N-central API Patterns

N-central MCP Tools & API Patterns

Overview

The N-central MCP server exposes the N-able N-central REST API (/api/*) for MSP technicians: devices, org units (service organizations, customers, sites), active issues, scheduled tasks, custom properties, maintenance windows, and access groups. Unlike SaaS RMMs, every MSP runs its own N-central server — on-prem or N-able hosted — so all calls target a per-tenant server FQDN.

Connection & Authentication

The plugin talks to N-central through Conduit (conduit.wyre.ai). The MCP client authenticates to Conduit with OAuth — no client-side environment variables or headers. N-central credentials (a permanent User-API Token JWT plus your server URL) are entered once in Conduit's connect UI; Conduit stores them and injects them per-request as sidecar headers:

The MCP server handles upstream auth translation from those headers. If a tool call fails with an authentication error, fix the credentials in Conduit's connect page — not in the MCP client.

How the token flow actually works

The JWT you supply is the permanent User-API Token generated in the N-central UI (Administration → User Management → Users → user → API Access → Generate JSON Web Token). The MCP server exchanges it at POST /api/auth/authenticate for a short-lived access token (~1 hour) and refresh token (~25 hours), and refreshes them transparently. You never manage access/refresh tokens yourself — supply the JWT and server URL and the server does the rest. Two constraints on the N-central side:

• The API user must have MFA disabled — N-central rejects API token authentication for MFA-enabled users.
• The token inherits the user's role and access groups. A least-privilege dedicated API user is strongly recommended.

Use ncentral_validate_token to confirm the token is valid and see which user it authenticates as; ncentral_server_info reports the server version.

Tool Navigation

Tools are exposed behind decision-tree navigation. Call ncentral_navigate to move into a domain (orgs, devices, monitoring, tasks, custom-properties, maintenance, access-groups), ncentral_back to go up a level, and ncentral_status to see where you are and what is currently available. ncentral_health works from anywhere.

Pagination

List endpoints use 1-based page pagination:

Responses arrive in an envelope:

{
  "data": [ ... ],
  "totalItems": 4321,
  "totalPages": 5,
  "pageNumber": 1,
  "pageSize": 1000,
  "_links": { "nextPage": "...", "lastPage": "..." }
}

Always check totalItems/totalPages before claiming a result set is complete; walk pageNumber up to totalPages (or follow _links.nextPage) for full inventories.

Rate Limiting

N-central returns HTTP 429 when a client sends requests too quickly. The MCP sidecar retries 429s with backoff automatically, so occasional throttling is invisible; sustained parallel sweeps across large device fleets will still slow down. Prefer server-side filters (filterId, org-unit scoping) over client-side filtering of huge pages.

Preview Endpoints

Several REST endpoints are published at N-able's "preview" stage — their shape and availability vary by N-central release (this affects active issues, scheduled tasks, maintenance windows, and custom properties in older releases). If a tool returns 404 or an unexpected schema, check what your server actually ships: the interactive Swagger UI at https://<your-server>/api-explorer is the authoritative list for your exact version.

On-Prem Specifics

• Per-server FQDN — there is no shared cloud endpoint. Each MSP's N-central server has its own URL, and credentials are only valid there.
• Conduit reachability — Conduit must be able to reach the server. Firewalled or LAN-only on-prem servers need an inbound path (HTTPS/443) from Conduit.
• Private CA certificates — if the server presents a certificate from an internal CA, the MCP sidecar needs the CA bundle via NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS. Never disable TLS verification as a workaround.
• Version drift — hosted servers track current releases; on-prem servers may lag. Use ncentral_server_info and the api-explorer to confirm endpoint availability before debugging a "broken" tool.

Error Handling

Related Skills

• devices - device inventory, filters, assets, lifecycle
• organizations - SO/customer/site hierarchy, custom properties
• monitoring-tasks - active issues, job statuses, scheduled tasks