docs-publisher-mcp

Let Claude write your documentation. This is an MCP connector that gives Claude tools to publish, edit and delete tutorials on a Git-based docs site (Docusaurus, MkDocs, VitePress and others), and to add pictures to them. Everything goes straight to your GitHub repo, and the site redeploys by itself, so a tutorial is live a minute or two after Claude writes it.

See it working: docsXAi is a docs site built with it (source). Its setup guide has a one-minute demo video.

You chat with Claude  →  this connector  →  GitHub repo  →  live docs site

What Claude can do

Ask in plain words, for example: "Write a tutorial on webhooks and publish it as guides/webhooks."

upload_image accepts only JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP files up to 5 MB. It checks the file itself rather than its name, and refuses http:// links and private network addresses, so it can't be used to reach things on your own network.

Related MCP server: ship-it-mcp

Quick start

You need a GitHub token: create a fine-grained personal access token for your docs repo only, with Contents: Read and write.

Option A: on your own computer (just you)

Needs Node.js 18 or later. No server and no public address.

git clone https://github.com/ArfZkwn-coder/docs-publisher-mcp
cd docs-publisher-mcp
npm install
claude mcp add docs-publisher -e GITHUB_TOKEN=<your-token> -e DOCS_REPO=<owner>/<repo> -- node "$(pwd)/src/index.js"

For Claude Desktop, add this under mcpServers in claude_desktop_config.json (use the full path to src/index.js):

"docs-publisher": {
  "command": "node",
  "args": ["/full/path/to/docs-publisher-mcp/src/index.js"],
  "env": { "GITHUB_TOKEN": "<your-token>", "DOCS_REPO": "<owner>/<repo>" }
}

Option B: on a server, for a team using claude.ai

Anyone you give a personal URL can use it from claude.ai (web, desktop or phone) without installing anything.

1. Get the code on the server and create your settings file:

   git clone https://github.com/ArfZkwn-coder/docs-publisher-mcp
   cd docs-publisher-mcp
   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env: set GITHUB_TOKEN, DOCS_REPO, a long random MCP_SECRET (openssl rand -hex 24 makes one), and PUBLIC_URL (step 3).

2. Start it with Docker:

   docker compose up -d --build

   On ZimaOS, which has no docker compose, run sh run.sh instead. The first start clones your docs site and installs it, which takes a few minutes. docker logs -f docs-publisher shows progress; it's ready at listening on port 8787.

3. Give it a public https address, because claude.ai connects from the internet. Don't open a port on your router; use a tunnel:

   • Tailscale Funnel: tailscale funnel --bg 8787 gives you https://<machine>.<tailnet>.ts.net.

   • Cloudflare Tunnel: point a hostname at http://localhost:8787.

   Check https://<your-address>/health: it should say {"ok":true}. Put that address in PUBLIC_URL, then restart with docker compose up -d.

4. Add it in claude.ai: Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector, name docs-publisher, URL https://<your-address>/mcp/<MCP_SECRET>.

Hosting it elsewhere works too: any Linux server, VPS, NAS or Raspberry Pi that runs Docker will do. It needs a small persistent folder (./data, mounted at /data) for the keys and the site clone.

Give other people access

Give each person their own key, so you can remove one without affecting anyone else, and every commit says who asked for it, for example docs: publish "FAQ" (by alice).

docker exec docs-publisher node src/keys-cli.js add alice      # prints alice's connector URL
docker exec docs-publisher node src/keys-cli.js list           # names only
docker exec docs-publisher node src/keys-cli.js remove alice   # her URL stops working at once

Send each URL privately. Each person adds it in their own claude.ai as in step 4 above. Keys live in data/keys.json and take effect immediately, with no restart.

A connector URL is a password. Anyone who has it can publish, edit and delete pages on your live site, so only give it to people you trust.

Optional: let people request access on Telegram

The n8n/ folder has ready-made n8n workflows that do the key handling for you:

• docs-access-bot.json: a Telegram bot. Someone sends /access, you reply /approve <chat_id> <name>, and the bot sends them their URL. You can also send /revoke <name>, /list and /myid. Set OWNER_CHAT_ID in the Route node to your own chat ID so that only you can approve.

• docs-access.json: two n8n forms to give and revoke access without Telegram.

They talk to a small admin API that turns on when you set ADMIN_TOKEN (24+ random characters). It listens on port 8788 and needs the header Authorization: Bearer <ADMIN_TOKEN>:

Keep port 8788 private: docker-compose.yml and run.sh publish it only on the Docker bridge address (172.17.0.1, Linux). Never expose it through a tunnel. The Telegram bot needs Telegram to reach n8n's /webhook path over https; expose only that path, never the n8n editor.

Settings

Set these in .env.

Deploying: with SITE_DIR set, the connector pulls the repo and runs DEPLOY_COMMAND after every change; changes that arrive during a deploy are folded into one more. The default suits Docusaurus (docusaurus deploy pushes to gh-pages) and needs Git credentials that can push. If a CI workflow already deploys on every push, skip all this: leave SITE_DIR unset.

Good to know

• After changing .env, recreate the container with docker compose up -d (or sh run.sh). docker restart keeps the old settings.

• GitHub shows your token's owner as the author of every commit. The (by <name>) in the message shows who asked. To undo a change, revert that commit and redeploy.

• Don't require pull requests on main with branch protection: the connector commits to it directly.

• To update the server, pull the new code and run docker compose up -d --build (or sh run.sh) again.

Tests

npm test

An end-to-end check using a fake GitHub and shell. It needs no token or network.

License

MIT