Meetup MCP

Meetup MCP Server

The Meetup MCP server is a persistent HTTP service that gives Claude direct access to a single Meetup group's organizer tools. It runs via Docker Compose and connects to Claude Code over Streamable HTTP.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Drafting, editing, or searching Meetup events
• Looking up venue information for the group
• Uploading and attaching event photos
• Troubleshooting auth or tool errors from the meetup MCP server
• Explaining the safety model or publish flow to users

Available Tools

Read (always available)

Write (requires organizer mode)

Safety Model

The server enforces a layered safety model via environment config:

1. Group lock — each server instance is bound to one group via MEETUP_GROUP_URLNAME. Cross-group operations are blocked.
2. Mode — organizer (default) enables writes; read_only restricts to read tools only.
3. Publish gate — MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=false (default) blocks publish_event. Publishing requires explicit opt-in.
4. Draft default — create_event always creates as DRAFT unless publishNow=true AND publish is enabled.

Policy violations return errors prefixed with POLICY_DENIED.

The intended workflow is: draft → review → publish. Never go straight to publish without reviewing the draft first.

Auth Flow

The server uses OAuth2 authorization code flow. Tokens are stored in a Docker volume and persist across restarts — you only authorize once.

First-time authorization

1. Call authorize — it returns a Meetup authorization URL.
2. Open the URL in a browser. Log in and click Allow.
3. The browser redirects to http://127.0.0.1:8787/meetup/oauth/callback?code=...

If the server is on a remote machine: the redirect happens on your local browser, not the server. Copy the full callback URL and send it to the server manually:

curl "http://YOUR_SERVER:8787/meetup/oauth/callback?code=THE_CODE_FROM_URL"

4. Call the original tool again — it will succeed now.

Token refresh

Access tokens expire after 1 hour. The server automatically refreshes using the stored refresh token. Meetup refresh tokens are single-use — the server always persists the new refresh token immediately after use.

Common Workflows

Search upcoming events

search_events(status="upcoming", limit=10)

Create a venue

create_venue(
  name="Community Center",
  address="500 Innovation Blvd",
  city="Houston",
  country="us",
  state="TX"
)

Returns venue (the created venue) and didYouMean (existing similar venues if the API detected a potential duplicate). Note: the Meetup API does not support updating or deleting venues.

Draft a new event

list_venues()  // find the right venueId first

create_event(
  title="Your Event Title",
  description="Event description in plain text or HTML",
  startDateTime="2026-05-15T17:30:00-05:00",
  duration="PT2H30M",
  venueId="VENUE_ID_FROM_LIST_VENUES"
)

Returns the created event with its ID. Status will be DRAFT.

Edit a draft

edit_event(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  title="Updated Title",           // optional
  description="Updated copy",      // optional
  howToFindUs="Parking details"    // optional
)

Only include fields you want to change — all fields are optional except eventId.

Publish a draft

Publishing requires MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true in the server's environment. If it's not set, publish_event returns a POLICY_DENIED error.

publish_event(eventId="EVENT_ID", confirm=true)

The confirm=true parameter is required as an explicit acknowledgement.

Attach a photo to an event

// Step 1: get upload ticket
create_event_photo_upload(contentType="image/jpeg")
// Returns: { photoId, uploadUrl }

// Step 2: upload bytes (done externally via HTTP PUT to uploadUrl)

// Step 3: attach to event
attach_event_photo(eventId="EVENT_ID", photoId="PHOTO_ID")

Add or update the structured speaker profile

add_event_speaker(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  name="Jane Doe",
  bio="Principal engineer and community organizer.",
  photoId="PHOTO_ID" // optional
)

update_event_speaker(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  bio="Updated speaker bio",
  clearPhoto=false
)

attach_event_speaker_photo(eventId="EVENT_ID", photoId="PHOTO_ID")

Meetup's GraphQL surface currently exposes a single speakerDetails object per event rather than an arbitrary array of speakers.

Datetime and Duration Formats

• startDateTime: ISO-8601 with timezone offset — 2026-05-15T17:30:00-05:00
• duration: ISO-8601 duration — PT2H (2 hours), PT2H30M (2.5 hours), PT90M (90 minutes)

Deployment

The server runs as a persistent Docker Compose service:

# Build image
dotnet publish src/Meetup.McpServer/Meetup.McpServer.csproj /t:PublishContainer

# Start in background
docker compose up -d

# Check logs
docker compose logs -f

# Stop
docker compose down

Claude Code connects via .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meetup": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:5180/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

authorize keeps returning an auth URL even after completing the flow

• The background listener may not have received the callback. Verify you curl'd the callback URL to the server, not just opened it in a browser on the same machine.

Tools return POLICY_DENIED

• Check MEETUP_MODE=organizer is set in .env
• For publish errors, set MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true and restart the container

search_events returns empty results

• Check the status value: use upcoming, past, or draft
• upcoming maps to Meetup's ACTIVE status — published events with future dates

Container won't start

• Check .env has MEETUP_OAUTH_KEY and MEETUP_OAUTH_SECRET set
• Run docker compose logs to see the startup error