# Prose Rich Mcp

> One local MCP server wrapping five free prose linters (proselint, alex, write-good, blocklint, textstat) + AI-tell detector - for catching weak, inflated, exclusionary, or LLM-generated writing without subscription costs

- **Type:** MCP server
- **Install:** `agentstack add mcp-justinritchie-prose-rich-mcp`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [justinritchie](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/justinritchie)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Developer Tools](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/developer-tools)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [justinritchie](https://github.com/justinritchie)
- **Source:** https://github.com/justinritchie/prose-rich-mcp

## Install

```sh
agentstack add mcp-justinritchie-prose-rich-mcp
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# prose-rich-mcp

> One local **Model Context Protocol (MCP)** server that wraps five free prose linters — **proselint**, **alex**, **write-good**, **blocklint**, **textstat** — plus a small built-in AI-tell detector. Gives Claude (and any MCP client) six independent lenses on a draft without per-word subscription costs or sending your text to a cloud service.

[](LICENSE) [](https://www.python.org/downloads/) [](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)

---

## Why this exists

The "writing improvement" MCP landscape is fragmented — every paid tool (Grammarly, ProWritingAid, DeepL Write, HumanTone, Sapling) wants a subscription and pushes someone else's opinion of good writing on you. The free tools (proselint, alex, write-good, blocklint, textstat) each give Claude a different lens on the same draft, but they all need to be installed and called separately.

This is the single connector that wires them all together. ~600 lines of Python, no API keys, no network, runs forever for free.

Pair it with [Vale](https://vale.sh/) for *your own* house-style enforcement, and with the [Writing Tools MCP](https://github.com/wdm0006/writing-tools-mcp) for objective "does this still read like an LLM" signals (perplexity + stylometric), and you have a complete free local writing-improvement stack.

## Tools

| Tool | What it catches |
| --- | --- |
| `lint_proselint` | Adverbs, clichés, hyperbole, redundancy, vague modifiers — Bryan Garner / DFW / Pinker / Orwell-inspired rules. |
| `lint_alex` | Gender-favoring, ableist, racial, and other insensitive language. Markdown/MDX/HTML aware. |
| `lint_writegood` | Passive voice, weasel words ("many", "various"), lexical illusions, "so/there is" openers. |
| `lint_blocklint` | Non-inclusive identifiers and code-style language alex sometimes misses (master/slave, blacklist/whitelist). |
| `readability_stats` | Flesch, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, ARI, Dale-Chall, syllable/lexicon/sentence counts, reading time — via `textstat`. |
| `check_ai_tells` | Built-in detector for signature LLM phrases ("delve", "leverage", "tapestry", "It's important to note", `Moreover/Furthermore/Additionally` openers, etc.). |
| `audit_all` | Run all six in one call and return a merged report with a roll-up. |

Every tool accepts either an inline `text` string or an absolute `path` to a local file. Outputs are structured JSON with `line` / `column` locations.

## Install

```bash
pip install prose-rich-mcp
```

The Python deps (`textstat`, `proselint`, `blocklint`, `fastmcp`) install automatically. The Node-ecosystem linters need a separate install:

```bash
npm install -g alex write-good
```

If `alex` or `write-good` aren't on `PATH`, the corresponding tools return `TOOL_NOT_INSTALLED` and the rest still work — `audit_all` reports the gap in its `tools_missing` list instead of failing.

## Run

```bash
prose-rich-mcp        # stdio MCP server
```

## Configure in Claude Desktop

```jsonc
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prose-rich": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/justinritchie/prose-rich-mcp", "prose-rich-mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```

## Security

- All processing is local. No network calls, no API keys.
- `PROSE_RICH_ALLOWED_ROOTS` is **opt-in** (not on by default). Leave unset and the server reads any path your user account can read. Set to a colon-separated list of dirs only if you want to sandbox.
- `PROSE_RICH_MAX_FILE_BYTES` defaults to 10 MB.

## What this isn't

- Not a grammar checker. For that, run [LanguageTool](https://languagetool.org/) self-hosted in Docker (~10 GB with n-grams) or just rely on Claude's native grammar.
- Not a style-guide enforcer. For *your* rules (banned words, preferred phrasings), use [Vale](https://vale.sh/) — pair this with Vale, don't replace it.
- Not an AI-text humanizer. The `check_ai_tells` detector flags patterns; it doesn't rewrite. If you want to defeat detectors specifically, see HumanTone et al. (but for most use cases, fixing the flagged patterns by hand or via the LLM produces better results).

## License

MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).

## Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [justinritchie](https://github.com/justinritchie)
- **Source:** [justinritchie/prose-rich-mcp](https://github.com/justinritchie/prose-rich-mcp)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/mcp-justinritchie-prose-rich-mcp
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/justinritchie
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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