Prerequisites & Installation

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Black Duck SCA instance	A running instance with a user account and API token.
Python 3.13+	Required to run the MCP server.
uv	Python package manager (used via `uvx`).
Java 11+	Optional — required only for source scanning via Detect.

Supported Clients

Client	Setup Method
Claude Code	CLI command
Claude Desktop	JSON config file (UI)
VS Code	`.vscode/mcp.json`
GitHub Copilot	CLI command (requires resources-as-tools workaround)
Cursor	`.vscode/mcp.json` (same as VS Code)

Installation & Setup

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add blackduck-bdsca-mcp \   
  --env BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_URL=https://<your-instance-url> \   
  --env BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_TOKEN=<api-token> \   
  -- uvx \ 
  --managed-python --python 3.13 \   
  --from 'blackduck-sca-mcp' bdsca

Claude Desktop

Add via the UI, or ensure your config file contains:

{
  "managedMcpServers": [
    {
      "name": "blackduck-bdsca-mcp",
      "source": "user",
      "transport": "stdio",
      "command": "/bin/uvx",
      "args": [
        "--managed-python",
        "--python", "3.13",
        "--from", "blackduck-sca-mcp", "bdsca"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_URL": "https://<your-instance-url>",
        "BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_TOKEN": "<api-token>"
      }
    }
  ]
}

VS Code

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "blackduck-bdsca-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--managed-python",
        "--python", "3.13",
        "--from", "blackduck-sca-mcp", "bdsca"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_URL": "https://<your-instance-url>",
        "BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_TOKEN": "<api-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot CLI currently does not implement the full MCP spec — it is missing handling of MCP resources. To work around this, expose resources as tools by setting BLACKDUCK_MCP_ENABLE_RESOURCES_AS_TOOLS=true.

copilot mcp add blackduck-bdsca-mcp \
  --env BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_URL=https://<your-instance-url> \
  --env BLACKDUCK_BDSCA_TOKEN=<api-token> \
  --env BLACKDUCK_MCP_ENABLE_RESOURCES_AS_TOOLS=true \
  -- uvx \
  --managed-python --python 3.13 \
  --from 'blackduck-sca-mcp' bdsca

Cursor

Use the same .vscode/mcp.json configuration as VS Code above.