Nylas MCP server

This MCP server implements the Model Context Protocol for interfacing with the Nylas API, providing resources, tools, and prompts that help developers integrate email, calendar, and contacts functionality into their applications. It offers an experimental but comprehensive way to learn about and implement Nylas API integrations.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the project:

npm run build

Running the MCP Server

Using stdio (for direct integration with MCP clients)

npm start

Using HTTP with SSE (for remote connections)

MCP_MODE=http npm start

You can customize the HTTP server port (default is 3000):

MCP_MODE=http PORT=8080 npm start

Connecting with MCP Clients

Claude Desktop

1. Start the MCP server in stdio mode
2. In Claude Desktop, navigate to Settings > Servers
3. Click "Add Server"
4. Select "Run a local command" and enter:

node /path/to/nylas-api-mcp/dist/index.js

5. Give your server a name (e.g., "Nylas API")
6. After adding, you can access all Nylas API resources, tools, and prompts in your Claude conversations

Cursor

1. Start the MCP server in stdio mode
2. In Cursor, add a new MCP server in the settings
3. Configure it with the command:

node /path/to/nylas-api-mcp/dist/index.js

Available Resources

The server provides documentation resources including:

• General Nylas API overviews
• Authentication guides
• API endpoint documentation (email, calendar, contacts, webhooks)
• Code samples in multiple programming languages

Interactive Tools

The server includes tools to help with development:

• generate-auth-code: Creates authentication code in your preferred language
• generate-endpoint-code: Produces code for specific API endpoints
• search-api-docs: Searches through Nylas API documentation

Pre-built Prompts

The server includes prompts for common scenarios:

• Getting started with Nylas API
• Authentication guides
• Feature-specific integration help
• Solutions for specific use cases
• SDK examples in various languages
• Debugging assistance

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.