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Convex MCP Server

The Convex Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides several tools that allow AI agents to interact with your Convex deployment.

Setup​

Add the following command to your MCP servers configuration:

npx -y convex@latest mcp start

Or see editor-specific instructions:

When using Claude Code, we recommend installing the Convex plugin, which automatically starts the MCP server.

Configuration Options​

The MCP server supports several command-line options to customize its behavior.

info

For the full list of options, see the npx convex mcp CLI reference.

Project Directory​

The tools provided by the MCP server require agents to select a deployment. To find the right deployment to use, agents use the status tool.

By default, status uses the current project directory. If you want to use another project directory by default or run npx convex mcp from a folder that is not a Convex project, you can change the project status uses with the --project-dir flag:

npx -y convex@latest mcp start --project-dir /path/to/project
warning

Setting --project-dir doesn’t prevent agents from manually providing a custom projectDir in the status tool call. It also does not prevent the agent from running tools in deployments that belong to other projects. If you need to enforce security boundaries, check out Security.

Deployment Selection​

By default, the MCP server connects to your development deployment. You can specify a different deployment using these options:

  • --prod: Run the MCP server on your project's production deployment (requires --dangerously-enable-production-deployments)
  • --preview-name <name>: Run on a preview deployment with the given name
  • --deployment-name <name>: Run on a specific deployment by name
  • --env-file <path>: Path to a custom environment file for choosing the deployment (e.g., containing CONVEX_DEPLOYMENT or CONVEX_SELF_HOSTED_URL). Uses the same format as .env.local or .env files.

Production Deployments​

By default, the MCP server cannot access production deployments. This is a safety measure to prevent accidental modifications to production data. If you need to access production deployments, you must explicitly enable this:

npx -y convex@latest mcp start --dangerously-enable-production-deployments
Use with care

Enabling production access allows the MCP server to read and modify data in your production deployment. Only enable this when you specifically need to interact with production, and be careful with any operations that modify data.

Disabling Tools​

You can disable specific tools if you want to restrict what the MCP server can do:

npx -y convex@latest mcp start --disable-tools data,run,envSet

Available tools that can be disabled: data, envGet, envList, envRemove, envSet, functionSpec, insights, logs, run, runOneoffQuery, status, tables

Available Tools​

Deployment Tools​

  • status: Queries available deployments and returns a deployment selector that can be used with other tools. This is typically the first tool you'll use to find your Convex deployment.

Table Tools​

  • tables: Lists all tables in a deployment along with their:

    • Declared schemas (if present)
    • Inferred schemas (automatically tracked by Convex)
    • Table names and metadata

  • data: Allows pagination through documents in a specified table.

  • runOneoffQuery: Enables writing and executing sandboxed JavaScript queries against your deployment's data. These queries are read-only and cannot modify the database.

Function Tools​

  • functionSpec: Provides metadata about all deployed functions, including:

    • Function types
    • Visibility settings
    • Interface specifications

  • run: Executes deployed Convex functions with provided arguments.

  • logs: Fetches a chunk of recent function execution log entries, similar to npx convex logs but as structured objects.

Insights Tools​

  • insights: Fetches health insights for a deployment over the last 72 hours. Reports OCC (Optimistic Concurrency Control) conflicts and resource limit issues (bytes read, documents read) that may indicate performance problems or failing functions. Includes recent events with request IDs for debugging.

Environment Variable Tools​

  • envList: Lists all environment variables for a deployment
  • envGet: Retrieves the value of a specific environment variable
  • envSet: Sets a new environment variable or updates an existing one
  • envRemove: Removes an environment variable from the deployment

Security​

The MCP server is safe by default: in production deployments, agents can’t access PII, and they can only perform read-only operations.

If necessary, you can customize the MCP server settings to grant more permissions in production deployments, or limit the MCP server to a single deployment.

info

If your agent is allowed to run npx convex commands independently, they will be run with the full authorization of your credentials, unless you use a scoped deploy key.

Allowed tools by deployment type​

By default, the MCP server only allows operations on non-production deployments and safe operations on production deployments (i.e. actions that are read-only and don’t expose PII or environment variables).

You can start the MCP server with --cautiously-allow-production-pii or --dangerously-enable-production-deployments to allow your agents to perform more actions on production deployments.

Allowed tools by deployment type and flags used
Tool categoryDefault--cautiously-allow-production-pii--dangerously-enable-production-deployments
Non-production deployments
All operations✅✅✅
Production deployments
Non-PII read-only operations
(insights, tables, functionSpec)		✅✅✅
PII read-only operations
(data, logs, runOneoffQuery)		❌✅✅
Reading environment variables
(envGet, envList)		❌❌✅
Write operations
(run, envSet, envRemove)		❌❌✅

If you want to disable access to particular tools, you can also use the --disable-tools CLI flag.

Limit access to a specific deployment​

By default, the MCP server uses the user’s global authentication credentials (set up through npx convex login) to access deployments. As a result, agents using the MCP can access all projects that your Convex account has access to.

If you want to restrict the MCP server to a particular deployment, generate a deploy key and set the CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY environment variable.

CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY="dev:happy-capybara-849|…=" npx -y convex@latest mcp start
Limitation

The insights tool is not available when the MCP server is started with CONVEX_DEPLOY_KEY (for both production and non-production deployments).

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