

Resources

book://outline — sections, chapters, TL;DRs (JSON)
book://taglines — taglines + quote-card URLs (JSON)
book://about — what this server is, what it does and doesn't contain, and where to get the book

Prompts

Invoke these directly from your client (e.g. as slash commands):

coach — the full method on one situation. Triages sync vs. async, generatesthe right artifact, enriches with role guidance, and caps with a shareable tagline —one composed deliverable. Stops and recommends a real-time conversation when thesituation genuinely needs one.
async-standup, write-adr, meeting-to-issue, weekly-update — parameterizedtemplates for a single task.

Good to know

It's a real tool, not a paywall. The method tools work on their own — no bookrequired. The reference tools answer from the book's already-public summaries and aparaphrased framework layer, always capped and always cited so you can trace anysnippet to its chapter. The "get the book" link surfaces about once per session, noton every line — it's a tool, not an ad. No verbatim book prose is bundled (the onlydata file is data/book.json.br), so what you install is genuinely useful, not ateaser.

Staying current. data/book.json.br ships with a version that tracks the book'sedition, so the server can tell you which edition it's based on and re-sync when a newone lands.

Generated output is a template, not the author speaking. The method tools formatyour input into decision docs, standups, and triage calls. That output is generatedguidance to adapt — it is not a personal statement, quote, or endorsement by Ben Balteror Open & Async LLC, and shouldn't be presented as one. Reference-tool snippets aresummaries the tool cites back to the book, not verbatim prose.

Licensing

This package is split-licensed — see LICENSE for the overview:

Code (everything under src/) — MIT.
Data (data/book.json.br) — proprietary; © Open & Async LLC. You may use it onlyas part of running this software. No redistribution as a standalone dataset, noderivative datasets, no model training. See DATA-LICENSE.md.

The full work — the stories, the voice, the complete argument — lives in the book:open-and-async.com.

Open and Async — MCP Server