qlows MCP connector

Bring your live qlows RFP/bid deals — and the public tender corpus across 35 WTO-GPA countries — into Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, or any Model Context Protocol client.

qlows-mcp is a tiny local connector. It runs on your machine as a stdio MCP server and securely proxies tool calls to the qlows API (https://app.qlows.com). It stores nothing but your token, contains no backend logic, and is read-only — your AI can pull deal context, never write back.

Quotes. Flows. Close. qlows preps the bid; your AI drafts from real, grounded context. Learn more at https://qlows.com.

Install

One-click install for the common clients (or copy the JSON snippet below):

Quick start (≈ 1 minute)

# 1. Connect your account (opens the browser, you paste a token back)
npx @qlows/mcp login

# 2. Verify it works
npx @qlows/mcp test          # → prints the available tools

# 3. Print the snippet for your AI client
npx @qlows/mcp config

Then add qlows to your client (example: Claude Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client. If you didn't run login, pass the token instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"],
      "env": { "QLOWS_TOKEN": "qlw_live_…" }
    }
  }
}

You'll need a qlows account to mint a personal token (free tier works for tender search). Sign up + mint at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.

Try these prompts

After connecting, ask your AI:

1. "Use the qlows MCP to list my open deals, then summarize the top 3 risks in the most urgent one."
2. "Search public tenders for Zero-Trust networking in the EU closing in the next 30 days, and give me the qlows link for each."
3. "Read the deal <deal-id> from qlows and draft the Technical Approach section, grounding every claim in the compliance items and our approved answers."

What you get

All tools are read-only. Personal-data tools need a personal token; the tender tools also work on a free account.

| Tool | What it does | |---|---| | list_deals | Your RFP/bid deals (lightweight metadata) | | get_deal_snapshot | Full deal snapshot — RFP summary + compliance + Q-routing + intelligence | | search_compliance_items | Keyword search across compliance items | | get_q_routing_state | Sections + questions + answers + assignment state | | get_intelligence_summary | AI summary + tailoring detection | | list_questions | Flat question list | | list_competitors | Per-deal competitor analysis | | search_tenders | Public tender corpus search (FTS + filters) | | search_tenders_for_my_company | Personalised semantic tender search | | get_tender_detail | Full enriched record for one tender |

Plus three prompts (slash-commands) — find_matching_tenders, draft_rfp_section, weekly_pipeline_review — see Skills below.

The connector discovers tools and prompts live from the server, so new qlows capabilities appear without updating this package.

Skills

Three things qlows is built to do inside your AI. Each maps to a prompt (a slash-command your client exposes) plus the read-only tools it drives — all grounded in real qlows data, never invented.

🔎 Find matching tenders

Prompt: find_matching_tenders (args: industry, optional country, optional deadline_within_days). Drives search_tenders and returns each live notice with its canonical qlows_url. Full context: https://qlows.com/platform/qlows-mcp.

"Find open zero-trust networking tenders in Germany closing in the next 30 days, with the qlows link for each."

✍️ Draft an RFP section, grounded

Prompt: draft_rfp_section (args: deal_id, section). Pulls the deal's compliance grid and approved answers via get_deal_snapshot + search_compliance_items, then drafts the section with every claim traced to source — no fabricated capabilities, dates, or past performance.

"Draft the Technical Approach for deal <id>, grounded in the compliance items and our approved answers."

🗂️ Review your pipeline

Prompt: weekly_pipeline_review (no args). Uses list_deals + get_q_routing_state to produce a prioritized to-do list: what's due, what's blocked, and the next action per deal.

"Review my qlows pipeline and tell me which bids need attention first."

The public tender skills work on a free account; the deal skills need a personal token. See the full platform overview.

Commands

| Command | Description | |---|---| | qlows-mcp | Run the MCP server over stdio (how clients launch it) | | qlows-mcp login | Sign in via browser and store a token in ~/.qlows/config.json (0600) | | qlows-mcp test | List available tools to verify your token | | qlows-mcp config | Print config path + a client setup snippet | | qlows-mcp help | Usage |

Environment variables

• QLOWS_TOKEN — API token (overrides the stored one).
• QLOWS_BASE_URL — defaults to https://app.qlows.com; point at http://localhost:3000 for local testing.

How it works

MCP client (Claude/Cursor)  ⇄  qlows-mcp (stdio, local)  ⇄  https://app.qlows.com/api/mcp/<token>/rpc

The connector is a transparent JSON-RPC proxy. It does not implement tools — it forwards initialize, tools/list, tools/call, prompts/*, and resources/* to the qlows server and relays the responses. The token travels in the request to qlows over HTTPS; treat it like a password.

Troubleshooting

• No qlows token found — run qlows-mcp login, or set QLOWS_TOKEN.
• Token missing, invalid, or expired — the token was revoked or expired; mint a new one at https://app.qlows.com/mcp and re-run login.
• Rate limit exceeded — 60 requests/min per token; wait and retry.
• Client doesn't see qlows — restart the client after editing config; validate the JSON (a stray comma silently breaks it); check the client's MCP logs.

Verify end-to-end with the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx @qlows/mcp

Privacy & security

• Read-only: no tool writes back to your qlows account.
• The connector stores only your token, locally, at ~/.qlows/config.json (permissions 0600). It collects no telemetry.
• Tokens are SHA-256-hashed at rest on the qlows server and can be revoked instantly at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.
• Privacy policy: https://qlows.com/privacy

Roadmap

• One-click browser auto-capture for login (loopback callback).
• Desktop Extension (.mcpb) bundle for a true one-click Claude Desktop install (the badge above links to setup docs in the meantime).
• Anthropic Connector Directory listing — the OAuth 2.1 + PKCE endpoint is live on the qlows server; directory submission is tracked as a follow-up.

Development

npm install
npm run build
QLOWS_TOKEN=… QLOWS_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 node dist/index.js test

Publishing is automated on v* tags (see .github/workflows/release.yml): npm publish → MCP Registry publish via GitHub OIDC.

##Badges

License

MIT