The Discourse MCP Server allows you to search posts on a Discourse forum by implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This server can be integrated with Claude Desktop to enable forum search capabilities directly through the AI assistant.
You can run the Discourse MCP Server using either Docker or NPX. Both methods require setting up configuration with your Discourse forum credentials.
To use the server with Docker, add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"discourse": {
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run",
"-i",
"--rm",
"-e", "DISCOURSE_API_URL=https://try.discourse.org",
"-e", "DISCOURSE_API_KEY=1234",
"-e", "DISCOURSE_API_USERNAME=ash",
"ashdev/discourse-mcp-server"
]
}
}
}
Alternatively, you can run the server using NPX by adding this configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"discourse": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@ashdev/discourse-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"DISCOURSE_API_URL": "https://try.discourse.org",
"DISCOURSE_API_KEY": "1234",
"DISCOURSE_API_USERNAME": "ash"
}
}
}
}
Both installation methods require the following configuration parameters:
https://try.discourse.org)Be sure to replace the example values with your actual Discourse credentials.
Once configured in your Claude Desktop setup, you can use the server's search functionality directly through Claude. The server provides a single tool:
The search_posts tool allows you to search for posts on your configured Discourse forum.
Input: A search query string Output: An array of matching post objects from your Discourse forum
Example prompt to Claude: "Search the Discourse forum for posts about 'getting started with Discourse'"
Claude will use the MCP server to perform the search and return relevant results from your forum.
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "discourse" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@ashdev/discourse-mcp-server"],"env":{"DISCOURSE_API_URL":"https://try.discourse.org","DISCOURSE_API_KEY":"1234","DISCOURSE_API_USERNAME":"ash"}}'See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.
If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.
To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".
When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:
{
"mcpServers": {
"discourse": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@ashdev/discourse-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"DISCOURSE_API_URL": "https://try.discourse.org",
"DISCOURSE_API_KEY": "1234",
"DISCOURSE_API_USERNAME": "ash"
}
}
}
}To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.
Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.
The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.
You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"discourse": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@ashdev/discourse-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"DISCOURSE_API_URL": "https://try.discourse.org",
"DISCOURSE_API_KEY": "1234",
"DISCOURSE_API_USERNAME": "ash"
}
}
}
}3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect