CICADA vs Serena

A side-by-side comparison of two Developer Tools servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	CICADA Context compaction for AI coders: token-efficient, AST-level code intelligence across 17+ languages. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Python	Serena LSP-powered coding agent toolkit: semantic symbol search, references and structural edits. Verified stdio (local) No auth Python
Category	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Language	Python	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	37	12k
Last commit	3 months ago	23 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`uv tool install cicada-mcp`	`uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick CICADA if you prefer its approach (context compaction for ai coders: token-efficient, ast-level code intelligence across 17+ languages).

Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you need the broadest set of tools.

Add CICADA

Install / run

uv tool install cicada-mcp

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cicada": {
      "command": "cicada-mcp",
      "args": [
        "--watch"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CICADA_CONFIG_DIR": "/home/user/.cicada/projects/<hash>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add Serena

Install / run

uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serena": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena",
        "serena",
        "start-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Requires `uv` (the Python package runner). Install it from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ if `uvx` is not found.

FAQ

CICADA or Serena — which is better?

Pick CICADA if you prefer its approach (context compaction for ai coders: token-efficient, ast-level code intelligence across 17+ languages). Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you need the broadest set of tools.

Can I use both CICADA and Serena?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do CICADA and Serena work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View CICADA →View Serena →More comparisons →