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Stata Finder

How It Works

Since most users install Stata in default locations, we created the StataFinder module to automatically locate Stata executables on your device, allowing for a seamless experience in most cases.

Detection Flow

  1. Environment Variable Priority: First checks if the STATA_CLI environment variable is set; if set, uses it directly
  2. Automatic Detection: If no environment variable is set, automatically searches for Stata based on the operating system
  3. Version Selection: When multiple Stata versions are found, automatically selects the highest priority version

Platform Differences

  • macOS: Searches /usr/local/bin directory and Stata.app in /Applications
  • Windows: Searches default installation paths (Program Files) and all available drives
  • Linux: Searches /usr/local/bin and its subdirectories containing "stata"

Version Priority

When multiple Stata versions exist on the system, selection rules are as follows:

  1. Edition Type: MP > SE > BE > IC > default
  2. Version Number: Within the same edition type, selects the higher version (e.g., Stata 19 > Stata 18)

Not Found?

If uvx stata-mcp --usable remind you not found your Stata, don't worry. If you are sure about you have Stata on your device, follow the steps bellow to solve it.

macOS

  1. Open your Stata.app, you can find Stata/MP 19.0 or other similar version at the right of Apple logo, click it.
  2. Then, click install terminal utility.
  3. Now, you can close Stata, and run uvx stata-mcp --usable again.
  4. If there is still not found, you can open your terminal and run which stata-mp (or if your version is StataSE or StataBE, you can relace stata-mp with stata-se or stata-be).
  5. Set environment variable STATA_CLI to the path you got from step 4.

for example: 

sepinetam@sepine-macbook ~ % which stata-mp
/usr/local/bin/stata-mp
sepinetam@sepine-macbook ~ % export STATA_CLI="/usr/local/bin/stata-mp"
sepinetam@sepine-macbook ~ % uvx stata-mcp --usable

===== Stata MCP Configuration Check =====

Operating system (Current: macOS): ✅ PASSED
Python version (Current: 3.13.5): ✅ PASSED
MCP library installation: ✅ PASSED
Locating Stata CLI...
Stata CLI (Path: /usr/local/bin/stata-mp): ✅ PASSED
Testing Stata execution...
Stata execution test: ✅ PASSED

Checking required directories...
Base Dir (Path: /Users/sepinetam/Documents/stata-mcp-folder): ✅ PASSED
Log Dir (Path: /Users/sepinetam/Documents/stata-mcp-folder/stata-mcp-log): ✅ PASSED
Dofile Dir (Path: /Users/sepinetam/Documents/stata-mcp-folder/stata-mcp-dofile): ✅ PASSED
Result Dir (Path: /Users/sepinetam/Documents/stata-mcp-folder/stata-mcp-result): ✅ PASSED

===== Summary =====

✅ Success! Your Stata-MCP setup is ready to use.
You can now use Stata-MCP with your preferred MCP client (Claude, Cherry Studio, etc.)

More over, write the config into ~/.zshrc like this:

cat >> ~/.zshrc <<'EOF'
# Stata CLI path
export STATA_CLI="$(command -v stata-mp 2>/dev/null)"
EOF

source ~/.zshrc
echo "$STATA_CLI"

Linux

  1. If you're using a Linux machine without a GUI, you should know where your stata-mp executable is located, and I'll assume you're an experienced computer user.
  2. Simply set the environment variable STATA_CLI to your stata-mp executable path, then run uvx stata-mcp --usable again. If there are no errors, the configuration is successful.

Windows

Windows configuration is relatively more complex, but the core approach is similar to macOS and Linux. You need to find your Stata.exe (or similarly named) file, then set the Stata.exe path to the environment variable STATA_CLI. There are many online resources about how to set environment variables in Windows, so you can search for that yourself. Here's how to find the actual Stata.exe file: 1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard, search for "Stata", and find the Stata you're using. 2. Right-click and select "Open file location". At this point, there will usually be only two files in this directory - these are not the actual executable files. Right-click and select "Open file location again" to find the real executable file, then set its path to the environment variable STATA_CLI. 3. Run uvx stata-mcp --usable again. If there are no errors, the configuration is successful.