Backup Radar MCP

Backup Radar + AI - for ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini, and any agent that speaks MCP

Unofficial. Community-built Claude Code Skill and MCP server for the Backup Radar API. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ScalePad Software Inc.

_{▶ Watch the 30-second demo - demo data is simulated; every command shown exists in the real CLI.}

Also from Servosity. Backup & DR is Servosity's own field - the first-party Servosity connector brings this same fleet-wide, local-mirror approach (fleet attention, stale backups, restores, QBR reporting) to Servosity Backup and DR.

Every Backup Radar v3 and v2 endpoint plus a local store that finds the backups nobody is watching. Works with the AI you already use - ChatGPT (Plus/Pro+, paused until this connector is reprinted; see mcp-install.md), Claude Desktop, Codex, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and GitHub Copilot - plus Microsoft 365 Copilot / Copilot Studio and Google Gemini via the remote path. Free, open source, runs on your laptop. Built for MSP owners. No code required.

Works with your agent

Security note (until this connector is reprinted). Do not run HTTP mode (--transport http), not even on localhost. This build checks a token, but it predates the fix release's request size and time limits. The MCP tools can also make changes with your credentials. Use the default stdio transport. If you set up a tunnel for a remote agent, shut it down. A fix is on the way.

The six agents MSP owners actually use (ChatGPT is paused until this connector is reprinted, see below):

Your AI agent	How to install the Backup Radar skill
Claude Desktop	Run installer, then Settings > Extensions to register backup-radar-mcp (no JSON editing).
ChatGPT (paid plans)	Paused until this connector is reprinted: ChatGPT needs its HTTP mode, and in this build that mode checks a token but has no request size or time limits yet. See the security note in mcp-install.md.
Codex CLI	Paste the install prompt below.
Claude Code	Paste the install prompt below.
Claude Cowork	Paste the install prompt below.
GitHub Copilot (VS Code)	Run installer, add backup-radar-mcp to mcp.json under the servers key, then pick Agent mode.

ChatGPT needs a remote HTTPS server, which means this connector's HTTP mode, and that is paused until the connector is reprinted: in this build that mode checks a token but has no request size or time limits yet. See the security note in mcp-install.md.

Also for the Microsoft and Google stacks

Big install base, but an honest heads-up: these are the remote / enterprise path, not the local binary you just installed.

Agent	What it takes
Microsoft 365 Copilot / Copilot Studio	Paused until this connector is reprinted: Copilot Studio needs its HTTP mode, and in this build that mode checks a token but has no request size or time limits yet. See the security note in mcp-install.md.
Google Gemini	Gemini CLI is local - same as Claude Code. The Gemini app is remote and needs the same paused HTTP mode as ChatGPT. See mcp-install.md.

Skill-native agents (also covered): Hermes and OpenClaw read this skill's SKILL.md directly and speak MCP - see their install sections below. Also works with Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue.dev, and Zed via MCP. Full per-tool wire-up: docs/which-agent.md.

Run more than one agent? Install across all 51+ supported agents in one command: npx skills add Servosity/msp-skills@latest (requires Node.js, then run the per-skill installer for the CLI/MCP binaries). See docs/which-agent.md.

Install in 60 seconds

Fastest for Claude Desktop - one-click .mcpb

Download Backup Radar MCP (.mcpb) - then open Claude Desktop > Settings > Extensions and select the file. One click, no JSON, no shell. (Browse every Backup Radar release on the releases page.)

Prefer the Claude Code plugin? Add the marketplace once, then install - works immediately, no directory listing required:

/plugin marketplace add Servosity/msp-skills
/plugin install backup-radar@msp-skills

Path A - paste one prompt into your AI agent (recommended)

Copy this into Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Claude Cowork:

Install the Backup Radar Skill and MCP server from Servosity/msp-skills in this agent workspace. If this workspace uses a POSIX shell (macOS, Linux, WSL, or Bash), run bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.sh). If it uses Windows PowerShell, run iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.ps1 | iex. Then authenticate per the README and run backup-radar-cli --help to explore.

The same prompt works in any agent that can run shell.

Path B - run the installer yourself

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.sh)

The installer drops both backup-radar-cli (the CLI) and backup-radar-mcp (the MCP server) into your user bin path. Claude Code, Codex, and Cowork discover the Skill via SKILL.md in this directory.

Verify:

backup-radar-cli --version

Upgrade to the latest version

The installer always fetches the current release - re-run it to upgrade:

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.sh)

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/backup-radar/install.ps1 | iex

Claude Desktop .mcpb users: download the latest .mcpb (top of this section) and re-select it in Settings > Extensions. Claude Code plugin users: /plugin update backup-radar@msp-skills.

Add to Claude Desktop, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, or another MCP client

After the installer runs, see mcp-install.md and docs/which-agent.md for the per-agent wire-up - one section per agent, including the GitHub Copilot servers key and the remote Microsoft 365 Copilot / Copilot Studio path. Claude Desktop's Settings > Extensions panel is the simplest path; the MCP config block (for users who prefer editing JSON) is documented in mcp-install.md.

Install for Hermes

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/backup-radar --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/backup-radar --force

Hermes speaks MCP natively, so it can also use the backup-radar-mcp server directly - same install path, same env vars.

Install for OpenClaw

Tell your OpenClaw agent (copy this):

Install the backup-radar skill from https://github.com/servosity/msp-skills/tree/main/skills/backup-radar. The skill defines how its required CLI (backup-radar-cli) can be installed via the openclaw: frontmatter block.

OpenClaw isn't generally available yet; the frontmatter wiring is pre-shipped and will activate the moment OpenClaw launches.

Authenticate

Set the credentials the CLI needs (the v3 key from the ScalePad API tab, the v2 key from Backup Radar; either alone is enough for its own commands):

# macOS / Linux
BACKUP_RADAR_API_KEY=<value> BACKUP_RADAR_V2_API_KEY=<value> backup-radar-cli doctor

# Windows PowerShell
$env:BACKUP_RADAR_API_KEY = "<value>"; $env:BACKUP_RADAR_V2_API_KEY = "<value>"; backup-radar-cli doctor

doctor checks config, paths and API reachability, then probes each configured key against the API (GET /clients/health for the ScalePad v3 key, GET /backups/overview for the Backup Radar v2 key) and reports valid, rejected or not verified per key (credentials, credentials_v2). The process exits 0 even when a row says ERROR; pass --fail-on error in scripts. Either key alone is enough for its own commands.

What this skill does

Question your MSP keeps asking	Command
Which backups are failing or silent today, new or ongoing, and how many tickets are open on each?	backup-radar-cli check --agent
Which backups is nobody watching: inactive, unmapped to ScalePad, failing with no ticket, no PSA company, or warnings counted as success?	backup-radar-cli unwatched --agent
What is one client's backup compliance rate over 90 days, with the weekly trend and the five worst devices?	backup-radar-cli scorecard "Acme Dental" --days 90 --agent
Rank every client by backup compliance, worst first	backup-radar-cli scorecard --days 90 --agent
What happened to one device's backups day by day this month, with tickets, tags and notes?	backup-radar-cli timeline "DC01" --days 30 --agent
Which backups have had no result in 45 days and could be retired, with a dry-run retire body for each one it can pin?	backup-radar-cli stale --days 45 --agent
Does the backup vendor protect devices that Backup Radar does not monitor, or the reverse?	backup-radar-cli coverage diff --devices vendor-devices.json --agent
Push results from a backup tool Backup Radar cannot parse, validated and batched under the 10,000-result limit	backup-radar-cli push --from results.csv --dry-run

Every analysis command reads the local mirror that backup-radar-cli sync fills from whichever keys you set, and each one says which collections it skipped because they were never synced. The mirror is scoped to the credentials that filled it (the v3 key, and the v2 key when one was set), so run the analysis commands with the same BACKUP_RADAR_API_KEY (environment or auth set-token) and the same BACKUP_RADAR_V2_API_KEY setting that sync used.

Full command reference: guide.md. For the AI-agent operating contract (--agent, --dry-run, when to confirm before mutating), see AGENTS.md.

What makes this different

Most Backup Radar integrations and MCP servers proxy each question into a live API call. That's fine for one record. It dies at scale, when you're asking "which of our 400 backups has been silent for a week with no ticket, and which client's compliance rate fell last quarter".

This skill syncs Backup Radar into a local SQLite mirror with full-text search. Aggregate questions become one local SQL join: instant, offline, and the AI sees the answer, not the raw data. Compound commands like check, unwatched and scorecard join across the ScalePad v3 client-health and device history and the Backup Radar v2 backup status, inactive list, policy flags and ticket counts - work a stateless API wrapper can't do, because the two API generations never answer in one call.

The pain this closes

A backup that never reports sends no failure email. ScalePad's Gflex partner story describes backups that went unnoticed for weeks or months until no-result monitoring caught them, and a technician who spent about four hours a day sorting backup mail; MicroAge Swift Current put its manual review at two hours a day. Backup Radar closes the collection gap, but the morning review is still a person in a portal: which failures are new, which have run for a week, which already have a ticket, which backups were never activated, and which decommissioned devices are still generating no-result noise. River Run only acts on failures that persist past a day because a single failed run usually self-corrects, which is exactly the new-versus-ongoing judgment the portal leaves to the technician.

What this skill does about it:

• backup-radar-cli check --include-at-risk --agent - today's failing, silent and at-risk backups ranked, each marked new or ongoing with days in status and open ticket count (without --include-at-risk, only failing and no-result backups).
• backup-radar-cli unwatched --agent - every backup nobody acts on, with a reason code: inactive, unmapped, ticketless, no-psa, masked.
• backup-radar-cli stale --days 45 --agent - silent backups grouped by client, each with a dry_run: true retire body (pinned by ScalePad device id for mapped devices, by exact company, device and job name for unmapped ones; v2-only rows get a retire_note instead), ready to preview with backups retire --stdin.
• backup-radar-cli scorecard --days 90 --agent - every client ranked by in-compliance rate, or one client's weekly trend and worst devices for the QBR.
• backup-radar-cli coverage diff --devices vendor-devices.json --agent - the devices your backup vendor protects that Backup Radar never sees, and the reverse.

See pain-point.md for the longer narrative.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with ChatGPT?

Not with this build. ChatGPT (Plus, Pro, Team, Business, Enterprise, and Education plans; Free does not yet expose Developer Mode) connects only to remote MCP servers over HTTPS, which means running the Backup Radar MCP server in HTTP mode. In this build HTTP mode checks a token but has no request size or time limits yet, so do not run it or put it behind a tunnel until the connector is reprinted; the security note in mcp-install.md explains why. Until then, use Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Codex.

Does this work with Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, or Gemini?

Yes - all of them speak MCP. Cross-tool install commands are in the matrix above and the deep-dive in docs/which-agent.md.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The recommended install is to paste one sentence into Claude Code or Codex - your agent reads SKILL.md and does the install. The fallback is a one-line installer per OS (bash or PowerShell). Neither path requires writing code. You'll enter your Backup Radar credentials once.

Is my Backup Radar data safe?

Your data stays on your machine. The CLI and MCP server are local binaries. The SQLite mirror sits in a directory under your user account. The AI agent only sees what the CLI returns - typically a query result, not raw bulk data. Credentials are read from your environment or your agent's config; never bundled into this repo or transmitted anywhere by MSP Skills.

Do I need both a ScalePad API key and a Backup Radar API v2 key?

No. The ScalePad API key (BACKUP_RADAR_API_KEY, v3) powers health, devices, backups ingest, backups retire and push. The Backup Radar API v2 key (BACKUP_RADAR_V2_API_KEY) powers backups list, get, results, filters, inactive, retired and overview. Either key alone runs its own commands; check, unwatched, stale and timeline use whichever data you synced and list what they skipped.

Will this hit my Backup Radar or ScalePad API rate limits?

The analysis commands read the local mirror, so the daily API cost is one sync: v3 client health with a year of history, v3 devices with 90 days, and the v2 backups lists with 31 days. The client sends at most 2 requests per second by default (--rate-limit).

Can an AI agent retire backups by mistake?

backups retire is the only command that removes backups from monitoring, and it is a v3 write that supports the API's own --dry-run preview. stale prepares retire bodies with dry_run: true, pinned by ScalePad device id for mapped devices and by exact company, device and job name for unmapped ones; a backup it cannot pin gets a retire_note instead of a body. Over MCP, BACKUP_RADAR_MCP_READ_ONLY=1 removes the backups_retire and backups_ingest tools entirely, and backups_retire is annotated destructive so hosts ask first.

Does it work for EU ScalePad tenants?

Yes. Set BACKUP_RADAR_BASE_URL to https://eu.api.scalepad.com/backup-radar/v3 (the default is the US host). The Backup Radar API v2 has a single host, https://api.backupradar.com.

What does it cost?

Free. Apache-2.0 licensed. You pay only for whichever AI agent you use (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, etc.), and that's billed by your AI provider, not by us.

Safety model

Tier	Examples	Recommended agent policy
Read	check, unwatched, scorecard, timeline, stale, coverage diff, health list, devices, backups list, backups overview, sync, search, analytics	Allow
Write (routine)	backups ingest, push, import (post backup results into Backup Radar)	Preview with --dry-run, then a reviewed write
Destructive / credential	backups retire (removes backups from monitoring; --close-psa-tickets closes their tickets), auth set-token, auth logout	Human-in-the-loop only

Over MCP, BACKUP_RADAR_MCP_READ_ONLY=1 removes backups_ingest, backups_retire, sync, export, workflow_archive and the learning-store write tools (learnings_forget, learnings_reject); the push and import commands are never exposed over MCP, and flags that read or write local files (--devices, --playbook-file, --notes-file, --output, --db) are refused from MCP callers.

The strongest control is the scope you grant the Backup Radar credentials - the CLI can only do what the credentials are permitted to do. Full details, including how to lock it down, are in governance.md.

Status

Beta. Validated against the Backup Radar API surface and being validated with MSPs running it live against their own production tenant in our weekly Build Sessions. RSVP at compoundingteams.com/build-sessions.

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Standards. Conforms to the open Agent Skills spec (Anthropic, Dec 2025; 40+ agents). MCP-compatible - works with any MCP-capable agent including Hermes. OpenClaw-ready (frontmatter pre-wired, awaiting OpenClaw launch).

Maintained by Servosity. Apache-2.0 licensed. Built with CLI Printing Press. Last updated: 2026-10-19.