Best Practices

Add a Rule#

To avoid typing use context7 in every prompt, add a rule to your MCP client to automatically invoke Context7 for code-related questions:

• Cursor: Cursor Settings > Rules
• Claude Code: CLAUDE.md
• Or the equivalent in your MCP client

Example rule:

Always use Context7 MCP when I need library/API documentation, code generation, setup or configuration steps without me having to explicitly ask.

Use Library ID#

If you already know exactly which library you want to use, add its Context7 ID to your prompt. That way, Context7 MCP server can skip the library-matching step and directly continue with retrieving docs.

Implement basic authentication with Supabase. use library /supabase/supabase for API and docs.

The slash syntax tells the MCP tool exactly which library to load docs for.

Specify a Version#

To get documentation for a specific library version, just mention the version in your prompt:

How do I set up Next.js 14 middleware? use context7

Context7 will automatically match the appropriate version.

Query Strategy#

Use these guidelines when searching for documentation with Context7:

• Retrieve only when needed — Context7 is for library, framework, SDK, API, and CLI-tool questions. Use it during implementation or review when you need to check an external API. Skip requests that do not depend on external library documentation.
• One concept per query. Use a separate query for each topic, unless the question is about how the topics interact.
• Be specific. Describe what you want to do. For example, ask "How to set up authentication with JWT in Express.js" instead of "auth".
• Keep the context relevant — don't include sensitive or confidential information in queries, and use the best-matching library ID (and version-specific ID when a version matters) so you don't pull docs for the wrong package.