Edge Impulse MCP Server

An Edge Impulse Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for local and hosted MCP clients. It lets Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and other MCP-capable agents call Edge Impulse Studio APIs through a standard MCP tool interface.

Published package: @edgeimpulse/mcp-server

CLI entrypoint: edge-impulse-mcp

Package naming

@edgeimpulse/mcp-server is a scoped npm package. The @edgeimpulse prefix means the package is published under the Edge Impulse npm organization, similar to packages such as @sentry/node, @stripe/stripe-js, @aws-sdk/client-s3, and @google-cloud/storage.

The package name is scoped, but the executable command is unscoped:

edge-impulse-mcp

Install

npx @edgeimpulse/mcp-server

Or install globally:

npm install -g @edgeimpulse/mcp-server
edge-impulse-mcp

Configuration

Set one Edge Impulse credential:

export EI_API_KEY=ei_...
# or
export EI_JWT_TOKEN=...

Optional:

export EI_HOST=https://studio.edgeimpulse.com/v1

Use a project API key when you want to limit the MCP server to one Edge Impulse project. Use a JWT when you want the server to access all projects and organizations available to that Edge Impulse user.

Users can get a JWT from the Edge Impulse Studio API docs:

Get a JWT token from the Edge Impulse API playground

When running through a local secrets proxy, set:

export EI_HOST=http://localhost:4800/v1

MCP client configuration

This package can be used by any MCP client that supports stdio servers. Configure the client to run either:

npx -y @edgeimpulse/mcp-server

or, after global install:

edge-impulse-mcp

Pass credentials through the MCP client's environment configuration, shell environment, or a secret manager. Do not paste credentials into prompts.

Claude Desktop example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "edge-impulse": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@edgeimpulse/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "EI_API_KEY": "ei_...",
        "EI_HOST": "https://studio.edgeimpulse.com/v1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code example

After installing the package globally:

claude mcp add edge-impulse -- edge-impulse-mcp
claude mcp list

Or use npx directly:

claude mcp add edge-impulse -- npx -y @edgeimpulse/mcp-server

Example prompt:

Show me my Edge Impulse projects and summarize any active jobs.

Local Usage

Run the stdio MCP server:

EI_API_KEY=ei_... npx @edgeimpulse/mcp-server

Run the HTTP MCP server for a hosted or local remote-MCP deployment:

npm install
npm run start:http

For production hosted MCP, deploy the HTTP server behind HTTPS and an authentication layer. Do not expose a shared Edge Impulse API key, JWT, HMAC key, or other Studio credential to untrusted users. For multi-user hosted MCP, each user should authenticate through the platform and the server should call Edge Impulse with that user's token or an appropriately scoped project credential.

Useful Agent Workflows

Agents can use the MCP tools to:

• List projects visible to the configured credential.
• Inspect project metadata and deployment targets.
• Check active jobs and job status.
• Fetch job logs for training, deployment, or optimization runs.
• Help diagnose project configuration and suggest next actions.

Higher-risk write actions should be gated with explicit user confirmation in the MCP client or hosted control plane.

Security

• Do not commit EI_API_KEY, EI_JWT_TOKEN, HMAC keys, npm tokens, or hosted MCP secrets.
• Prefer project API keys for local demos and scoped access.
• Use JWTs only when the user intentionally wants account-level access across projects.
• Treat Edge Impulse HMAC keys as sensitive credentials. They can be used by devices and integrations for signed ingestion flows and should not be exposed to agents, chat transcripts, logs, screenshots, or public issue reports.
• Set EI_HOST explicitly when targeting a non-production Edge Impulse instance.
• Rotate any token that was pasted into chat, logs, screenshots, or CI output.

Local auth warning: for local stdio usage, provide credentials through your shell environment, MCP client configuration, OS keychain, or a secret manager. Do not put secrets in prompts. Keep .env files out of git, restrict their file permissions, and do not ask agents to read, summarize, or print them.

Edge Impulse also plans to offer a hosted MCP server with managed authentication, so users can authenticate through Edge Impulse rather than passing API keys, JWTs, or HMAC keys into local agent environments. For platform integrations and enterprise deployments, prefer a hosted MCP service with per-user authentication, scoped tokens, auditing, revocation, and confirmation gates for write actions. This can align with MCP's Enterprise-Managed Authorization model: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/auth/enterprise-managed-authorization

Notes

This npm package starts the stdio MCP server by default. For hosted remote MCP, run npm run start:http from this package or deploy the HTTP server separately behind HTTPS and authentication.