MCP, Hooks & Per-Project Settings

Connect tools via MCP, append custom instructions, run hooks when a turn finishes, and configure per-folder rules, env vars, and defaults.

Dices exposes several power-user configuration surfaces in Settings and on individual project folders: MCP servers, custom instructions, hooks, and per-project settings. Together they let you extend what the agent can do and tailor its behavior per project.

MCP servers

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is how you connect external tools and data sources to the agent. An MCP server you add becomes available to the agent every turn — it can call the server’s tools or read its data as part of doing its work.

Dices supports two transport types:

• stdio servers — launched by a local command.
• http servers — reached at a url.

Examples

A stdio server, launched by a command:

{
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/project"]
}

An http server, reached at a URL:

{
  "url": "https://mcp.example.com/sse"
}

Tip: Use stdio for tools that run locally on your machine, and http for hosted services you reach over the network.

Custom instructions

Custom instructions are free-form text that Dices appends to every turn. They stack on top of any project CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md — they don’t replace them.

Use this for standing preferences you want applied everywhere, for example:

Prefer TypeScript over JavaScript.
Always write tests for new functions.
Keep responses concise and avoid emojis.

Hooks

A hook is a shell command that Dices runs automatically in the chat’s folder when a turn finishes. This is ideal for the “every time the agent stops, do X” chores you’d otherwise run by hand.

Common examples:

# Run the test suite after every turn
npm test

# Auto-format the project after every turn
prettier --write .

Note: The hook runs in the chat’s working folder, so relative paths and project scripts resolve the way you’d expect from that directory.

Per-project settings

Click the gear on a folder in the sidebar to open settings scoped to just that project. These apply only to chats inside that folder:

Examples

Per-folder rules:

This is a Next.js app. Use the App Router, never the Pages Router.
Database access goes through the repository layer in src/db.

Per-folder environment variables:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost:5432/myapp_dev
NODE_ENV=development

These environment variables are injected into the agent and any tools it runs in this folder, so commands the agent executes see them too.

Tip: Set a per-project default model and permission so a sensitive production repo always opens new chats in a more cautious mode, while a scratch project can default to something faster and more permissive.

Related

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