The serena plugin and built-in mcp misses two important args which prevent the plugin operating correctly out of the box. We can address both issues with a simple config change in the
Issue 1: Serena context
The first is Serena’s context switch. This sets some default behaviours most suitable for the given context. In the case of Claude-Code, setting the context to claude-code disables some Serena commands that Claude-Code can already do well by itself. By default, the plugin launches serena into desktop-app context, this can be fixed by updating the plugin .mcp.json file. I’m using Claude-Code within WSL on Window11, this ends up here:
\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\paul.claude\plugins\cache\claude-plugins-official\serena\[some-guid]\.mcp.jsonWe can update the config to :
{
"serena": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from", "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena", "serena", "start-mcp-server",
"--context", "claude-code"
}
}Restarting Claude-Code will restart the MCP server and auto-launch the Serena web page, which should show the correct context
Issue 2: Project registration
The second issue is that by default Serena start with no project registered. Claude will manage to register the project with some back-and-forth with Serena the first time it is invoked, but this can be resolved automatically by passing the the –project-from-cwd switch. This tells the Serena MCP server to implicly assume the current folder is the project to register.
{
"serena": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from", "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena", "serena", "start-mcp-server",
"--context", "claude-code",
"--project-from-cwd"]
}
}Again restart Claude-Code and you should then see the current project listed in Serena’s ‘Registered Projects’ drop down.