About Sezzlee OpenAPI
Sezzlee OpenAPI turns an OpenAPI document into a searchable MCP tool catalog for a remote API. It is a separate service that invokes backend operations over the network and supports stdio or streamable HTTP transport.
Key features
- 01Ingest Swagger and OpenAPI documents
- 02Search and load API tools
- 03Invoke remote API operations
- 04Read stored oversized results
- 05Configure operation selection and names
- 06Reload API catalog from its document
Use cases
- 01Expose selected API endpoints as MCP tools
- 02Let agents find relevant API operations
- 03Call a remote backend from an MCP client
- 04Refresh the catalog when its document changes
MCP support
Exposes OpenAPI-described backend operations through MCP meta-tools for searching, loading, invoking and reading results. It serves over stdio or streamable HTTP and calls the remote backend using fetch.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
npx -y @sezzlee/openapi-mcpSEZZLEE_OPENAPI_CONFIGPath to the server config fileLocal servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project README@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
MCP server that exposes an OpenAPI (Swagger 2.0 / OpenAPI 3.0–3.2) document as sezzlee's
search-first tool catalog — search_tools, load_tool, invoke_tool, read_result — over a remote
backend, calling it with fetch.
Status:
1.0.0, stable. Install withnpm install -g @sezzlee/openapi-mcpor run it withnpx -y @sezzlee/openapi-mcp; the binary issezzlee-openapi.
How this differs from the embedded SDK
The NestJS SDK sits inside your backend process: it discovers endpoints from your own controllers/routes and replay each MCP call through your existing pipeline, so your authentication and authorization run exactly as they do today.
openapi-mcp is a separate service. It has no access to a backend's process or pipeline — it
reads the backend's OpenAPI document to learn what operations exist (the ingestion
rules), and calls the backend over the network for every
invocation, attaching a credential it resolves itself (how a credential is chosen and
written). This is the only path for a backend that has no
embedded SDK integrated into it.
Everything an embedded SDK declares in code, a document declares in one x-sezzlee extension per
operation, and a host that cannot edit the document declares under operations in this config:
selection, tool name, prefix, behaviour hints, argument curation, variants, families, search terms
and revisions (the x-sezzlee extension).
A backend that routes many capabilities through one endpoint (POST /Rest/InvokeDynamicMethod/{methodId})
lists them in that operation's x-sezzlee.family; each member becomes its own tool, with its own
name, description and body, and the dispatch key stays hidden.
Quick start
The server reads its configuration from the file named by SEZZLEE_OPENAPI_CONFIG. Build the
package first (this repository never runs @sezzlee/core's consumers against a stale dist):
pnpm turbo run build --filter=@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
A minimal config — a local document, opt-in selection so at least one operation is exposed,
default stdio transport:
{
"source": "./openapi.json",
"selection": { "default": "include" }
}
SEZZLEE_OPENAPI_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/config.json node packages/servers/openapi-mcp/dist/cli.js
source is either a path (resolved relative to the config file's own directory) or an
http(s):// URL. On startup the server ingests the document, builds the catalog, prints a
one-line-per-diagnostic-code summary to stderr, and then serves stdio or listens for
streamable HTTP, depending on transport.kind.
A config that fails validation, or that names an environment variable that is not set, stops the
process with a message on stderr and exit code 2. A document that ingests with a fatal
diagnostic, or a catalog with a fatal diagnostic (name_collision, invalid_name,
ambiguous_selection, …), stops it with exit code 1.
Configuration
All keys below are read from the SEZZLEE_OPENAPI_CONFIG JSON file and validated with a zod
schema (src/platform/config.ts) that rejects unknown keys.
| Key | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
transport.kind | "stdio" | "http" | "stdio" | — |
transport.host | string (http only) | "127.0.0.1" | Must stay loopback (127.0.0.1, ::1, localhost) unless tokenExchange is configured — see below |
transport.port | int, 0–65535 (http only) | 8787 | — |
transport.path | string starting with / (http only) | "/mcp" | — |
transport.resource | url (http only) | required | The OAuth protected-resource identifier advertised at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource |
transport.authorizationServers | array of url, min 1 (http only) | required | — |
transport.allowedHostnames | array of string (http only) | [] | Extra Host header values accepted, on top of the localhost defaults |
tokenExchange | object | not configured | RFC 8693 token exchange; required for an http transport to authenticate a caller (see Rules) |
tokenExchange.tokenEndpoint | url | required | — |
tokenExchange.clientId | string | required | — |
tokenExchange.clientSecret | { fromEnv: string } | required | — |
tokenExchange.clientAuth | "basic" | "post" | "basic" | client_secret_basic or client_secret_post |
tokenExchange.audience | string | not sent | — |
tokenExchange.resource | url | not sent | — |
tokenExchange.scope | string | not sent | — |
tokenExchange.schemes | array of string, min 1 | required | The security scheme names the exchanged token satisfies |
source | string, non-empty | required | A local file path (relative to the config file) or an http(s):// URL to the OpenAPI document |
reload.intervalSeconds | integer ≥ 10 | not set | Re-reads source this often, plus up to 10% jitter. Conditional on the last ETag/Last-Modified for an http(s) source; a body identical to the served one is ignored |
reload.onSignal | boolean | true | SIGHUP re-reads source. Without a reload block the document is read once at startup and SIGHUP keeps its default action |
baseUrl | url | not set | Replaces the document's root servers |
serverVariables | record<string, string> | not set | Overrides for the document's server variable defaults |
hoistPathPrefix | string starting with / | not set | A leading path segment moved from every route into the base URL |
outputSchema | "document" | "omit" | "document" | omit for a backend whose responses do not match its document |
requestBodyRequired | "document" | "always" | "document" | always treats an undeclared requestBody.required as true |
strict | boolean | false | Raises openapi_document_invalid from a warning to a fatal diagnostic |
selection.default | "include" | "exclude" | "exclude" | Whether an operation is exposed when no rule matches it (opt-in by default) |
selection.rules | array of { route?, method?, decision } | [] | route/method are matched the same way the embedded SDKs match a controller route |
operations | record<operation key, x-sezzlee object> | {} | Laid over each operation's x-sezzlee field by field; a key that names no operation is fatal. A field here may not also be set through names, searchTerms or revision.operations |
names | record<operation key, string> | {} | Overrides a tool's name; the value must match ^[a-z][a-z0-9_]{0,255}$ |
revision.catalog | integer ≥ 1 | not configured | Behaviour revision of every tool; comes before the document root's x-sezzlee revision |
revision.paths | record<document path, integer ≥ 1> | {} | Behaviour revision of every operation under that path item; comes before the path item's x-sezzlee revision |
revision.operations | record<operation key, integer ≥ 1> | {} | Behaviour revision of one operation; comes before its x-sezzlee revision. The levels add up rather than replacing one another |
credentials | record<security scheme name, credential> | {} | Either { "value": { "fromEnv": "..." } } or { "username": { "fromEnv": "..." }, "password": { "fromEnv": "..." } }; see credentials.md |
allowHosts | array of string | [] | Hosts a backend operation may be served from, beyond the document's own root server |
refHosts | array of string | [] | Hosts an external $ref may be fetched from, beyond the document's own host. Kept apart from allowHosts, so allowing a schema host never lets calls or credentials go there |
identityCookies | array of string | [] | Cookie names treated as identity carriers on top of the default deny-list (compared case-insensitively); they extend it and never replace it |
limits.timeoutMs | positive int | 30000 | Per-invocation deadline |
limits.maxResponseBytes | positive int | 262144 | The largest answer that reaches the agent; a larger success is stored for read_result while results.enabled holds, and refused otherwise |
limits.maxBufferedBytes | positive int | 16777216 | The largest backend body read, applied while the body streams; a larger one is refused unread |
results.enabled | boolean | true | Keeps over-budget successes in memory and publishes read_result; see result-reading.md |
results.lifetimeMs | int ≥ 1000 | 600000 | How long a stored result is kept |
results.maxCallerBytes | positive int | 16777216 | What one caller's stored results may hold; the oldest go first. A caller is the bearer token it authenticated with, or every loopback caller when there is no token exchange |
results.maxBytes | positive int | 67108864 | What all stored results may hold; at least results.maxCallerBytes |
limits.maxInlineFileBytes | positive int | 1048576 | — |
A credentials entry is keyed by the security scheme name it satisfies; a tokenExchange.schemes
entry marks that same scheme as satisfied by the exchanged token instead. credentials values are
never inlined — only a reference to an environment variable — so a config file can be committed
and shared.
Rules
- Only
src/net/fetch.tsreaches the network. It is the one place the host allowlist, the manual redirect handling and the byte cap are applied;src/transport/http.tsmay usenode:httponly to listen, never to call out. Redirects are never followed — a followed redirect could carry a request, and its credential, to a host the allowlist never approved. - Only
src/platform/files.tstouches the filesystem. A file the document references through an external$ref, or named bysource, is checked against the directory the document was read from on its realpath, so neither a../segment nor a symbolic link can escape it. - The caller's MCP token is never forwarded to the backend. Its audience is this server, not
the backend; forwarding it would bypass the backend's own audience check. On the
httptransport withtokenExchangeconfigured, the caller's token is exchanged (RFC 8693) for a backend-scoped token at the transport's bearer gate, and only the exchanged token reachesinvoke_tool. - An
httptransport withouttokenExchangeauthenticates no caller, so it may only bind a loopback host (127.0.0.1,::1,localhost); otherwise the operator's static credentials would be reachable from the network. ConfiguringtokenExchangeon thestdiotransport is likewise refused (token_exchange_requires_http) — there is no caller token onstdioto exchange. - A reload never widens egress.
reloadre-reads only the document, never the config, and the hosts the first catalog may call are the ceiling for every later one: a document whose servers move to a host outside it, from https to plain http, or that sends a credential to a plain-http origin that did not carry it before, is refused (widens_egress). A refused document, one with a fatal diagnostic, or one that cannot be read keeps the running catalog. A committed reload advances the catalog generation stamped on every meta-tool and sendstools/list_changed. A tool loaded before a reload answersunknown_toolif it is gone andtool_changedto a call pinned to its old version. - Visibility is not enforcement: an operation's
securitysays which credential a call needs, not which caller may make it, so the catalog reports every operation's identity asunknownunless its document sayssecurity: [].
Development
pnpm turbo run build --filter=@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
pnpm turbo run lint --filter=@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
pnpm turbo run check-types --filter=@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
pnpm turbo run test --filter=@sezzlee/openapi-mcp
Run these through Turbo, not pnpm --filter @sezzlee/openapi-mcp <task> — the bare filter skips
dependsOn: ["build"] and the test task would run against a stale dist.
test/ holds unit suites that need no environment variables, plus one gated suite:
acceptance.spec.ts— skipped unlessSEZZLEE_OPENAPI_ACCEPTANCE_DOCnames a path to a real backend's OpenAPI document. The document itself never enters the repository; the suite ingests it, builds a catalog, asserts there is no fatal diagnostic, and prints the diagnostic summary instead of pinning a snapshot that would copy that backend's surface into the tree.SEZZLEE_OPENAPI_ACCEPTANCE_DOCis declared in this package'sturbo.jsontesttask so Turbo passes it through.
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