Serena
An MCP toolkit that gives a coding agent IDE-level semantic code tools -- symbol-level retrieval, editing, refactoring and navigation -- instead of relying on line numbers or plain text search.
Serena operates at the symbol level, using relational structure such as call and reference graphs rather than raw line numbers or text patterns, so an agent can perform a task like a cross-file rename or a reference lookup in one call instead of many manual search-and-edit steps. It connects to any MCP-capable client, including terminal tools such as Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI, IDE plugins for VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains IDEs, and desktop or web clients such as Claude Desktop.
The project evaluated the tools by having several coding agents, including models running in Claude Code, Codex CLI and Copilot CLI, perform about 20 routine coding tasks and describe what having Serena's tools added; its documentation describes the full evaluation methodology and results. Serena itself does not run the LLM -- it supplies the tools an existing agent orchestrates.
The project's own documentation advises installing it only by following its Quick Start instructions rather than through an MCP or plugin marketplace, since marketplace listings may carry outdated installation commands. It is written in Python.