# Apideck MCP > Front-door skill for the Apideck MCP server — 330 unified-API tools across 10 domains plus 4 intent-grouped workflow tools, exposed via dynamic discovery. Use when the user is building an MCP-based agent (Claude Code, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic AI, LangChain) and wants to integrate with any of the 200+ SaaS connectors Apideck covers. Hosted at mcp.apideck.dev/mcp; stdio transport via `npx -y @apideck/mcp` for local development. - Skill: `apideck-libraries/apideck-mcp` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add apideck-libraries/apideck-mcp` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/apideck-libraries/apideck-mcp/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - License: Apache-2.0 - Author: apideck-libraries (https://skillmd.com/u/apideck-libraries) - Updated: 2026-09-10 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/apideck-libraries/apideck-mcp --- # Apideck MCP The [Apideck MCP server](https://github.com/apideck-libraries/mcp) exposes the Unified API as Model Context Protocol tools. One MCP server, 330+ tools, 200+ SaaS connectors. If you're building an agent that needs to read/write SaaS data — invoices, candidates, employees, files, tickets, customers — and your agent runtime supports MCP (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic AI, LangChain), this is usually the right choice over a language SDK. ## When to prefer MCP over the language SDK | Use the MCP server when… | Use a language SDK ([`apideck-node`](../apideck-node/), [`apideck-python`](../apideck-python/), …) when… | |---|---| | You're building an agent (LLM-driven control flow) | You're building a deterministic backend integration | | You want dynamic tool discovery — agent picks tools at runtime | You know at compile time which methods you'll call | | Your runtime already speaks MCP (Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Agents SDK, …) | You're embedding Apideck inside a non-agent service | | You want Vault OAuth elicitation handled for free (consent URLs surface as MCP elicitations) | You'll wire OAuth flows yourself | | Tool descriptions matter for agent decision-making | Your code knows which method to call regardless of description quality | ## Endpoints ``` Hosted: https://mcp.apideck.dev/mcp Stdio: npx -y @apideck/mcp Source: https://github.com/apideck-libraries/mcp ``` ### Pass credentials via headers (HTTP) ``` x-apideck-api-key: x-apideck-app-id: x-apideck-consumer-id: ``` ### Pass credentials via env vars (stdio) ```bash APIDECK_API_KEY=... APIDECK_APP_ID=... APIDECK_CONSUMER_ID=... npx -y @apideck/mcp ``` ## IMPORTANT RULES - **PREFER dynamic mode** (`?mode=dynamic` or `--dynamic`, the default). It exposes 4 meta-tools — `list_tools`, `describe_tool_input`, `execute_tool`, `list_scopes` — instead of 330 individual tools, dropping initial token cost from ~25-40K to ~1,300. Switch to static mode only for small fixed tool sets. - **CALL `list_tools` first** with relevant `search_terms` (`["accounting", "invoices"]`, `["hris", "employees"]`). Don't enumerate 330 tools. - **PREFER workflow tools over manual chains** — see "Intent-grouped workflows" below. The agent that picks `apideck-pay-bill` instead of stitching `accounting-bills-get` + `accounting-bill-payments-create` will succeed more often and leak less context. - **HANDLE URL elicitations**: when an upstream call hits a missing/expired Vault connection, the server throws `UrlElicitationRequiredError` (MCP error code `-32042`) carrying a one-time consent URL. Surface this URL to the user, wait for them to complete OAuth, then retry the original tool call. - **USE `x-apideck-service-id`** when a consumer has multiple connections of the same unified API — e.g. the consumer connected both Xero and QuickBooks, and the user wants the call to target Xero. Without this, Apideck routes to whichever connection is first. - **USE scopes** to restrict an agent to a subset of capabilities — `?scopes=read` for analysis agents, `?scopes=read,write` to allow non-destructive changes, omit for full access. Scopes are enforced server-side, so a "read-only" agent literally cannot call destructive tools no matter what the prompt says. ## Intent-grouped workflows The MCP server ships 4 high-level **workflow tools** alongside the 330 endpoint tools. Each workflow orchestrates 2-4 underlying calls behind a single intent. Prefer these when they match the user's task — agents picking the right workflow succeed more often than agents stitching the chain manually. | Workflow | Use when… | See | |---|---|---| | `apideck-month-end-close-check` | "Give me a P&L / balance sheet / aged receivables snapshot" | [`apideck-mcp-month-end-close`](../apideck-mcp-month-end-close/) | | `apideck-pay-bill` | "Pay bill X" / "Settle invoice X from supplier" | [`apideck-mcp-pay-bill`](../apideck-mcp-pay-bill/) | | `apideck-receive-customer-payment` | "Record that customer paid invoice X" | [`apideck-mcp-receive-payment`](../apideck-mcp-receive-payment/) | | `apideck-onboard-employee` | "Convert hired applicant X into an employee" | [`apideck-mcp-onboard-employee`](../apideck-mcp-onboard-employee/) | Workflows return a structured result with `failingStep` so you know *which* leg of the chain broke when something fails. Partial successes (e.g. one report unsupported by the connector) come back as useful data, not opaque errors. ## Mode selection The server supports three operational modes: - **Dynamic mode** (default): 4 meta-tools, ~1,300 initial tokens, agent discovers via `list_tools`. **Use this.** - **Static mode**: All 330+ tools listed up front, ~25-40K tokens. Use only when you're filtering to a tiny subset (e.g. `?include=accounting-invoices-list,accounting-invoices-get`) and want the schemas resolved at handshake. - **Code mode** (`?mode=code`, experimental): Agent writes JavaScript against an `apideck.*` SDK in a sandbox. Beta — currently uses `vm.createContext` which isn't production-hardened. Skip for production agents. ## Coverage 330 tools across these unified APIs: | API | Tools | Examples | |---|---|---| | Accounting | 143 | invoices, bills, payments, suppliers, customers, P&L, balance sheet, journal entries | | CRM | 50 | companies, contacts, leads, opportunities, pipelines, activities | | File Storage | 32 | files, folders, drives, shared links, upload sessions | | HRIS | 25 | employees, departments, payrolls, time-off requests | | Vault | 23 | connections, consumers, sessions, custom mappings, logs | | ATS | 15 | applicants, applications, jobs | | Issue Tracking | 15 | tickets, comments, users, tags | | Connector | 8 | API discovery, coverage metadata | | Ecommerce | 7 | customers, orders, products, stores | | Webhook | 6 | webhook subscriptions, logs | | Proxy | 6 | direct GET/POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE for connector-native endpoints not yet in the unified spec | ## Worked example: list invoices in dynamic mode ``` Agent: list_tools(search_terms: ["accounting", "invoices"]) → Returns: [ "accounting-invoices-list", "accounting-invoices-get", "accounting-invoices-create", "accounting-invoices-update", "accounting-invoices-delete" ] Agent: describe_tool_input(tool_name: "accounting-invoices-list") → Returns: { filter: { updated_since, status, ... }, cursor: string, limit: number, "x-apideck-service-id": string, ... } Agent: execute_tool( tool_name: "accounting-invoices-list", input: { limit: 10, "x-apideck-service-id": "quickbooks" } ) → Returns: { data: [...], meta: { cursors: { next: "..." } } } ``` Initial cost: ~1,300 tokens for the meta-tools. The agent fetches schemas only for tools it intends to call. ## Related skills - [`apideck-unified-api`](../apideck-unified-api/) — the unified-API model itself; install this alongside `apideck-mcp` if your agent isn't already grounded on Apideck's routing model. - [`apideck-best-practices`](../apideck-best-practices/) — auth patterns, pagination, error handling, Vault — applies to MCP usage too. - [`apideck-connector-coverage`](../apideck-connector-coverage/) — how to verify a method is supported by a specific connector before calling it. - Per-workflow playbooks: [`apideck-mcp-pay-bill`](../apideck-mcp-pay-bill/), [`apideck-mcp-receive-payment`](../apideck-mcp-receive-payment/), [`apideck-mcp-onboard-employee`](../apideck-mcp-onboard-employee/), [`apideck-mcp-month-end-close`](../apideck-mcp-month-end-close/). ## Reference - Server source + docs: [github.com/apideck-libraries/mcp](https://github.com/apideck-libraries/mcp) - Workflow tool authoring guide: [docs/authoring-workflow-tools.md](https://github.com/apideck-libraries/mcp/blob/main/docs/authoring-workflow-tools.md) - MCP protocol spec: [modelcontextprotocol.io](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) - Glama TDQS rubric (server scores AAA): [glama.ai/blog/2026-04-03-tool-definition-quality-score-tdqs](https://glama.ai/blog/2026-04-03-tool-definition-quality-score-tdqs)