Trello MCP server for AI agents

The Claude MCP Trello server provides tools for interacting with Trello boards, enabling seamless integration with Trello's API while automatically handling rate limiting, type safety, and error handling. It allows you to manage cards, lists, and activities on your Trello boards through a standardized interface.

Features

Full Trello Board Integration: Interact with cards, lists, and board activities
Built-in Rate Limiting: Respects Trello's API limits (300 requests/10s per API key, 100 requests/10s per token)
Type-Safe Implementation: Written in TypeScript with comprehensive type definitions
Input Validation: Robust validation for all API inputs
Error Handling: Graceful error handling with informative messages

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js 16 or higher
npm or yarn

Integration with Claude Desktop

To integrate this MCP server with Claude Desktop, add the following configuration to your ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trello": {
      "command": "{YOUR_NODE_PATH}", // for example: /opt/homebrew/bin/node
      "args": [
        "{YOUR_PATH}/claude-mcp-trello/build/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRELLO_API_KEY": "{YOUR_KEY}",
        "TRELLO_TOKEN": "{YOUR_TOKEN}",
        "TRELLO_BOARD_ID": "{YOUR_BOARD_ID}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace {YOUR_NODE_PATH}, {YOUR_PATH}, {YOUR_KEY}, {YOUR_TOKEN}, and {YOUR_BOARD_ID} with the appropriate values for your environment.

Available Tools

Working with Lists

Get Lists

Retrieves all lists in the board.

{
  name: "trello_get_lists",
  arguments: {}
}

Add List

Adds a new list to the board.

{
  name: "trello_add_list",
  arguments: {
    name: string; // Name of the new list
  }
}

Archive List

Archives (closes) the specified list.

{
  name: "trello_archive_list",
  arguments: {
    listId: string; // The ID of the list to archive
  }
}

Working with Cards

Get Cards by List

Retrieves a list of cards contained in the specified list ID.

{
  name: "trello_get_cards_by_list",
  arguments: {
    listId: string; // Trello list ID
  }
}

Add Card

Adds a card to the specified list.

{
  name: "trello_add_card",
  arguments: {
    listId: string;       // The ID of the list to add to
    name: string;         // The title of the card
    description?: string; // Optional: details of the card
    dueDate?: string;     // Optional: due date (e.g., ISO8601)
    labels?: string[];    // Optional: array of label IDs
  }
}

Update Card

Updates the content of a card.

{
  name: "trello_update_card",
  arguments: {
    cardId: string;       // The ID of the card to be updated
    name?: string;        // Optional: updated title
    description?: string; // Optional: updated description
    dueDate?: string;     // Optional: updated due date (e.g., ISO8601)
    labels?: string[];    // Optional: updated array of label IDs
  }
}

Archive Card

Archives (closes) the specified card.

{
  name: "trello_archive_card",
  arguments: {
    cardId: string; // The ID of the card to archive
  }
}

Get My Cards

Retrieves all cards related to your account.

{
  name: "trello_get_my_cards",
  arguments: {}
}

Activity and Search

Get Recent Activity

Retrieves the most recent board activity. The limit argument can specify how many to retrieve (default: 10).

{
  name: "trello_get_recent_activity",
  arguments: {
    limit?: number; // Optional: number of activities to retrieve
  }
}

Search All Boards

Performs a cross-board search across all boards in the workspace (organization), depending on plan/permissions.

{
  name: "trello_search_all_boards",
  arguments: {
    query: string;   // Search keyword
    limit?: number;  // Optional: max number of results (default: 10)
  }
}

Rate Limiting

The server implements a token bucket algorithm for rate limiting to comply with Trello's API limits:

300 requests per 10 seconds per API key
100 requests per 10 seconds per token

Rate limiting is handled automatically, and requests will be queued if limits are reached.

Error Handling

The server provides detailed error messages for various scenarios:

Invalid input parameters
Rate limit exceeded
API authentication errors
Network issues
Invalid board/list/card IDs

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "trello" '{"command":"{YOUR_NODE_PATH}","args":["{YOUR_PATH}/claude-mcp-trello/build/index.js"],"env":{"TRELLO_API_KEY":"{YOUR_KEY}","TRELLO_TOKEN":"{YOUR_TOKEN}","TRELLO_BOARD_ID":"{YOUR_BOARD_ID}"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

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.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

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": {
        "trello": {
            "command": "{YOUR_NODE_PATH}",
            "args": [
                "{YOUR_PATH}/claude-mcp-trello/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "TRELLO_API_KEY": "{YOUR_KEY}",
                "TRELLO_TOKEN": "{YOUR_TOKEN}",
                "TRELLO_BOARD_ID": "{YOUR_BOARD_ID}"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

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.

How to use the MCP server

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.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

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

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "trello": {
            "command": "{YOUR_NODE_PATH}",
            "args": [
                "{YOUR_PATH}/claude-mcp-trello/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "TRELLO_API_KEY": "{YOUR_KEY}",
                "TRELLO_TOKEN": "{YOUR_TOKEN}",
                "TRELLO_BOARD_ID": "{YOUR_BOARD_ID}"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect