Clojure MCP vs Serena

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

	Clojure MCP REPL-driven Clojure development for AI assistants: live nREPL eval plus structure-aware, paren-safe code editing. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Clojure	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	Clojure	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	764	12k
Last commit	7 days ago	23 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib io.github.bhauman/clojure-mcp :as mcp`	`uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Clojure MCP if you need the broadest set of tools.

Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Add Clojure MCP

Install / run

clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib io.github.bhauman/clojure-mcp :as mcp

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clojure-mcp": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/bash",
      "args": [
        "-c",
        "clojure -Tmcp start :not-cwd true :port 7888"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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

Clojure MCP or Serena — which is better?

Pick Clojure MCP if you need the broadest set of tools. Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Can I use both Clojure MCP 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 Clojure MCP and Serena work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

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

View Clojure MCP →View Serena →More comparisons →