qlows MCP - Tender Search & Rfp Response

qlows MCP connector

Bring your live qlows RFP/bid deals — and the public tender corpus across 35 WTO-GPA countries — into Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, or any Model Context Protocol client.

qlows-mcp is a tiny local connector. It runs on your machine as a stdio MCP server and securely proxies tool calls to the qlows API (https://app.qlows.com). It stores nothing but your token, contains no backend logic, and is read-only — your AI can pull deal context, never write back.

Quotes. Flows. Close. qlows preps the bid; your AI drafts from real, grounded context. Learn more at https://qlows.com.

Install

One-click install for the common clients (or copy the JSON snippet below):

---

Quick start (≈ 1 minute)

# 1. Connect your account (opens the browser, you paste a token back)
npx @qlows/mcp login

# 2. Verify it works
npx @qlows/mcp test          # → prints the available tools

# 3. Print the snippet for your AI client
npx @qlows/mcp config

Then add qlows to your client (example: Claude Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client. If you didn't run login, pass the token instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"],
      "env": { "QLOWS_TOKEN": "qlw_live_…" }
    }
  }
}

You'll need a qlows account to mint a personal token (free tier works for tender search). Sign up + mint at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.

---

Try these prompts

After connecting, ask your AI:

1. "Use the qlows MCP to list my open deals, then summarize the top 3 risks in the most urgent one."
2. "Search public tenders for Zero-Trust networking in the EU closing in the next 30 days, and give me the qlows link for each."
3. "Read the deal <deal-id> from qlows and draft the Technical Approach section, grounding every claim in the compliance items and our approved answers."

---

What you get

All tools are read-only. Personal-data tools need a personal token; the tender tools also work on a free account.

Tool	What it does
list_deals	Your RFP/bid deals (lightweight metadata)
get_deal_snapshot	Full deal snapshot — RFP summary + compliance + Q-routing + intelligence
search_compliance_items	Keyword search across compliance items
get_q_routing_state	Sections + questions + answers + assignment state
get_intelligence_summary	AI summary + tailoring detection
list_questions	Flat question list
list_competitors	Per-deal competitor analysis
search_tenders	Public tender corpus search (FTS + filters)
search_tenders_for_my_company	Personalised semantic tender search
get_tender_detail	Full enriched record for one tender

Plus three prompts (slash-commands) — find_matching_tenders, draft_rfp_section, weekly_pipeline_review — see Skills below.

The connector discovers tools and prompts live from the server, so new qlows capabilities appear without updating this package.

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Skills

Three things qlows is built to do inside your AI. Each maps to a prompt (a slash-command your client exposes) plus the read-only tools it drives — all grounded in real qlows data, never invented.

🔎 Find matching tenders

Prompt: find_matching_tenders (args: industry, optional country, optional deadline_within_days). Drives search_tenders and returns each live notice with its canonical qlows_url. Full context: https://qlows.com/platform/qlows-mcp.

"Find open zero-trust networking tenders in Germany closing in the next 30 days, with the qlows link for each."

✍️ Draft an RFP section, grounded

Prompt: draft_rfp_section (args: deal_id, section). Pulls the deal's compliance grid and approved answers via get_deal_snapshot + search_compliance_items, then drafts the section with every claim traced to source — no fabricated capabilities, dates, or past performance.

"Draft the Technical Approach for deal <id>, grounded in the compliance items and our approved answers."

🗂️ Review your pipeline

Prompt: weekly_pipeline_review (no args). Uses list_deals + get_q_routing_state to produce a prioritized to-do list: what's due, what's blocked, and the next action per deal.

"Review my qlows pipeline and tell me which bids need attention first."

The public tender skills work on a free account; the deal skills need a personal token. See the full platform overview.

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Commands

Command	Description
qlows-mcp	Run the MCP server over stdio (how clients launch it)
qlows-mcp login	Sign in via browser and store a token in ~/.qlows/config.json (0600)
qlows-mcp test	List available tools to verify your token
qlows-mcp config	Print config path + a client setup snippet
qlows-mcp help	Usage

Environment variables

• QLOWS_TOKEN — API token (overrides the stored one).
• QLOWS_BASE_URL — defaults to https://app.qlows.com; point at http://localhost:3000 for local testing.

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How it works

MCP client (Claude/Cursor)  ⇄  qlows-mcp (stdio, local)  ⇄  https://app.qlows.com/api/mcp/<token>/rpc

The connector is a transparent JSON-RPC proxy. It does not implement tools — it forwards initialize, tools/list, tools/call, prompts/*, and resources/* to the qlows server and relays the responses. The token travels in the request to qlows over HTTPS; treat it like a password.

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Troubleshooting

• No qlows token found — run qlows-mcp login, or set QLOWS_TOKEN.
• Token missing, invalid, or expired — the token was revoked or expired; mint a new one at https://app.qlows.com/mcp and re-run login.
• Rate limit exceeded — 60 requests/min per token; wait and retry.
• Client doesn't see qlows — restart the client after editing config; validate the JSON (a stray comma silently breaks it); check the client's MCP logs.

Verify end-to-end with the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx @qlows/mcp

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Privacy & security

• Read-only: no tool writes back to your qlows account.
• The connector stores only your token, locally, at ~/.qlows/config.json (permissions 0600). It collects no telemetry.
• Tokens are SHA-256-hashed at rest on the qlows server and can be revoked instantly at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.
• Privacy policy: https://qlows.com/privacy

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Roadmap

• One-click browser auto-capture for login (loopback callback).
• Desktop Extension (.mcpb) bundle for a true one-click Claude Desktop install (the badge above links to setup docs in the meantime).
• Anthropic Connector Directory listing — the OAuth 2.1 + PKCE endpoint is live on the qlows server; directory submission is tracked as a follow-up.

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Development

npm install
npm run build
QLOWS_TOKEN=… QLOWS_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 node dist/index.js test

Publishing is automated on v* tags (see .github/workflows/release.yml): npm publish → MCP Registry publish via GitHub OIDC.

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License

MIT