Joomla Articles MCP server

The Joomla MCP Server enables AI assistants like Claude to interact with Joomla websites through the Joomla Web Services API. This tool makes it easy to create, retrieve, update, and manage articles on your Joomla site directly through an AI assistant.

Requirements

• Python 3.11 or higher
• Joomla 4.x or 5.x with Web Services API plugin enabled
• API Bearer token for authentication

Installation

Setting Up Joomla API Token

Before connecting to your Joomla site, you need to create an API token:

1. Log in to your Joomla Administrator interface
2. Navigate to Users → Manage
3. Click on your Super User account (or desired user)
4. Go to the "Joomla API Token" tab
5. Click "Generate" and copy the displayed token

Local Installation

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the directory:

git clone https://github.com/nasoma/joomla-mcp-server.git
cd joomla-mcp-server

2. Set up a virtual environment and install dependencies using uv:

uv sync

Setting Up With Claude Desktop

Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Joomla Articles MCP": {
      "command": "{{PATH_TO_UV}}",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "{{PATH_TO_PROJECT}}",
        "run",
        "main.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "JOOMLA_BASE_URL": "<your_joomla_website_url>",
        "BEARER_TOKEN": "<your_joomla_api_token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Be sure to replace:

• {{PATH_TO_UV}} with the path to your uv installation (find it by running which uv)
• {{PATH_TO_PROJECT}} with the full path to the project directory
• <your_joomla_website_url> with your actual Joomla site URL
• <your_joomla_api_token> with the token you generated earlier

Available Tools

Retrieving Articles

Use get_joomla_articles() to retrieve all articles from your Joomla website.

Listing Categories

Use get_joomla_categories() to get a formatted list of all content categories.

Creating Articles

Create new articles with create_article():

create_article(
    article_text="Your article content here...",
    title="Optional Article Title",
    category_id=5,  # Optional category ID
    convert_plain_text=True,  # Auto-converts plain text to HTML
    published=True  # Publishes immediately
)

Managing Article State

Change an article's state with manage_article_state():

manage_article_state(
    article_id=123,
    target_state=1  # 1=published, 0=unpublished, 2=archived, -2=trashed
)

Deleting Articles

Remove articles with delete_article():

delete_article(article_id=123)

Updating Articles

Update existing articles with update_article():

update_article(
    article_id=123,
    title="New Title",
    introtext="This is the introduction text that appears before the 'Read more' break",
    fulltext="This is the full content that appears after the 'Read more' break",
    metadesc="Optional meta description for SEO"
)

Note: Both introtext and fulltext are required when updating articles to maintain Joomla's article structure.

Security Considerations

• Treat your Joomla API Token with the same care as your passwords
• The server includes safeguards to sanitize HTML content and prevent XSS attacks
• Always use HTTPS for your Joomla website to secure API communications

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 "Joomla-Articles-MCP" '{"command":"{{PATH_TO_UV}}","args":["--directory","{{PATH_TO_PROJECT}}","run","main.py"],"env":{"JOOMLA_BASE_URL":"<your_joomla_website_url>","BEARER_TOKEN":"<your_joomla_api_token>"}}'

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": {
        "Joomla Articles MCP": {
            "command": "{{PATH_TO_UV}}",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "{{PATH_TO_PROJECT}}",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "JOOMLA_BASE_URL": "<your_joomla_website_url>",
                "BEARER_TOKEN": "<your_joomla_api_token>"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "Joomla Articles MCP": {
            "command": "{{PATH_TO_UV}}",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "{{PATH_TO_PROJECT}}",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "JOOMLA_BASE_URL": "<your_joomla_website_url>",
                "BEARER_TOKEN": "<your_joomla_api_token>"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect