MCP

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) server can be enabled on the Knot server by adding the following configuration to the knot.toml file:

    
[server.mcp]
enabled = true

This configuration enables the MCP server at the path /mcp. Notably, it does not require Knot to have access to a Large Language Model (LLM).

Connecting a Client

The Knot MCP server operates over HTTP transport and is accessible at the URL: https://<your-knot-domain.com>/mcp

For example, if your Knot installation is hosted at knot.getknot.dev, the MCP server URL would be: https://knot.getknot.dev/mcp

OAuth2-Supported Clients

If your client supports OAuth2, it will connect to the MCP server and allow you to log in using your standard credentials. During this process, an API token scoped to the MCP endpoint will be generated for use.

Clients discover how to sign in from the server itself: an unauthenticated request to /mcp is answered with a WWW-Authenticate header pointing to /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource, and clients without a client ID register themselves at /register. A registered client can only receive authorization codes at the redirect URIs it registered.

Claude

How you connect Claude depends on whether Anthropic’s cloud can reach your knot server.

Servers on the internet: custom connector

Knot can be added to Claude as a custom connector, making its tools available in the Claude desktop app, on claude.ai and on mobile:

In Claude, open Settings → Connectors and choose Add custom connector.
Enter a name, such as knot, and the URL https://<your-knot-domain.com>/mcp.
Choose Connect, sign in to knot if asked, and select Authorize.

Claude connects to custom connectors from Anthropic’s cloud, so the knot server must be reachable from the internet over HTTPS, with server.url set to its public URL.

Servers on a private network: desktop extension

The knot extension for the Claude desktop app runs on your computer and talks to the knot server directly, so it works with servers on a private network. It’s available for macOS and Windows, and uses the connection set up with knot connect.

Run knot connect to connect to your knot server, if you haven’t already.
Download the .mcpb file from the knot Claude extension releases and open it, or drag it into Settings → Extensions in the Claude desktop app.
Choose Install.

The extension’s settings are all optional:

Setting	Use
Connection alias	The `knot connect` connection to use; `default` unless you set another
Server URL and API token	A server to use instead of a `knot connect` connection, with an API token for it; a token with only the `mcp` scope is enough

If you have the knot command installed and connected with knot connect, you can instead add knot mcp to Claude Desktop’s configuration:

    
    
  
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knot": {
      "command": "knot",
      "args": ["mcp", "--alias", "default"]
    }
  }
}

Non-OAuth2 Clients

For clients that do not support OAuth2, you will need to manually generate a new API token via the web interface and provide it to the MCP client. Use the following format:

Key	Value
Authorization	Bearer `your token`

In both cases, the MCP client will have the same level of access to tools as the user who generated the API token.

The web assistant may ask the browser user to approve write-capable tool calls before they run. This approval prompt is part of the web chat flow only; external MCP clients connected to /mcp are not prompted by Knot’s browser confirmation UI.

Finding Tools

Only knot’s most used tools appear in the tool list. The rest are found on demand: a client calls tool_search with a few words describing the task, or with no query to list every tool, then execute_tool with the tool’s name and arguments. The server’s instructions explain this to the model when it connects.

Example:

tool_search(query="create pool") → Returns matching tools with their input schemas
execute_tool(name="create_pool", arguments={...}) → Runs the tool

For a client that doesn’t follow the discovery pattern, send the X-MCP-Show-All: true header, or add ?show_all=true to the URL, to list every tool directly. knot mcp --show-all does the same through the stdio proxy.

Which tools are listed and which are on demand is set per tool; see Tool Visibility.

Tools

The Knot MCP server exposes built-in tools for managing spaces, templates, stack definitions, stacks, files, and commands. Skills are served separately over the MCP skills extension (skills/list, skills/get), not as tools; see Skills. Write-capable tools require approval when called from the web assistant; read-only tools run without a confirmation. External MCP clients connected to /mcp are not prompted.

For the full list grouped by what each tool operates on — plus whether each is native or on-demand — see MCP Tools.

Remote MCP Servers

Knot can connect to external MCP servers and use their tools alongside the built-in ones in Knot’s own AI features: the web chat, the OpenAI-compatible endpoints, and knot.mcp in scripts. The public /mcp endpoint serves Knot’s own tools only; external clients connect to remote servers directly.

Remote tools are namespaced with a prefix (e.g., ai__generate-text) to avoid conflicts with local tools.

For detailed configuration and usage, see Remote MCP Servers.

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MCP