About OpenAPI Services
OpenAPI Services is an MCP server for agents that need to discover and call operations across configured OpenAPI deployments. It provides generic discovery and execution tools, with deployment routing and optional bearer-token helpers.
Key features
- 01Discover platforms and endpoints
- 02Inspect operations and referenced schemas
- 03Call specified or raw API endpoints
- 04Route requests by deployment
- 05Use optional token helpers
- 06Read truncated responses via resources
Use cases
- 01Explore an API before invoking an operation
- 02Call APIs across regions and environments
- 03Use APIs that require bearer-token authentication
MCP support
Exposes tools to list platforms and endpoints, inspect operations, and execute API calls. MCP resources provide full truncated response bodies and equivalent curl commands.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEmcp-openapix
MCP server that fronts any OpenAPI service behind four generic tools.
An agent finds operations in each deployment's OpenAPI document and calls them; the
server resolves the URL, obtains a bearer token, and builds the request. Discovery is
list_platforms, list_endpoints and describe_endpoint; execution is the generic
proxy call_endpoint.
example / us / items / prod
│ │ │ └── env ......... which deployment URL a call reaches
│ │ └───────── service ..... one backend, one OpenAPI spec
│ └─────────────── region ...... a geographic deployment
└───────────────────── platform .... the product or API family
Requirements
- Python 3.13+ and
uv - A
config.jsondescribing the deployments you hold credentials for
Quick start
Set up your config (see Configuration), then run the server:
# Run directly with uvx (no clone needed)
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@latest uvx mcp-openapix
# Or run from source
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@latest uv run mcp-openapix
Configuration
config.json MUST live at ~/.config/mcp-openapix/config.json
(%USERPROFILE%\.config\… on Windows). config.example.json is a full template.
{
"headers": { "accept": "application/json" },
"defaults": { "platform": "example", "region": "us", "service": "items", "env": "prod" },
"platforms": {
"example": {
"regions": {
"us": {
"services": {
"token_helper": "us",
"items": {
"desc": "Catalogue and inventory API",
"spec_path": "/swagger/v1/swagger.json",
"canonical_env": "prod",
"envs": {
"prod": { "url": "https://api.example.com/items" },
"dev": { "url": "https://api-dev.example.com/items" }
}
}
}
}
}
}
},
"token_helpers": {
"us": {
"command": "token-helper",
"args": ["issue"]
}
}
}
platforms
A hierarchy of platform → region → services → service → env. Each service declares:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
spec_path | Required. The OpenAPI JSON endpoint relative to the service URL |
canonical_env | Required when more than one env is configured — the env whose URL the spec is fetched from |
envs | Required. One entry per deployment environment, each carrying a full base url |
desc | Optional. A short description surfaced by list_platforms |
token_helper | Optional. The token helper this level binds to |
The services object may also contain a token_helper default applying to all services
in that region. A service or environment can override it.
token_helpers
Named token helpers, in the same shape as an MCP server entry:
| Field | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
command | yes | — | Resolved on PATH; never run through a shell |
args | no | [] | Passed verbatim |
timeout | no | 60 | Seconds before the helper's process group is killed; at most 300 |
The config names a command and nothing else, so config.json holds no secrets.
The complete helper invocation and output contract is documented in
docs/token-protocol.md.
Which helper a call uses is resolved most-specific-first:
env.token_helper → service.token_helper → services.token_helper
→ region.token_helper → platform.token_helper → defaults.token_helper
If no level declares a helper, the deployment is unauthenticated. Omit
token_helper for public deployments.
headers
Constant headers added to every API call — for APIs that require a tenant, product or locale header:
"headers": { "accept": "application/json", "x-product": "example" }
defaults
Makes every tool argument optional: a call falls back to defaults.platform, .region,
.service, .env, .username and .token_helper when they are omitted.
Top-level options
| Field | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
truncate_threshold | 4096 | Response bytes returned inline before truncating to a preview |
response_cache_ttl | 3600 | Seconds a truncated body stays readable at its resource URI |
spec_refresh | {"auto": true, "interval": 7} | Background spec refresh; interval is days and MAY be fractional |
Splitting the config
A stray comma while editing one platform takes down every platform: a parse failure
precedes per-platform validation. The config MAY therefore be split into drop-in files
under config.d/, in the style of an nginx conf.d. The recommended layout keeps
server-wide settings in config.json and gives each platform its own file, named after
it:
~/.config/mcp-openapix/
├── config.json # defaults, headers, token_helpers, top-level options
└── config.d/
├── acme.json # {"platforms": {"acme": …}}
└── public.json # {"platforms": {"public": …}}
A typo then costs one platform, and a platform can be handed over, or removed, as a
single file. Token helpers stay in config.json because they are usually shared across
platforms; a helper only one platform uses MAY live beside it in that platform's file.
The layout is a convention, not a rule:
config.jsonis read first, then every*.jsondirectly inconfig.d/in sorted order. Subdirectories,.bakand editor swap files are ignored; noconfig.d/means no change in behavior.- A drop-in MAY declare anything
config.jsonmay, andconfig.jsonMAY be nearly empty. - Files merge as if pasted into one config in that order: objects merge key by key, and
a later scalar or list replaces the earlier one. A later file can therefore override a
single
envs.prod.urlor onedefaultsfield.
A file that fails to parse costs only what it declares; the rest keep working. A
malformed platform, in any file, MUST NOT stop the others loading, and neither does a
missing token helper it names: its error lists any files that were skipped, since the
helper may be declared in one. list_platforms shows a platform that failed with no
regions and the loader's error, and a skipped file as {"file", "error"}; calling
into a failed platform returns the same message. Defaults that point into a failed
platform are ignored. An invalid setting outside platforms still stops the server, and
the message names the file that set it.
A fix needs a restart. Check the config first, without starting the server; it also lists every value a later file overrode:
uvx mcp-openapix --check-config
Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
list_platforms | Every platform with its regions, services, and envs |
list_endpoints | A service's operations, filtered by query, tag or method |
describe_endpoint | One operation plus the transitive closure of the schemas it references |
call_endpoint | Execute an operation, or a raw method + path absent from the spec |
Operation ids
Many OpenAPI documents omit operationId, so the server synthesizes one as "<METHOD> <path>":
POST /api/items
└─┬─┘ └───┬───┘
method path as the spec declares it
Where a spec does declare an operationId, that value wins.
Specs
Specs are not bundled. Each deployment's document is fetched on demand — an
unauthenticated GET — and cached under
~/.cache/mcp-openapix/{platform}/{region}/{service}.json.
A document MUST declare at least one operation before it is installed, so a deployment
answering 200 with an error body cannot replace a working snapshot with one that
serves nothing.
Cached specs refresh in the background: once at startup, then every
spec_refresh.interval days. Set auto to false to stop it; the manual lever still
works:
uvx mcp-openapix --refresh
MCP resources
| Resource URI | Description |
|---|---|
openapi://responses/{request_id} | Full body of a truncated call_endpoint response |
openapi://curl/{request_id} | Equivalent curl command for a call_endpoint request |
Both expire response_cache_ttl seconds after the call. The curl command may embed
a short-lived token.
Tokens at rest
Tokens are cached in memory and, when expiry metadata is available, under
~/.cache/mcp-openapix/tokens/ (mode 0600) keyed by the token-helper declaration
and username. This lets client sessions share a login without spawning a helper each.
A 401 retires the cached token so the next call obtains a fresh one. To clear them all:
uvx mcp-openapix --logout
MCP host examples
Cursor / Claude Code
{
"mcpServers": {
"openapi": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-openapix"] }
}
}
Codex
[mcp_servers.openapi]
command = "uvx"
args = ["mcp-openapix"]
Development
uv sync --extra dev
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pyright
uv run pytest
All four MUST pass; see AGENTS.md. Tests use
respx to mock HTTP and real subprocesses for
token helpers, so no live API access is required.
License
MIT.
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