🔌 RCA MCP Server Setup

Step 1: Add MCP Server via CLI

Open a terminal and run this command (replace the path with your actual repository location):

macOS/Linux:

claude mcp add rca-api-localhost \
  -e RCA_API_URL=http://localhost:24147 \
  -- dotnet run --project /path/to/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server/MCP.Server.csproj

Windows (use forward slashes):

claude mcp add rca-api-localhost -e RCA_API_URL=http://localhost:24147 -- dotnet run --project C:/path/to/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server/MCP.Server.csproj

Example (Windows):

claude mcp add rca-api-localhost -e RCA_API_URL=http://localhost:24147 -- dotnet run --project C:/claude/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server/MCP.Server.csproj

⚠️ Windows Users: Use forward slashes (/) instead of backslashes (\) in the path. The claude mcp add command does not properly escape backslashes when writing to the JSON config file, causing paths like C:\path to become C:path (invalid). Windows fully supports forward slashes in file paths.

Step 2: Restart Claude Code

Completely close and restart Claude Code for the changes to take effect.

Step 3: Verify

Run claude mcp list to see your configured MCP servers. You should see ✓ Connected next to rca-api-localhost.

If you see "Failed to connect", check the Troubleshooting section below.

If the CLI command doesn't work, manually edit your project config file:

1. Locate your config file: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\.claude.json
2. Find your project section (e.g., "C:/claude")
3. Add under "mcpServers" key:

"rca-api-localhost": {
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "dotnet",
  "args": [
    "run",
    "--project",
    "C:\\claude\\oc-internal-rca-api\\src\\MCP.Server\\MCP.Server.csproj"
  ],
  "env": {
    "RCA_API_URL": "http://localhost:24147"
  }
}

Important: Use double backslashes (\\) in JSON files!

Step 1: Locate Config File

Find and open your Claude Desktop configuration file:

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Tip: Press Win+R, type %APPDATA%\Claude and press Enter (Windows)

Step 2: Add MCP Server Configuration

Add this to your config file (replace the path with your actual repository location):

Windows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rca-api-localhost": {
      "command": "dotnet",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "C:\\path\\to\\oc-internal-rca-api\\src\\MCP.Server\\MCP.Server.csproj"],
      "env": {"RCA_API_URL": "http://localhost:24147"}
    }
  }
}

macOS/Linux:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rca-api-localhost": {
      "command": "dotnet",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "/path/to/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server/MCP.Server.csproj"],
      "env": {"RCA_API_URL": "http://localhost:24147"}
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Important: Use double backslashes (\\) in Windows paths for JSON!

Step 3: Restart Claude Desktop

Completely quit Claude Desktop (File → Quit) and restart it. Open a new conversation to use the MCP server.

Update Claude's Memory (Highly Recommended)

To make Claude automatically use the RCA MCP tools without you having to ask each time, add this to your MEMORY.md file:

For Claude Code CLI: Edit C:\Users\<username>\.claude\projects\<project-path>\memory\MEMORY.md

Copy and paste this snippet:

## RCA (Root Cause Analysis) Workflow

### Default RCA Creation Method
- **ALWAYS use the RCA MCP server** for creating, searching, and managing RCAs
- The MCP server is configured as `rca-api-localhost` and provides 5 tools:
  - `create_rca` - Create new RCA documents
  - `search_rcas` - Search for existing RCAs
  - `get_rca` - Get RCA details by ID
  - `list_by_service` - Find RCAs by service name
  - `get_statistics` - Get aggregate RCA statistics
- **When user asks to create an RCA**, use `create_rca` tool first (not manual file creation)
- **MCP Server Location**: `C:/claude/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server`
- **API Endpoint**: http://localhost:24147

### RCA Severity Levels
- **Sev0** - Total outage (High severity)
- **Sev1** - Partial outage (High severity)
- **Sev2** - Medium severity
- **Sev3** - Low severity
- **Sev4** - Proactive (no outage, lessons learned)
- **Sev5** - Informational (no incident)

Why this matters: Without this memory update, you would need to explicitly ask Claude to "use the RCA MCP server" each time. With this update, Claude will automatically use the RCA tools when you ask about RCAs.

💡 Tip: After adding this to MEMORY.md, restart Claude Code for the memory changes to take effect.

Show me all high severity (Sev0 and Sev1) RCAs from last week
What RCAs affected the payments service?
Find all incomplete RCAs that need action items
List all database-related incidents this quarter

Create a new RCA for yesterday's database outage
Create a Sev1 RCA for the API timeout that happened on March 5th at 2pm
Start an RCA for the deployment rollback this morning

Get statistics on RCA completion rates
What's the breakdown of RCAs by severity?
Show me incident trends for the last 6 months

Create an RCA for the payment processing outage that happened yesterday

Claude will ask you for:

• Severity: Sev0 (total outage), Sev1 (partial outage), Sev2 (medium), Sev3 (low), Sev4 (proactive), Sev5 (informational)
• Incident date and time
• Owner(s) responsible
• Brief overview of what happened

Severity Levels:

• Sev0 - Total outage (High severity)
• Sev1 - Partial outage (High severity)
• Sev2 - Medium severity
• Sev3 - Low severity
• Sev4 - Proactive (no outage)
• Sev5 - Informational (no incident)

Create a Sev0 RCA for the total database outage on March 5th, 2026 at 14:30 UTC.
Owner: john.doe@company.com
Overview: Primary database crashed due to memory leak in query optimizer causing total outage.
Affected 5000 customers across all regions.

Claude will create the RCA with all provided details and return the RCA ID.

Show me all Sev0 RCAs from the last 30 days
Show me all high severity RCAs (Sev0 and Sev1)
List proactive RCAs (Sev4) from this quarter

Find all RCAs related to the payment processing service

List all incomplete RCAs that need action items

Show me the complete details for RCA abc123

Returns: incident timeline, root cause analysis, action items, affected services, and more.

Add a timeline event to RCA abc123:
Time: 14:35 UTC - Database stopped responding to health checks

Add an action item to RCA abc123:
Action: Implement query timeout limits in database configuration
Owner: db-team@company.com
Due: March 15, 2026

Add a link to RCA abc123:
URL: https://grafana.company.com/dashboard/incident-123
Description: Monitoring dashboard showing CPU spike

What are the current RCA statistics?

Returns: total count, breakdown by severity, completion rates, affected customers.

Symptom: Running claude mcp list shows "✗ Failed to connect" for rca-api-localhost

Diagnosis:

1. Run: claude mcp list and look at the displayed command path
2. If you see a path without proper slashes (e.g., C:claudeoc-internal-rca-api...), the path is invalid

Fix Option 1 - Re-add with forward slashes:

1. Remove the server: claude mcp remove rca-api-localhost
2. Re-add using forward slashes:

   claude mcp add rca-api-localhost -e RCA_API_URL=http://localhost:24147 -- dotnet run --project C:/claude/oc-internal-rca-api/src/MCP.Server/MCP.Server.csproj

3. Restart Claude Code

Fix Option 2 - Manual config edit:

1. Edit C:\Users\<username>\.claude.json
2. Find the rca-api-localhost section and fix the path to use double backslashes (\\)
3. Save and restart Claude Code

Test if the server can start on its own:

cd C:\claude\oc-internal-rca-api\src\MCP.Server
set RCA_API_URL=http://localhost:24147
dotnet run

You should see: RCA MCP Server started. Listening on stdin...

If this works but claude mcp list shows "Failed to connect", the issue is with the path configuration in your config file.