Pipedream MCP server

Pipedream MCP Server allows you to run your own Model Context Protocol server for over 2,700 apps and APIs, powered by Pipedream Connect. With this implementation, you can host MCP servers for yourself or your users, making it easy to connect accounts, configure parameters, and make API requests through tools.

Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing the MCP server, you'll need:

1. A Pipedream account
2. A Pipedream project
3. Pipedream API credentials

Setup Steps

1. Sign up for a Pipedream account at pipedream.com/auth/signup
2. Create a project in Pipedream where accounts connected via MCP will be stored
3. Create a Pipedream OAuth client to get your credentials
4. Set the required environment variables:

PIPEDREAM_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
PIPEDREAM_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
PIPEDREAM_PROJECT_ID=your_project_id
PIPEDREAM_PROJECT_ENVIRONMENT=development

Running with Docker

If you have Docker installed locally, you can build and run the container:

docker build -t pipedream-connect .
docker run -d --name pd-mcp -p 3010:3010 --env-file .env pipedream-connect:latest

This exposes a generic MCP server at http://localhost:3010/:external_user_id/:app

Usage

Server Types

The MCP server can be used in two different ways:

1. App-specific Server

Access pattern: /{external_user_id}/{app}

This approach provides an endpoint for each specific app. All tools available for that app will be accessible at that endpoint.

2. Dynamic Server

Access pattern: /{external_user_id}

This is an experimental version that relies on tools being able to update dynamically.

Key Concepts

When running MCP servers for your application, you'll likely want to use the SSE interface. The SSE server accepts two route parameters:

1. external_user_id - Your user's unique identifier in your system
2. app - The app's "name slug" (unique identifier for the app)

For example, if user "123" wants to connect to the Slack MCP server, your MCP client would make a request to the /123/slack route.

Testing with the Inspector

After starting your server, you can test it using the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

Use one of these URLs in the inspector:

• http://localhost:3010/v1/{external_user_id}/{app} for Streamable HTTP Transport
• http://localhost:3010/{external_user_id}/{app} for SSE Transport

Debugging

You can enable debug mode to see all requests and responses going to the Connect API:

PD_SDK_DEBUG=true pnpm dev:http

Advanced Configuration

Starting with Streamable HTTP Transport

For development purposes, you can start the server with:

pnpm dev:http

Using Stdio Transport

Stdio transport has only been tested with the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector bun src/stdio.ts

After connecting in the inspector, press "List Tools" to fetch the list of available MCP tools.

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 "pipedream" '{"command":"npx","args":["@pipedream/mcp"]}'

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": {
        "pipedream": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@pipedream/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 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": {
        "pipedream": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@pipedream/mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect