Programmer-Wander

An MCP server that gives any AI a complete Rust + Windows dev shell.

Status: alpha. Built for Claude Desktop, Cowork, LM Studio, Claude Code, and any host that speaks MCP.

What it does

programmer is a single-binary MCP server that exposes a Rust developer's toolbox to any AI:

Category	Tools
Files	read_file, write_file, append_file, copy_file, move_file, create_dir, diff_file, file_stats, get_file_info, edit_block
Shells	bash, powershell, run, smart_exec, chain
Git (full)	branch, checkout, clone, commit, diff, diff_summary, log, pull, push, remote, reset, stash, status
WSL	wsl_run, wsl_bg, wsl_log, wsl_status
HTTP	http_request, http_download, http_fetch, http_scrape
Watchers	watch_resource, list_watch, stop_watch
Webhooks	webhook_add_route, webhook_list, webhook_start, webhook_stop
Persistent shells	psession_create, psession_destroy, psession_history, psession_list, psession_read, psession_run
Sessions	session_*, session_history, session_checkpoint, session_recover
Transforms	grep, find_replace, extract_lines, json_format, csv↔json, base64_*, hash_file, bulk_rename, scaffold, sync_dir
Utility	screenshot, port_check, kill_process, list_process, archive_, sqlite_query, md2docx, notify, clipboard_, registry_read

~80 tools total. No external dependencies. Single static-linked .exe. Works standalone — does not require any other MCP server.

Install

Option 1 — Portable (recommended)

1. Download programmer-windows-x64.zip (or arm64) from Releases
2. Extract to a stable folder, e.g. C:\tools\programmer\
3. Register with your AI host:

   C:\tools\programmer\programmer.exe install --target claude-desktop
   # or: --target lm-studio, --target cowork, --target claude-code, --target all

4. Restart your AI host

Option 2 — MSI installer

1. Download programmer-windows-x64.msi from Releases
2. Run the MSI (UAC prompt; click Allow)
3. The installer auto-runs programmer install --target all as a post-install action
4. Restart your AI host

Option 3 — Have your AI install it for you

Open Claude / ChatGPT / your local LLM and paste:

Install AIWander/Programmer-Wander on my Windows machine using the AI install runbook at https://github.com/AIWander/Programmer-Wander#for-ai-assistants

Your AI will follow the steps below.

For AI Assistants

If you're an AI installing this for a user, run these steps in order:

1. Detect environment

$arch = if ((Get-CimInstance Win32_Processor).Architecture -eq 12) { "arm64" } else { "x64" }
$hosts = @()
if (Test-Path "$env:APPDATA\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json") { $hosts += "claude-desktop" }
if (Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.lmstudio\mcp.json")            { $hosts += "lm-studio"      }
if (Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\settings.json")         { $hosts += "claude-code"    }
Write-Host "Arch: $arch | Hosts detected: $($hosts -join ', ')"

2. Download latest release (portable)

$url = "https://github.com/AIWander/Programmer-Wander/releases/latest/download/programmer-windows-$arch.zip"
Invoke-WebRequest $url -OutFile $env:TEMP\programmer.zip
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\tools\programmer | Out-Null
Expand-Archive $env:TEMP\programmer.zip -DestinationPath C:\tools\programmer -Force

3. Register with detected hosts

foreach ($h in $hosts) {
  C:\tools\programmer\programmer.exe install --target $h
}

4. Verify

C:\tools\programmer\programmer.exe --version

5. Tell the user

"Programmer-Wander is installed and registered with: $($hosts -join ', '). Restart those host apps now and the new tools will appear."

Uninstall

C:\tools\programmer\programmer.exe uninstall --target all
Remove-Item C:\tools\programmer -Recurse -Force

State directory

programmer keeps its state (breadcrumbs, file watchers, session checkpoints) in ./.programmer/ relative to the exe. This makes the install fully portable — copy the exe + its ./.programmer/ folder to a different machine and your state goes with it.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/AIWander/Programmer-Wander
cd Programmer-Wander
cargo build --release
# Binary at: target/release/programmer.exe

Requires Rust 1.75+.

Companion: AIWander/Universal-Ops

Programmer-Wander is the dev shell for a single AI. If you want a multi-AI orchestrator (manager + ops + dashboard) that pairs with Claude Desktop / Cowork and brings in the smartest available coding agent on demand, see AIWander/Universal-Ops.

The two repos are independent — you can install either, both, or neither.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.