Feature request: parent-directory MCP scoping

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Jun 15, 2026 by CarlosFandango Closed Jun 24, 2026

Currently, .mcp.json is only loaded from the immediate project root. There's no way to define MCPs that apply to all projects under a parent folder without putting them in user scope (which makes them global to everything).

Use case: A developer has two folder groups — e.g. ~/sites/talabat/* and ~/sites/projects/* — each needing a different set of MCP servers. Claude is always opened from a leaf project directory, never the parent. There's no way to express "all projects under talabat/ share these MCPs" without either duplicating .mcp.json in every project or polluting user scope.

Proposed behaviour: Claude Code walks up the directory tree from the project root, loading any .mcp.json files it finds in ancestor directories, with closer-to-root files taking lower precedence (so the project's own .mcp.json wins on conflicts). This mirrors how tools like ESLint, .gitignore, and EditorConfig handle config inheritance.

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