get_item_source

Full registry JSON for an item, including files[].content with the actual source. The heaviest tool by token cost — use it only after the agent has committed.

get_item_source returns the complete registry item, including the TSX source for every file. It's what the agent calls when it wants to read the code — to adapt it, splice pieces of it, or understand how a pattern is built.

When to use

The agent needs to read or modify the source rather than install it verbatim.
Comparing two components' implementations, not just their metadata.
Debugging "how does X work?" prompts where get_item metadata isn't enough.

If the agent just wants to install the component, skip this and go straight to get_install_command. The install URL pulls source directly from /r/* server-side — no need to route it through the agent.

How it works

Uses the same universal resolver as get_item (services/registry.ts#getRegistryItem). The only difference is that each files[i].content is kept intact.

The content that ships back has already been sanitized by the resolver:

JSDoc blocks at the top of the file are stripped (@title, @description, @premium, @related, @questions — those are metadata, not code).
Path aliases are normalized. @repo/shadcn-ui/components/ui/ and ~/components/ui/ both become @/components/ui/ so the file is paste-compatible with a standard shadcn setup.
For theme registry items, cssVars is built up from the theme's lightTheme / darkTheme objects rather than shipping raw TSX.
For icons, the SVG body is cleaned (fill/stroke/g-wrapper attributes stripped) and wrapped in a React component.

Source: lib/mcp/tools.ts#get_item_source + services/registry.ts.

Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Notes
`name`	`string`	✓	Registry slug

Response

Same shape as get_item, with populated content on each file:

{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema/registry-item.json",
  "name": "hero-announcement",
  "type": "registry:block",
  "title": "React Announcement Hero Block",
  "description": "A hero section with an announcement banner above the headline.",
  "author": "shadcn.io",
  "homepage": "https://www.shadcn.io/blocks/hero-announcement",
  "dependencies": ["lucide-react"],
  "registryDependencies": ["button", "badge"],
  "files": [
    {
      "path": "blocks/hero/hero-announcement.tsx",
      "type": "registry:block",
      "target": "components/blocks/hero/hero-announcement.tsx",
      "content": "\"use client\"\n\nimport { ArrowRight } from \"lucide-react\"\n...\n"
    }
  ]
}

Premium items are gated: if your Pro subscription is inactive, the tool handler itself doesn't run — the outer auth layer returns 403 before reaching the tool. For authenticated-but-non-Pro users, the /r/* endpoint redacts content; get_item_source via MCP never returns a redacted payload because the whole endpoint is Pro-gated.

Example prompts

use shadcnio and show me the source of hero-announcement so I can match its layout in a different component

use shadcnio to fetch the source of use-debounce — I want to see how it handles cleanup

use shadcnio to pull the source of pricing-grouped-comparison-table and tell me which parts would need changing to show 4 tiers instead of 3

Manual invocation

curl -s -X POST "https://www.shadcn.io/api/mcp?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "get_item_source",
      "arguments": { "name": "hero-announcement" }
    }
  }' | jq '.result.content[0].text | fromjson | .files[0].content' -r

The -r on the final jq emits the file content without JSON-quoting — pipe to a file or to bat for pretty-printing.

Tips + gotchas

Most expensive tool by token count. A typical block is 200–600 lines of TSX. Only call this after the agent has a specific target, not during browse.
Multi-file items — some components ship multiple files (files: [{...}, {...}]). Iterate the array; don't assume files[0].
Prefer get_install_command for installation. Having the agent pull source and paste it into your project is a token-hungry roundabout. The install command lets shadcn add pull source directly server-to-server.
JSDoc metadata is stripped — @title, @description, @opening, @related, @questions appear in the top-level fields (title, description, etc.) but not in the returned source. If the agent needs JSDoc, use get_item to read the structured version.