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Clerk MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Clerk

Query and manage your Clerk organizations, members, users, roles, and metadata directly from AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, and more.


Getting Your Clerk API Key

You need a Clerk Secret Key to use this server.

  1. Go to dashboard.clerk.com and sign in (or create an account)

  2. Select your application (or create one)

  3. Navigate to ConfigureAPI Keys

  4. Copy the Secret Key — it starts with sk_test_ (development) or sk_live_ (production)

Never commit your secret key to git. Use environment variables or pass it via headers.


Two Operating Modes

The server supports two modes, auto-detected at startup:

Hosted Mode (Private)

The server owns the Clerk secret key. Set CLERK_SECRET_KEY in your .env file and all requests use that single key. No headers needed from clients.

Best for: Personal use, internal teams, self-hosted deployments.

Public Mode (Per-Request Key)

No secret key on the server. Each client passes their own key via the X-Clerk-Secret-Key HTTP header on every request. The server creates a fresh Clerk client per request.

Best for: Shared deployments, multi-tenant setups, or when you don't want the key stored on the server.

Hosted Mode

Public Mode

Key stored on server

Yes (in .env)

No

Key sent per request

No

Yes (via header)

Setup complexity

Simpler

Slightly more config

Multi-user support

Single Clerk account

Multiple Clerk accounts


Quick Start

1. Clone & install

git clone https://github.com/BalajiSriraman/Clerk-MCP.git cd Clerk-MCP npm install

2. Configure & run

Hosted mode — set the key once on the server:

cp .env.example .env # Edit .env and paste your secret key: # CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx npm run dev

Public mode — no .env needed, clients provide the key:

npm run dev

Your MCP endpoint is now live at http://localhost:3000/mcp.

3. Verify

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health
  • Hosted mode: {"status":"ok","mode":"hosted","clerkConnected":true}

  • Public mode: {"status":"ok","mode":"public","clerkConnected":null}


Connect to AI Assistants

Claude Code (CLI)

Hosted mode:

claude mcp add --transport http clerk http://localhost:3000/mcp

Public mode:

claude mcp add --transport http \ --header "X-Clerk-Secret-Key: sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \ clerk http://localhost:3000/mcp

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

Hosted mode:

{ "mcpServers": { "clerk": { "command": "npx", "args": ["mcp-remote", "http://localhost:3000/mcp"] } } }

Public mode:

{ "mcpServers": { "clerk": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:3000/mcp", "--header", "X-Clerk-Secret-Key: sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" ] } } }

Cursor

Go to Settings → MCP → Add Server:

Hosted mode:

{ "mcpServers": { "clerk": { "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp" } } }

Public mode:

{ "mcpServers": { "clerk": { "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp", "headers": { "X-Clerk-Secret-Key": "sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" } } } }

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to your workspace .vscode/mcp.json:

Hosted mode:

{ "mcp": { "servers": { "clerk": { "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp" } } } }

Public mode:

{ "mcp": { "servers": { "clerk": { "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp", "headers": { "X-Clerk-Secret-Key": "sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" } } } } }

Windsurf

Add to MCP settings:

Hosted mode:

{ "context_servers": { "clerk": { "source": "custom", "command": "npx", "args": ["mcp-remote", "http://localhost:3000/mcp"], "env": {} } } }

Public mode:

{ "context_servers": { "clerk": { "source": "custom", "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "http://localhost:3000/mcp", "--header", "X-Clerk-Secret-Key: sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" ], "env": {} } } }

Docker

Build the image

docker build -t clerk-mcp .

Run in hosted mode

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -e CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx clerk-mcp

Run in public mode

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 clerk-mcp

Docker Compose

Both modes are defined in docker-compose.yml:

# Hosted mode on port 3000 — set CLERK_SECRET_KEY in .env first docker compose up clerk-mcp-hosted # Public mode on port 3001 — no key needed on the server docker compose up clerk-mcp-public

Available Tools

Organizations

Tool

Description

clerk_list_organizations

List orgs with filtering by name/slug, pagination, and member counts

clerk_get_organization

Get org details by ID or slug (includes metadata, timestamps)

clerk_create_organization

Create a new organization with name, slug, and metadata

clerk_update_organization_metadata

Update org public/private metadata

clerk_delete_organization

Delete an organization permanently (irreversible)

Members

Tool

Description

clerk_list_organization_members

List org members with roles, user data, and metadata

clerk_update_member_role

Change a member's role (e.g. org:admin, org:member)

clerk_update_member_metadata

Update membership public/private metadata

clerk_remove_member

Remove a member from an organization

Invitations

Tool

Description

clerk_list_organization_invitations

List invitations by status (pending/accepted/revoked)

clerk_create_invitation

Invite a user to an org by email

Users

Tool

Description

clerk_list_users

List all instance users with search by name/email/phone

clerk_get_user

Get full user profile: emails, phones, external accounts, metadata

clerk_update_user_metadata

Update user public/private/unsafe metadata


Example Prompts

Once connected, try asking your AI assistant:

List all organizations in my Clerk instance. How many members does the "engineering" organization have? Create a new organization called "Design Team" with slug "design-team". Show me all pending invitations for organization org_2abc123. Find all users with email addresses containing "@example.com". Update the public metadata for user user_2xyz789 to set plan: "pro".

Deploying to Production

Build and deploy as any Nuxt/Node.js app:

npm run build node .output/server/index.mjs

Or use Docker:

docker build -t clerk-mcp . docker run -p 3000:3000 -e CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_xxx clerk-mcp

After deploying, replace http://localhost:3000/mcp with your production URL in all client configs.

Compatible with: Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Workers (with nitro preset), Railway, Fly.io, or any Node.js host.


Adding New Tools

Create a new file in server/mcp/tools/ — it's automatically discovered by the MCP toolkit:

// server/mcp/tools/clerk-my-new-tool.ts import { z } from "zod"; export default defineMcpTool({ name: "clerk_my_new_tool", description: "Description of what this tool does", inputSchema: { param: z.string().describe("Parameter description"), }, annotations: { readOnlyHint: true, destructiveHint: false, openWorldHint: true, }, async handler({ param }) { const clerk = useClerkClient(); const result = await clerkCall(() => clerk.someApi.someMethod({ param })); return jsonResult(result); }, });

Tech Stack

License

MIT

-
security - not tested
A
license - permissive license
-
quality - not tested

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