Serena vs JetBrains MCP Proxy

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

	Serena LSP-powered coding agent toolkit: semantic symbol search, references and structural edits. Verified stdio (local) No auth Python	JetBrains MCP Proxy Connect MCP clients to a running JetBrains IDE (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, Android Studio). Verified stdio (local) No auth TypeScript
Category	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Language	Python	TypeScript
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	12k	5.0k
Last commit	13 days ago	4 months ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server`	`npx -y @jetbrains/mcp-proxy`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Pick JetBrains MCP Proxy if you want the official, vendor-maintained server.

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.

Add JetBrains MCP Proxy

Install / run

npx -y @jetbrains/mcp-proxy

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jetbrains-mcp-proxy": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@jetbrains/mcp-proxy"
      ]
    }
  }
}

FAQ

Serena or JetBrains MCP Proxy — which is better?

Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option. Pick JetBrains MCP Proxy if you want the official, vendor-maintained server.

Can I use both Serena and JetBrains MCP Proxy?

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 Serena and JetBrains MCP Proxy work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

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

View Serena →View JetBrains MCP Proxy →More comparisons →