Ref Review 2026
Documentation search for coding agents
What is Ref?
Ref is an MCP server that gives AI coding tools and agents token-efficient access to documentation for APIs, services, and libraries from the web, GitHub, and private repos. It provides ref_search_documentation and ref_read_url tools.
Best for
Mixed
Use cases
- Coding agent documentation lookup
- API reference search
Key features
ref_search_documentation
ref_read_url
Token-efficient search
Private repo indexing
OpenAI deep research support
Pricing
Model
freemium
Price range
Free tier with paid plans (typical for MCP doc tools).
Free tier
Yes
Integrations
Ref integrates with 4 tools including:
CursorClaude CodeMCP clientsOpenAI
Ref alternatives
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