API Now! Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

An official Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the API Now! platform. This server acts as a programmatic bridge enabling LLMs and AI agents (such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code) to manage, design, and deploy no-code API schemas directly from their chat environment.

Architecture Overview

The API Now! platform provides an AI-first API design and management control plane using two core schemas:

1. Data Domain Models: Representation of data entities, namespaces, structures, validation rules, and semantics.
2. API Models: Expositions of the data domain to the public web (CRUD endpoints, path layouts, security rules, sessions, authorization, pagination, and rate limiting).

This MCP server translates high-level agent instructions into precise modifications on these models, validating changes locally using the @api-now/core package before patching them back to the control plane.

Tool Directory

The server exposes tools grouped into five distinct areas.

1. Authentication Tools (registerAuthTools)

Manage connection profiles and session credentials with the API Now! platform.

• configure_auth: Updates token, base API URL, and default organization. Validates credentials with the control plane before persisting.
• get_auth_status: Checks connection status and displays current user info and active organization.

2. Data Domain Tools (registerDomainTools)

Operate on schemas defining data entities, properties, associations, namespaces, and semantics.

• Domain Management: create_domain, read_domain, search_domains, update_domain, delete_domain.
• Structural Elements:
  • add_namespace, update_namespace, remove_namespace
  • add_model, update_model, remove_model
  • add_entity, update_entity, remove_entity
  • add_property, update_property, remove_property
  • add_association, update_association, remove_association
• Data Semantics & IntelliSense:
  • list_intelisense_helpers: Lists available behaviors/helper modules to enrich domain logic.
  • apply_intelisense_helper: Enriches properties on an entity with semantic traits.
• Deletion & Removal Impact Analysis:
  • analyze_domain_deletion_impact: Evaluates data integrity impacts prior to removing components.
  • analyze_foreign_domain_removal_impact: Assesses impact of removing external data domain dependencies.

3. API Modeling Tools (registerApiTools)

Design endpoints, expose domain entities, configure security, and manage schema migrations.

• API Management: create_api_model, read_api_model, search_api_models, update_api_model, delete_api_model.
• Configurations:
  • attach_domain_to_api: Binds a published catalog data domain version to the API.
  • configure_api_session: Sets up authentication methods (OAuth, Token, Session secret), cookies, JWTs, and global pagination.
  • configure_api_rules: Declares API-wide access policies, rate limits, and metadata (licenses, contact info).
• Exposing Entities:
  • expose_entity: Projects a data entity into an API endpoint resource path.
  • update_exposed_entity: Changes pagination settings or paths.
  • remove_exposed_entity: Un-exposes an entity and its nested children from the API.
• Endpoint Actions:
  • add_entity_action, update_entity_action, remove_entity_action: Configures supported HTTP actions (Create, Read, Update, Delete, List, Search) with action-level security policies and pagination overrides.
• Safe Domain Upgrades:
  • analyze_api_domain_update: Checks compatibility of a new data domain version against exposed API endpoints and returns a DomainUpdateReport. It caches the report under a short-lived key to save tokens.
  • apply_api_domain_update: Safely executes the schema migration using the cached reportKey.

4. Catalog Tools (registerCatalogTools)

Inspect and search domain schemas published on public or organization-level catalogs.

• list_catalogs: Fetches accessible catalog domains.
• search_public_catalog: Searches public catalog definitions.
• publish_catalog: Publishes an immutable version of a domain model to the catalog.

5. Utility Tools (registerUtilityTools)

Shared utilities for key generation.

• generate_key: Generates a standard Nanoid key compliant with API Now! core models. (Agents should always pre-generate keys through this tool or rely on tool responses instead of inventing random IDs).

Installation

Install the package globally or locally in your workspace:

npm install @api-now/mcp
# or globally
npm install -g @api-now/mcp

Configuration & Integration

The server runs as a standard MCP server communicating over standard input/output (stdio).

1. Claude Desktop Integration

Add the server to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "api-now": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@api-now/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "APINOW_TOKEN": "your-personal-access-token",
        "APINOW_ORG": "your-default-org-id"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Cursor Integration

To use this with Cursor:

1. Open Cursor Settings -> Features -> MCP.
2. Click + Add New MCP Server.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Name: API Now
   • Type: stdio
   • Command: npx -y @api-now/mcp
   • Environment Variables: Add APINOW_TOKEN and APINOW_ORG if preferred (the server can also be configured dynamically in-session via configure_auth).

Local Development

If you want to build and modify the server locally:

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• npm

Setup and Build

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/api-now/mcp.git
   cd mcp
   npm install

2. Build the TypeScript source code:

   npm run build

3. Run the server in development mode:

   npm run dev

Quality and Testing

• Run typechecks: npm run typecheck
• Run tests: npm run test
• Format code: npm run format

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for more details.