AI Distiller (aid) vs Serena

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

	AI Distiller (aid) Distill large codebases into AI-friendly context — public APIs, types, and structure, 90-98% smaller. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Go	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	Go	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	160	12k
Last commit	25 days ago	15 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`claude mcp add aid -- npx -y @janreges/ai-distiller-mcp`	`uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick AI Distiller (aid) 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 AI Distiller (aid)

Install / run

claude mcp add aid -- npx -y @janreges/ai-distiller-mcp

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-distiller-aid": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@janreges/ai-distiller-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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

AI Distiller (aid) or Serena — which is better?

Pick AI Distiller (aid) 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 AI Distiller (aid) 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 AI Distiller (aid) and Serena work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

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

View AI Distiller (aid) →View Serena →More comparisons →