team-estimates with your AI assistant

What your AI assistant can do

As organizer: create sessions (create_session) or take over one created in the browser (adopt_session), reveal (reveal), start a new round (reset_round), choose the scale (set_estimation_unit), manage custom scales (create_custom_scale, update_custom_scale, delete_custom_scale), control auto-reveal and the timer (set_auto_reveal, set_timer), fetch the organizer link (get_organizer_link) and delete the session (delete_session).

As participant: join and leave (join_session, leave_session), rename itself (rename), estimate (submit_estimate), watch as a spectator (set_spectator) and, after reveal, react to others' estimates with an emoji (add_comment, remove_comment).

Reading: the current state of a session (get_session_state) and all known sessions (list_sessions).

Requirement

Node.js 22 or newer. Your AI assistant starts the server itself when needed, with:

npx -y team-estimates-mcp

Setup in Claude Code

Install the team-estimates plugin. It brings the server and the ready-made workflows as /team-estimates:… commands:

claude plugin marketplace add https://team-estimates.de/claude-plugins/marketplace.json
claude plugin install team-estimates@team-estimates

For the shorter /tes:…, also run claude plugin install tes@team-estimates. Then run /reload-plugins or start a new session.

Without the plugin, add only the server. The workflows are then called /mcp__team-estimates__…:

claude mcp add team-estimates -- npx -y team-estimates-mcp

Use one of the two, not both. If you switch to the plugin, remove the server you added yourself with claude mcp remove team-estimates.

Setup in GitHub Copilot (VS Code, agent mode)

Add the server to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "team-estimates": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "team-estimates-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Start it from the mcp.json editor or with MCP: List Servers, and switch Copilot Chat to agent mode.

Or: set up with a prompt

Paste this prompt into Claude Code or Copilot agent mode, and the assistant sets itself up:

Set up the team-estimates MCP server for me.
1. Check that Node.js 22 or newer is installed (node --version). If not, stop and tell me.
2. If you are Claude Code, run: claude plugin marketplace add https://team-estimates.de/claude-plugins/marketplace.json
   and then: claude plugin install team-estimates@team-estimates
   If you are GitHub Copilot in VS Code, add this server to .vscode/mcp.json (create the file if needed, keep existing servers):
   "team-estimates": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "team-estimates-mcp"] }
3. Tell me how to reload the MCP servers in this client.
4. After the reload, call the list_sessions tool to check that team-estimates responds. Do not create a session just to test the setup.

Estimating for you, or on its own

Your assistant can be two participants in the same session. As your proxy (proxy) it only submits values you give it. As an AI team member (agent) it estimates independently and is shown to everyone with 🤖 before its name, for example “🤖 Otter”. It explains its reasoning to you in the chat, because comments in a session are emoji reactions.

While your AI assistant is running, it is shown online. When you close it, it goes offline, just like a closed browser tab.

Ready-made workflows

facilitate-session runs a round as organizer, estimate-as-agent estimates as an AI team member, vote-for-me votes for you. With the plugin, Claude Code calls them /team-estimates:… or /tes:…, followed by the session id, e.g. /tes:vote-for-me <session-id>. Without the plugin they are /mcp__team-estimates__…, in Copilot /mcp.team-estimates.….

Your access codes

Organizer codes and participant tokens never appear in the chat. They are stored only on your machine in ~/.team-estimates/mcp-sessions.json, readable only by you. The one exception: to take over a session created in the browser, you give your assistant its organizer code once.

Limitations

The GitHub integration (linking an issue, writing the estimate back to GitHub) is not available through the MCP server, because it deliberately never handles GitHub credentials. Use the web UI for it; your assistant still sees an issue linked there.

The GitHub Copilot coding agent (in the cloud) is not supported: it only runs briefly and can neither keep access codes nor stay online.