# Spanning Backup MCP Server

An [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) server for the
[Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365](https://spanning.com) API. Spanning backs up a Microsoft 365
tenant's mailboxes, OneDrive, calendars, contacts, SharePoint sites and Teams channels every
day. This server lets an AI agent read which users are licensed for backup, how each day's
backup went per user and per service, and the tenant's license usage. It is read-only.

- Transport: MCP Streamable HTTP at `POST /mcp`, health probe at `GET /health`
- Stateless and multi-tenant: credentials arrive on every request as HTTP headers and are
  never stored; every tool is listed from the first `tools/list`
- Python 3.12, [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/), FastMCP, httpx
- License: Apache-2.0, Copyright 2026 MSPbots.ai

<div align="center">

## MSPbots Connector

**The MCP Gateway built for MSPs: visible, controlled, and your data stays where it belongs.**

[**Get started at connect.mspbots.ai →**](https://connect.mspbots.ai)

</div>

---

MSPbots Connector gives your AI clients one MCP URL to reach your entire MSP stack (RMM, PSA, documentation, security, finance), and gives you control over who can call which tool and a record of everything that was called.

**Hosted service: [connect.mspbots.ai](https://connect.mspbots.ai)** · Free to use.

### Why Connector

![MSPbots Connector](https://stgoss.mspbots.ai/files/mcp/mspbots-mcp.png)

| | |
|---|---|
| **Visible** | Every tool call is logged: who, which vendor, when. Usage dashboard, CSV export, SIEM streaming. |
| **Controlled** | Role-based, per-tool allowlist. Deny by default. |
| **Protected** | Credentials encrypted per record. AI clients never see your vendor passwords or tokens. |
| **MSP-native** | Built for the MSP stack only: RMM, PSA, documentation, security, finance. |

### Quick start

1. **Sign up** at [connect.mspbots.ai](https://connect.mspbots.ai).
2. **Connect your vendors.** Pick from 150+ connectors and authorize each one on the vendor's own page, or bring your own API keys. No extra vendor accounts needed.
3. **Set access.** Create roles and decide which tools each role may call. Nothing is allowed until you allow it.
4. **Add your MCP URL to your AI client.** Copy the URL from your Connector dashboard into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini, Codex, or any MCP-capable client.
5. **Ask your AI to do real work**, and watch every call appear in the audit log.

### Features

**Unified gateway**
- One MCP URL for all your AI clients
- 150+ connectors across the MSP stack
- Custom MCP servers supported, free
- Authorization happens on each vendor's own page; the AI never sees passwords or tokens
- Bring your own credentials: use the vendor API keys you already have
- Multiple accounts per app; connect once, reuse across AI clients
- Tool search: finds the right action for the task
- One sign-in; vendor credentials are injected behind the scenes and OAuth tokens refresh automatically

**Visibility**
- Audit log for every tool call (who, which vendor, when)
- Usage dashboard: call volume, top vendors, error rate, per-user activity
- Export audit logs to CSV, or stream to Loki, Graylog, or LogScale (SIEM)
- Optional recording of tool arguments and result summaries (off by default, enabled per organization)

**Control**
- Per-role, per-tool allowlist, deny by default
- owner / admin / member roles
- SCIM provisioning with Entra ID, Okta, JumpCloud, and Google Workspace

**Security**
- Credentials encrypted one record at a time (AES-256-GCM, per-record key)
- AI clients authenticate with OAuth 2.1 + PKCE
- Vendor responses are scanned for prompt-injection patterns and returned as structured data. This is one layer of defense, not a guarantee against every attack.
- Static egress IP for customer firewall and API allowlisting

### Pricing

**Free.**

Links: [connect.mspbots.ai](https://connect.mspbots.ai) · [mspbots.ai](https://mspbots.ai)

---

## Authentication headers

| Header | Required | Type | Default | Allowed values | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `X-Spanning-API-Token` | Yes | string | none | - | Spanning API token | `your-api-token` |
| `X-Spanning-Admin-Email` | Yes | string | none | email | Email of the Spanning administrator the token belongs to | `admin@example.com` |
| `X-Spanning-Platform` | No | string | `m365` | `m365` (also `o365`, `office365`); `gws` (`gapps`) and `salesforce` are recognised but not supported | Which Spanning product the account is | `o365` |
| `X-Spanning-Region` | No | string | detected | `us`, `eu`, `uk`, `ca`, `ap`, `af` | Data region of the Spanning account | `us` |

Where to get them:

- A Spanning administrator generates an API token in the Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365
  admin console (its settings area). The token is tied to the administrator who created it,
  so send that administrator's email with it.
- The region is the one the account was created in. When it is not sent, the server tries
  each regional API once and remembers which one accepts the credentials (only the region code
  is kept, keyed by a hash of the email and token).

How credentials are sent to Spanning: HTTP Basic authentication (admin email as user name,
API token as password) to `https://o365-api-{region}.spanningbackup.com/external/...`.

A request to `/mcp` without the two required headers gets HTTP 401 naming the missing ones. An
invalid email, platform or region does not block the request (so `tools/list` works with any
values); tools that call Spanning then return an `invalid_argument` error naming the header.

## Tools

All tools return a JSON string and are read-only. Users are identified by their Microsoft 365
user principal name. Backup results are per day and per service type and count objects as
`successful`, `partial` and `failed`; each row also carries an `outcome` word.

| Tool | Purpose | Parameters (required in **bold**) |
|---|---|---|
| `spanning_status` | Check the connection: credentials work, region, platform, tenant state | - |
| `spanning_get_license_usage` | Purchased standard / archive licenses vs assigned users and shared mailboxes | - |
| `spanning_list_users` | Tenant users and whether each is licensed (assigned) for backup | limit (default 50, max 200; larger values are capped), assignedOnly, includeBackupSummary, pageToken |
| `spanning_get_user` | One user's license state and today's backup results | **userId** |
| `spanning_list_services` | Services backed up for a user with the latest result of each (last 7 days) | **userId** |
| `spanning_list_backups` | A user's daily backup results for one service, newest first | **userId**, **service** (`mail`, `drive`, `calendar`, `contacts`, `sites`, `teams`), days (default 7, max 30: the API limit) |
| `spanning_queue_restore` | Explains how to restore; the API cannot start a restore, so nothing is queued | **userId**, **service**, **items** |
| `spanning_get_restore_status` | Explains that restore jobs are not exposed by the API | **restoreId** |
| `spanning_list_audit_log` | Explains that the admin audit log is not exposed by the API | since, until |

Errors come back as a JSON envelope instead of an exception:

```json
{"error": {"code": "unauthorized", "message": "Spanning returned HTTP 401 for tenant", "retryable": false}}
```

`code` is one of `not_configured`, `unauthorized`, `not_found`, `invalid_argument`,
`rate_limited`, `upstream_error`. Every call is a read, so 429, 5xx and network errors are
retried with backoff.

## Run locally

```bash
uv sync
uv run python -m spanning_mcp          # listens on 0.0.0.0:8080
```

or with Docker:

```bash
docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t spanning-mcp:dev .
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 spanning-mcp:dev
```

Configuration (environment variables, all optional): `MCP_HTTP_HOST` (default `0.0.0.0`),
`MCP_HTTP_PORT` (default `8080`), `LOG_LEVEL` (default `INFO`). Credentials are never read
from the environment.

## Testing example

```bash
# list tools
curl -s http://localhost:8080/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "X-Spanning-API-Token: your-api-token" \
  -H "X-Spanning-Admin-Email: admin@example.com" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

# a user's mail backups for the last 14 days
curl -s http://localhost:8080/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "X-Spanning-API-Token: your-api-token" \
  -H "X-Spanning-Admin-Email: admin@example.com" \
  -H "X-Spanning-Region: us" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"spanning_list_backups","arguments":{"userId":"jane@example.com","service":"mail","days":14}}}'
```

Unit tests (no network access needed):

```bash
uv run pytest
```

## Delivery notes

- **Tool count (9).** Kept as is because the tool names are an existing contract.
- **What the API offers.** Spanning's published API for Microsoft 365
  (`https://o365-docs.spanningbackup.com/swagger/json`) covers the tenant, users with their
  daily backup summaries, and license assignment. Services and backup history are derived from
  those summaries. It has no restore, restore-status or audit-log operations, so those three
  tools change nothing and explain where to do it (the Spanning web app).
- **Regions.** The API is served per data region; the region is detected when not given.
- **Platforms.** Only Microsoft 365 accounts are supported; Google Workspace and Salesforce
  connections get a clear error instead of failing calls.
- **Read-only.** License assignment exists in the API but is not exposed as a tool.

## License

Apache License 2.0 - see [LICENSE](LICENSE) and [NOTICE](NOTICE).