Artifact Gauge is a local MCP tool for answering a simple release question: what is taking up space? It reports artifact totals, extension histograms, largest files, and dependency manifest metadata without returning file contents.

Tools

inspect_artifacts: scan a bounded local project and summarize file sizes and types.
inspect_manifest: report metadata for one recognized dependency manifest without exposing its contents or dependency versions.

Safety

Local paths only, with ARTIFACT_GAUGE_ROOT boundary support and symlink checks.
Skips Git data, dependencies, coverage, framework caches, and other common generated caches while intentionally including dist and build artifacts.
Caps recursion, file count, file size, and output.
Never returns file contents, package versions, secrets, or source text.
This is a size heuristic, not a complete bundler or dependency vulnerability analyzer.

Run

npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js

Quick start

npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js

The server uses stdio, so it can be connected to Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, MCP Inspector, or another compatible MCP client.

Tools at a glance

inspect_artifacts: Inspect local artifact sizes, extension totals, largest files, and dependency manifest names without returning file contents.
inspect_manifest: Inspect bounded metadata for one recognized local dependency manifest without returning its contents or versions.

Try it

After building, connect the server through your MCP client. The repository root also contains smoke-test.mjs for projects covered by the shared harness. A typical tool call starts with inspect_artifacts.

Premium tools

These tools need a license key:

inspect_directory_weights
inspect_size_budget

Buy a key at https://mcp-marketplace.io/server/io-github-mrfentmen-artifact-gauge-mcp and set it in your MCP client config:

"env": { "MCP_LICENSE_KEY": "mcp_live_..." }

The key is checked against MCP Marketplace, cached for 24 hours, and keeps working offline once one check has succeeded. Every other tool on this server stays free.