affine-mcp-server

AFFiNE MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AFFiNE. It exposes AFFiNE workspaces and documents to AI assistants over stdio (default) or HTTP (`/mcp`) and supports both AFFiNE Cloud and self-hosted deployments.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Choose Your Path
• Quick Start
• Compatibility Matrix
• Tool Surface
• Documentation Map
• Verify Your Setup
• Security and Scope
• Development
• Release Notes
• License
• Support

Overview

AFFiNE MCP Server is designed for three common scenarios:

• Run a local stdio MCP server for Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, or Claude Desktop
• Expose a remote HTTP MCP endpoint for hosted or browser-connected clients
• Automate AFFiNE workspace, document, database, organization, and comment workflows through a stable MCP tool surface

Highlights:

• Supports AFFiNE Cloud and self-hosted AFFiNE instances
• Supports stdio and HTTP transports
• Supports session-cookie and email/password authentication, plus compatible bearer tokens for older deployments
• Exposes 105 canonical MCP tools backed by AFFiNE GraphQL and WebSocket APIs
• Includes semantic page composition, native template instantiation, database intent composition, capability and fidelity reporting, and workspace blueprint helpers
• Includes Docker images, health probes, and end-to-end test coverage

Scope boundaries:

• This server can access only server-backed AFFiNE workspaces
• Browser-local workspaces stored only in local storage are not available through AFFiNE server APIs
• AFFiNE 0.27+ removed the legacy personal-access-token GraphQL API; this server no longer exposes token-management tools
• AFFiNE Cloud requires browser-session authentication for this external GraphQL integration; programmatic email/password sign-in is blocked by Cloudflare

> New in v3.2.1: Scripted cookie login now keeps session secrets out of process arguments, validates workspace access before saving credentials, and restores document pagination for ordinary workspace members.

Choose Your Path

Quick Start

1. Install the CLI

npm i -g affine-mcp-server
affine-mcp --version

You can also run the package ad hoc:

npx -y -p affine-mcp-server affine-mcp -- --version

2. Or run the server in Docker

docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT=http \
  -e AFFINE_BASE_URL=https://your-affine-instance.com \
  -e AFFINE_EMAIL=you@example.com \
  -e AFFINE_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -e AFFINE_MCP_AUTH_MODE=bearer \
  -e AFFINE_MCP_HTTP_TOKEN=your-strong-secret \
  ghcr.io/dawncr0w/affine-mcp-server:latest

Then point your client at:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "affine": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-strong-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

For Docker, health checks, and remote deployment details, see docs/configuration-and-deployment.md#docker.

3. Save credentials with interactive login

affine-mcp login

This stores credentials in `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/affine-mcp/config` when `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is set, otherwise in `~/.config/affine-mcp/config`, with mode `600`.

• For AFFiNE Cloud, paste the Cookie request header from a signed-in browser session
• For self-hosted AFFiNE, use email/password (recommended) or a signed-in session cookie
• `AFFINE_API_TOKEN` remains available only for deployments that still accept a compatible GraphQL bearer token

For scripted session-cookie setup, keep the cookie out of process arguments:

affine-mcp login --url https://app.affine.pro --cookie-stdin --workspace-id your-workspace-id --force

Paste the cookie at the hidden prompt, or pipe it from a trusted secret source. The CLI verifies `--workspace-id` against the authenticated account before saving it. Piped input requires `--force` when existing credentials would be replaced.

4. Register the server with your client

Claude Code project config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "affine": {
      "command": "affine-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI:

codex mcp add affine -- affine-mcp

More client-specific setup is in docs/client-setup.md.

5. Verify the connection

affine-mcp status
affine-mcp doctor

If you want to expose the server remotely over HTTP instead of stdio, start with docs/configuration-and-deployment.md.

If an HTTP server already runs on the same host as your stdio client, use the

private stdio HTTP bridge

instead of starting another full server process.

Compatibility Matrix

Node.js 20.18.1 is the minimum supported runtime. CI validates the Node.js 20, 22, 24, and 26 release lines.

Tool Surface

`tool-manifest.json` is the source of truth for canonical tool names. The MCP server exposes those tools through `tools/list` and `tools/call`; tool definitions returned by `tools/list` include MCP annotations that mark read-only, destructive, idempotent, and external-world behavior for client-side tool selection.

Every canonical tool also declares an MCP `outputSchema` for its `structuredContent`. Object results retain their existing top-level fields, while array and scalar results use stable `{ items }`, `{ text }`, or `{ value }` envelopes. The existing text `content` remains unchanged for compatibility with clients that do not consume structured results.

Advertised input and output schemas omit the SDK-generated draft-07 `$schema` marker. Schema interpretation follows the client context, allowing clients that reject an explicit draft-07 declaration to consume the tool surface.

Domains:

• Workspace: create, inspect, update, delete, and traverse workspaces
• Organization: collections, collection-rule sync, workspace blueprints, and experimental organize or folder helpers
• Documents: search, read, create, publish, move, tag, custom properties, import/export, semantic composition, template inspection and native instantiation, capability and fidelity reporting, and block-level mutation
• Databases: create columns, add rows, update rows, inspect schema, and compose database structures from intent
• Comments: list, create, update, delete, and resolve
• History: version history listing
• Users and authentication: current user, sign-in, and profile/settings
• Notifications: list and mark notifications as read
• Blob storage: upload, delete, and cleanup blobs

Use `AFFINE_TOOL_PROFILE=read_only`, `core`, or `authoring` when a deployment should expose a smaller surface than the complete `full` default. This is the recommended path for hosted, browser-connected, or least-privilege deployments because it reduces agent choice overload while keeping the full tool catalog available as an opt-in surface. You can also combine profiles with `AFFINE_DISABLED_GROUPS` such as `docs.database`, `destructive`, or `admin` for finer control.

Full-note replacement with `replace_doc_with_markdown` is destructive and requires `full` without disabling the `destructive` group. `core` and `authoring` retain incremental editing through `append_markdown` and `update_block`.

For the grouped catalog, notes, and operational caveats, see docs/tool-reference.md.

Documentation Map

Verify Your Setup

Useful CLI commands:

• `affine-mcp status` - test the effective configuration
• `affine-mcp status --json` - machine-readable status output
• `affine-mcp doctor` - diagnose config and connectivity issues
• `affine-mcp show-config` - print the effective config with secrets redacted
• `affine-mcp config-path` - print the config file path
• `affine-mcp snippet [--env]` - generate ready-to-paste client config
• `affine-mcp logout` - remove stored credentials

`status`, `doctor`, and the server runtime use the same `environment > saved config > defaults` resolution. For a self-hosted deployment with a non-standard GraphQL route, use `affine-mcp login --graphql-path /your/graphql/path` or set `AFFINE_GRAPHQL_PATH`; `show-config --json` prints the exact resolved `graphqlEndpoint` without exposing secrets.

For common failures, see:

• docs/getting-started.md#common-first-run-failures
• docs/configuration-and-deployment.md#deployment-checklist

Security and Scope

• Never commit passwords, session cookies, or compatible bearer tokens
• Use a dedicated least-privilege AFFiNE account for unattended deployments
• Email/password HTTP sessions share one login and never fall back to anonymous backend requests after authentication failure
• Use HTTPS for non-local deployments
• Keep remote HTTP MCP listeners authenticated; bearer mode refuses a non-loopback bind without `AFFINE_MCP_HTTP_TOKEN`
• Send MCP bearer tokens in the `Authorization` header, never in the URL
• Re-run `affine-mcp login` when a saved browser session expires
• Restrict exposed tools with `AFFINE_DISABLED_GROUPS` and `AFFINE_DISABLED_TOOLS` for least-privilege setups
• Treat OAuth mode as a shared AFFiNE service-account deployment: it defaults to `read_only`, and write-capable profiles require `AFFINE_OAUTH_ALLOW_SERVICE_WRITES=true`
• Use `/healthz` and `/readyz` when running the HTTP server behind a container platform or load balancer
• Set HTTP body, session, idle, and shutdown limits explicitly for high-volume deployments

Development

Run the main quality gates before opening a PR:

npm run ci

Additional validation:

• `npm test` verifies tool metadata, test-suite coverage, and the fast regression suite without requiring a live AFFiNE instance
• `npm run test:comprehensive` boots a local Docker AFFiNE stack and validates the tool surface
• `npm run test:e2e` runs Docker, MCP, and Playwright together
• `npm run test:playwright` runs the Playwright suite only
• Focused runners for the new high-level tool surface include `npm run test:create-placement`, `npm run test:capabilities-fidelity`, `npm run test:native-template`, `npm run test:mutation-ack`, `node tests/test-database-intent.mjs`, `node tests/test-semantic-page-composer.mjs`, `node tests/test-structured-receipts.mjs`, `node tests/test-organize-tools.mjs`, and `node tests/test-supporting-tools.mjs`

Live tests can mutate or delete AFFiNE data. They allow loopback targets by

default and refuse non-loopback targets unless the disposable target is

explicitly enabled and confirmed as documented in `CONTRIBUTING.md`. Never run

them against production.

Local clone flow:

git clone https://github.com/dawncr0w/affine-mcp-server.git
cd affine-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js

Release Notes

• CHANGELOG.md
• RELEASE_NOTES.md
• GitHub Releases

License

MIT License - see LICENSE.

Support

• Open an issue on GitHub
• Review AFFiNE product documentation at docs.affine.pro

Acknowledgments

• Built for the AFFiNE knowledge base platform
• Uses the Model Context Protocol specification
• Powered by @modelcontextprotocol/sdk