Configure MCP Server

Configure and Build the OpenBB MCP Server

This guide covers installation, configuration, authentication, tool discovery, prompt management, and client integration for openbb-mcp-server.

Installation

pip install openbb-mcp-server

This installs the openbb-mcp CLI command. To include the default OpenBB extensions as tools, also install them:

pip install openbb

Or install individual extensions:

pip install openbb-equity openbb-economy

Starting the Server

Default (all installed OpenBB extensions)

openbb-mcp

Defaults: --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8001 --transport streamable-http

With a Custom FastAPI Application

# File path with default instance name "app"
openbb-mcp --app ./my_app.py

# Explicit instance name
openbb-mcp --app ./my_app.py --name my_app

# Module import syntax
openbb-mcp --app my_package.app:my_app

# Factory function pattern
openbb-mcp --app ./my_app.py:create_app --factory

Transport Options

CLI Arguments

Any additional --key value pairs are forwarded to Uvicorn as config.

Configuration Precedence

Settings are resolved in this order (highest priority first):

1. CLI arguments — command-line flags
2. Environment variables — prefixed with OPENBB_MCP_
3. Config file — ~/.openbb_platform/mcp_settings.json
4. Defaults — built-in MCPSettings defaults

Config File Example

Create ~/.openbb_platform/mcp_settings.json:

{
    "name": "My MCP Server",
    "default_tool_categories": ["equity", "economy"],
    "enable_tool_discovery": false,
    "describe_responses": false,
    "system_prompt_file": "/path/to/system_prompt.txt",
    "server_prompts_file": "/path/to/prompts.json"
}

Environment Variables

All settings map to OPENBB_MCP_ prefixed environment variables:

OPENBB_MCP_NAME="My MCP Server"
OPENBB_MCP_DEFAULT_TOOL_CATEGORIES="equity,economy,crypto"
OPENBB_MCP_ENABLE_TOOL_DISCOVERY=true
OPENBB_MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_FILE="/path/to/prompt.txt"
OPENBB_MCP_SERVER_PROMPTS_FILE="/path/to/prompts.json"

Settings Reference

Server Identity

Tool Configuration

Prompt Configuration

HTTP Transport

Duplicate Handling

Options: "warn", "error", "replace", "ignore"

Module Exclusion

By default, categories whose Python modules cannot be imported are excluded (e.g., econometrics, quantitative, technical, coverage).

Authentication

Three authentication modes are available.

Server-Side Authentication

Protect incoming MCP requests with a Bearer token:

{
    "server_auth": ["username", "password"]
}

Or via environment variable:

OPENBB_MCP_SERVER_AUTH='["username", "password"]'

Clients must include Authorization: Bearer <base64(username:password)> in their requests. The token is base64-encoded username:password.

Client-Side Authentication

Authenticate outbound requests to downstream services:

{
    "client_auth": ["api_user", "api_key"]
}

Or via environment variable:

OPENBB_MCP_CLIENT_AUTH='["api_user", "api_key"]'

This passes auth=(user, pass) to the httpx client used for internal requests.

Programmatic Authentication

When using the server as a library, pass a custom AuthProvider to create_mcp_server():

from openbb_mcp_server.app.app import create_mcp_server
from openbb_mcp_server.models.settings import MCPSettings

settings = MCPSettings()
mcp = create_mcp_server(settings, my_fastapi_app, auth=my_auth_provider)

Tool Discovery

When enable_tool_discovery is true, five admin tools are available to the agent:

All visibility changes are per-session — each connected client maintains its own active toolset, so the server is safe for multi-user deployments.

Controlling Active Tools on Startup

Use default_tool_categories to control which categories are active initially:

# Only equity and economy tools active on start
openbb-mcp --default-categories equity,economy

# All admin tools active (for exploration)
openbb-mcp --default-categories admin

The agent can then use available_categories and activate_tools (or activate_category for bulk activation) to dynamically enable additional tools as needed.

Restricting Available Categories

Use allowed_tool_categories to permanently hide categories:

openbb-mcp --allowed-categories equity,economy,crypto

Categories not in this list cannot be activated even via discovery tools.

Enabling Discovery

openbb-mcp --tool-discovery

All tools in default_tool_categories are active and the admin tools are not registered unless discovery is enabled.

Tool Naming Convention

Tools are named from their API route path after stripping the API prefix:

The first path segment is the category, the last segment is the tool name, and segments in between form the subcategory. When there is no subcategory, it defaults to "general".

Prompt System

The server supports four layers of prompts, all accessible via the list_prompts and execute_prompt tools.

1. System Prompt (tag: system)

A plain text file loaded once at startup. Also exposed as resource://system_prompt.

openbb-mcp --system-prompt /path/to/system_prompt.txt

2. Server Prompts JSON (tag: server)

A JSON file defining reusable prompts with optional arguments:

[
    {
        "name": "analyze_stock",
        "description": "Framework for analyzing a stock.",
        "content": "Analyze {symbol} focusing on {aspect}.",
        "arguments": [
            {
                "name": "symbol",
                "type": "str",
                "description": "Ticker symbol"
            },
            {
                "name": "aspect",
                "type": "str",
                "default": "fundamentals",
                "description": "Analysis focus area"
            }
        ],
        "tags": ["analysis"]
    }
]

Argument types: str, int, float, bool, list, dict, any

Arguments with a default value are optional; those without are required.

openbb-mcp --server-prompts /path/to/prompts.json

3. Inline Prompts (tag: route-specific)

Define prompts directly on FastAPI routes via openapi_extra:

@router.command(
    methods=["GET"],
    openapi_extra={
        "mcp_config": {
            "prompts": [
                {
                    "name": "usage_guide",
                    "description": "How to use this endpoint.",
                    "content": "To analyze {symbol}, call this endpoint with..."
                }
            ]
        }
    },
)
async def my_endpoint(symbol: str) -> OBBject:
    ...

4. Bundled Skills (Resources)

Skill guides are exposed as MCP resources discoverable via list_resources(). Each skill is accessible at a skill://<name>/SKILL.md URI.

# Discover available skills
list_resources()  # returns skill://develop_extension/SKILL.md, etc.

# Read a specific skill
read_resource("skill://configure_mcp_server/SKILL.md")

Custom skills directory:

OPENBB_MCP_DEFAULT_SKILLS_DIR=/path/to/my/skills

Set to empty string to disable bundled skills:

OPENBB_MCP_DEFAULT_SKILLS_DIR=""

Skills Reload

Enable hot-reload of skill files without restarting the server (useful during development):

{
    "skills_reload": true
}

Or via environment variable:

OPENBB_MCP_SKILLS_RELOAD=true

Vendor Skills Providers

Load skill directories from well-known vendor locations (e.g. ~/.claude/skills/). Sets the skills_providers list in mcp_settings.json:

{
    "skills_providers": ["claude", "cursor"]
}

Or via environment variable (comma-separated):

OPENBB_MCP_SKILLS_PROVIDERS="claude,cursor"

Supported provider names:

Inline MCP Configuration (MCPConfigModel)

Control how individual routes appear in the MCP server via openapi_extra:

@app.get(
    "/my_endpoint",
    openapi_extra={
        "mcp_config": {
            "expose": True,
            "mcp_type": "tool",
            "methods": ["GET"],
            "exclude_args": ["internal_param"],
            "prompts": []
        }
    },
)

MCPConfigModel Fields

Client Configuration Examples

Claude Desktop (stdio transport)

In Claude Desktop's MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openbb-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from", "openbb-mcp-server",
                "--with", "openbb",
                "openbb-mcp",
                "--transport", "stdio"
            ]
        }
    }
}

For a custom app:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openbb-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from", "openbb-mcp-server",
                "openbb-mcp",
                "--app", "./my_app.py",
                "--transport", "stdio"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Cursor (streamable-http)

1. Start the server: openbb-mcp
2. In Cursor's mcp.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openbb-mcp": {
            "url": "http://localhost:8001/mcp/"
        }
    }
}

VS Code (streamable-http)

1. Enable MCP in VS Code settings (Settings → Chat → MCP)
2. Start the server: openbb-mcp
3. Open Command Palette → "MCP: Add Server" → HTTP
4. Enter URL: http://127.0.0.1:8001/mcp

For the Cline VS Code extension, use --transport sse:

openbb-mcp --transport sse

With Authentication

Start with server auth enabled:

openbb-mcp --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8001

With mcp_settings.json:

{
    "server_auth": ["admin", "secretpass"]
}

Clients include the Bearer token in their configuration:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openbb-mcp": {
            "url": "http://localhost:8001/mcp/",
            "headers": {
                "Authorization": "Bearer YWRtaW46c2VjcmV0cGFzcw=="
            }
        }
    }
}

The token value is base64("admin:secretpass").

Advanced Configuration

Lists and Dicts in Environment Variables

Lists can be passed as comma-separated strings:

OPENBB_MCP_DEFAULT_TOOL_CATEGORIES="equity,economy,crypto"
OPENBB_MCP_ALLOWED_TOOL_CATEGORIES="equity,economy"

Dicts and tuples must be JSON-encoded strings:

OPENBB_MCP_SERVER_AUTH='["user", "pass"]'
OPENBB_MCP_UVICORN_CONFIG='{"host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 8001, "log_level": "info"}'
OPENBB_MCP_HTTPX_CLIENT_KWARGS='{"timeout": 30, "verify": false}'

SSL / HTTPS

Pass SSL config via Uvicorn:

openbb-mcp --ssl-keyfile /path/to/key.pem --ssl-certfile /path/to/cert.pem

Or in the config file:

{
    "uvicorn_config": {
        "host": "0.0.0.0",
        "port": 443,
        "ssl_keyfile": "/path/to/key.pem",
        "ssl_certfile": "/path/to/cert.pem"
    }
}

Using as a Library

import asyncio
from fastapi import FastAPI
from openbb_mcp_server.app.app import create_mcp_server
from openbb_mcp_server.models.settings import MCPSettings

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/hello")
async def hello():
    return "Hello World"

settings = MCPSettings(
    name="My Custom MCP",
    default_tool_categories=["all"],
    enable_tool_discovery=False,
)

mcp = create_mcp_server(settings, app)
mcp.run(transport="streamable-http")

Workflow Summary

To configure and deploy an OpenBB MCP server:

1. Install: pip install openbb-mcp-server (plus any desired OpenBB extensions).
2. Configure: Create ~/.openbb_platform/mcp_settings.json with desired settings.
3. Add prompts: Write a system prompt file and/or server prompts JSON.
4. Start: Run openbb-mcp with appropriate CLI flags.
5. Connect: Configure your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) with the server URL or stdio command.
6. Discover: Use available_categories, activate_tools, and activate_category to find and enable tools.
7. Iterate: Adjust settings, add inline mcp_config to routes, add skill files.