MCP server

create-nodepress-app mcp runs a Model Context Protocol server for a NodePress site. An AI assistant that supports MCP can then look up your content types, read and search published content, run GraphQL queries and, with an API key, draft new entries.

The server talks to the site’s public API over HTTP, so it runs on your computer (or wherever the assistant runs), not on the NodePress server. It needs Node.js 18 or newer.

Configuration

Variable	Required	Meaning
NODEPRESS_URL	yes	The backend’s URL, e.g. https://cms.example.com (a trailing /api is fine)
NODEPRESS_API_KEY	no	An API key (np_…), sent as X-API-Key. Needed for writes.

Without a key, the server is read-only and sees published content only. To let the assistant create and update entries, give it a key with write or all access, limited to the content types it should touch. See API keys.

The server reads published entries even with a key. Drafts are never returned.

Adding it to your assistant

Most MCP clients take the same JSON block. For Claude Desktop, add it to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config); for Cursor, to .cursor/mcp.json:

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nodepress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "create-nodepress-app", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NODEPRESS_URL": "https://cms.example.com",
        "NODEPRESS_API_KEY": "np_…"
      }
    }
  }
}

Leave out NODEPRESS_API_KEY for read-only access. Restart the assistant after editing the file.

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add nodepress \
  -e NODEPRESS_URL=https://cms.example.com \
  -e NODEPRESS_API_KEY=np_… \
  -- npx -y create-nodepress-app mcp

Tools

Tool	What it does	API call
list_content_types	Lists content types with their fields: name, type, required, relation target and cardinality, select choices	GraphQL contentTypes
list_entries	Lists published entries of a type, with where, search, sort, page, limit (1–100), locale, fallback and populate	GET /api/{type}
get_entry	Gets one published entry by slug, with locale, fallback and populate	GET /api/{type}/{slug}
create_entry	Creates an entry from slug, data, locale and status. Saved as a draft unless status is published.	POST /api/{type}
update_entry	Replaces an entry’s data (send every field to keep)	PUT /api/{type}/{slug}
graphql	Runs a GraphQL query with optional variables	POST /graphql

list_entries and get_entry take the same filters as the REST API (see Querying), and the server checks every write the same way it checks API writes: field validation, field write rules and the key’s scope. Errors come back to the assistant as the API’s message.

The server tells the assistant to call list_content_types first and to prefer drafts, so a person reviews new content in the admin before it goes live.

Example prompts

• “Which content types does the site have?”
• “List the five newest blog posts with their authors.”
• “Find posts mentioning ‘pricing’ and summarize them.”
• “Draft a blog post about our new release, as a draft.”

Running it by hand

NODEPRESS_URL=https://cms.example.com npx create-nodepress-app mcp

The server speaks JSON-RPC over stdin and stdout and prints [nodepress-mcp] serving <url> (read-only) (or (with API key)) to stderr. Started without NODEPRESS_URL, it prints a sample client configuration and exits.