A structured scratchpad that helps Claude work through hard problems one step at a time.

Sequential Thinking is an official MCP reference server with a single tool that lets the model write down numbered thoughts, revise earlier steps and branch into other approaches while it works on a problem. It fits planning, debugging and analysis tasks whose full scope is not clear at the start.

Who it is for

Developers planning migrations or chasing tricky bugs
Analysts weighing options with many trade-offs
Anyone who wants to follow the model's reasoning step by step

Prompts to try

Once it is connected, ask in plain words. Claude decides when to use the server and asks before it changes anything important.

Prompt 1

Think step by step about moving our app to a new hosting provider, and revise the plan if downtime would go past ten minutes.

Prompt 2

Work out why this test fails only in CI, listing each hypothesis before you check it.

Prompt 3

Weigh three pricing models for our online course and recommend one, showing your reasoning.

How to connect it

In Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport stdio sequential-thinking -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

In the Claude desktop app

Add this to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart the app:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sequential-thinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Good to know

Set DISABLE_THOUGHT_LOGGING=true if you do not want each thought written to the server log.

Unlock the setup steps

Free. Leave your email once to open the setup steps for all 150 servers, and get the best new connectors each month.

How we checked it

Checked the src/sequentialthinking folder of the modelcontextprotocol/servers repo (last commit 2026-10-10, release v1.0.0 on 2026-10-11), its README and LICENSE, and the @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking npm package.

Source: github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/sequentialthinking

Sequential Thinking MCP Server