@aredotna/mcp

MCP server for the Are.na API. It exposes one tool per API endpoint, generated from the OpenAPI spec, plus a few composite tools such as searchAndConnect and channelDigest.

Quick start

Connect your app to the hosted server and sign in with your Are.na account:

https://mcp.are.na/mcp

Choose OAuth when asked for authentication. You don't need a personal access token or a local install.

• Claude

• ChatGPT

• Claude Code

• Codex desktop / IDE

• Codex CLI

• Cursor

Menu labels can vary between app versions and workspace policies.

Claude (web, desktop, and Cowork)

1. Open Customize > Connectors, then + Add > Add custom connector.

2. Enter Are.na and https://mcp.are.na/mcp, then continue.

3. Choose Sign in now. If an OAuth client option is shown, pick Use Claude's published identity or Register automatically. Leave any Client ID and Secret fields blank.

4. Finish adding the connector, review the permissions, and sign in to Are.na.

5. Enable Are.na in the conversation's connectors menu.

On Team or Enterprise plans, an admin adds the connector under Organization settings > Connectors first, then each member connects their own Are.na account.

Claude's setup guide

ChatGPT

1. Open ChatGPT Plugins, select +, then Add custom MCP server.

2. Name it Are.na and enter https://mcp.are.na/mcp as the server URL.

3. Choose OAuth. No client ID or secret is needed.

4. Select Create as a plugin and sign in to Are.na when prompted.

5. Install the plugin. In a new chat, type @ and select Are.na.

If the option is missing, your workspace admin may need to allow custom plugins.

OpenAI's connection guide

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user arena https://mcp.are.na/mcp

Then run /mcp in Claude Code, select arena, and sign in. Omit --scope user to add it to the current project only.

Claude Code MCP documentation

Codex desktop / IDE

1. In the desktop app, open Settings > MCP servers > Add server. In the IDE extension, open the gear menu and select MCP servers.

2. Set the name to arena, transport to Streamable HTTP, and URL to https://mcp.are.na/mcp. Leave the token and header fields empty.

3. Save, restart if prompted, then select Authenticate and sign in to Are.na.

Codex MCP guide

Codex CLI

codex mcp add arena --url https://mcp.are.na/mcp
codex mcp login arena

Or add this to ~/.codex/config.toml and run the login command:

[mcp_servers.arena]
url = "https://mcp.are.na/mcp"

Cursor

Add Are.na to Cursor, approve the install, and sign in when prompted.

Or add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json for one project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arena": {
      "url": "https://mcp.are.na/mcp"
    }
  }
}

If sign-in doesn't start, open Cursor's MCP settings and connect arena.

Cursor MCP documentation

Try it

Search Are.na for channels about concrete poetry and show me five links.

Summarize this Are.na channel: [paste a channel URL].

Troubleshooting

• Use the full URL, including /mcp, and choose Streamable HTTP if asked for a transport.

• If tools are missing, check that Are.na is connected and enabled for the chat.

• If sign-in fails with an unknown or invalid client, remove the connection and add it again.

Related MCP server: threads-mcp

Local server and access tokens

To run the server locally over stdio, follow Development and create a personal access token.

For Claude Desktop, add this to claude_desktop_config.json, replacing both paths with absolute paths to your checkout:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arena": {
      "command": "/path/to/arena/mcp/node_modules/.bin/tsx",
      "args": ["/path/to/arena/mcp/src/transports/stdio.ts"],
      "env": {
        "ARENA_ACCESS_TOKEN": "YOUR_ARENA_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run tsx directly rather than through yarn so package-manager output doesn't interfere with stdio. Other stdio clients, such as Codex, take the same command, argument, and ARENA_ACCESS_TOKEN variable.

Clients that support custom headers can also use the hosted endpoint with Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ARENA_TOKEN.

Development

git clone https://github.com/aredotna/mcp.git
cd mcp
yarn install
yarn generate   # fetch OpenAPI spec, generate types + tools

Running locally

stdio:

ARENA_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token yarn dev

HTTP (Cloudflare Workers dev server):

cp .dev.vars.example .dev.vars
# Set your tokens in .dev.vars
yarn dev:http

The HTTP server stores OAuth state in Workers KV. Wrangler provides an in-memory KV locally. For production, create a namespace and put its id in wrangler.toml:

npx wrangler kv namespace create OAUTH_KV

Then set the Are.na OAuth application credentials as secrets:

npx wrangler secret put ARENA_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID
npx wrangler secret put ARENA_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET

Register the OAuth application at are.na/developers/oauth/applications with redirect URI https://mcp.are.na/callback (or http://127.0.0.1:8787/callback for local dev).

Testing and formatting

yarn typecheck
yarn test
yarn format

Prettier also runs on staged files via a pre-commit hook.

Deployment

Pushes to main deploy to Cloudflare Workers via GitHub Actions. To deploy manually, run yarn deploy. Plain wrangler deploy leaves client ID metadata documents (CIMD) disabled.

Deploying requires CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN and CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID, set as GitHub secrets for CI or via wrangler login locally.

Adding custom tools

Create a file in src/tools/custom/, export a register function, and call it from src/tools/index.ts. See src/tools/custom/search-and-connect.ts for an example.

Regenerating tools

When the Are.na API spec changes, run yarn generate to fetch it and regenerate the TypeScript types, tool registrations, and output schemas. Use yarn generate --offline to regenerate from the checked-in spec.

Tool results

Every tool advertises an outputSchema and returns its result in both structuredContent and JSON text:

{ "result": { "id": 123, "type": "Text" } }

result holds the full API response (including data and meta for list endpoints), or null for an empty response.

Successful responses are validated against the output schema. API errors are returned with isError: true and aren't validated. Because validation happens after the request, a validation failure on a write doesn't mean the write failed, so don't retry it automatically.

OAuth

The hosted server is an OAuth authorization server for MCP clients and delegates sign-in to Are.na.

• Scopes: read, write, or both. Omitting scope requests write. Unknown or empty scopes are rejected.

• Consent: A consent screen shows the app, the requested access, and the redirect destination before Are.na sign-in. Consent and the callback must happen in the same browser.

• Dynamic client registration (DCR): Clients register as public clients (none, with PKCE) or with client_secret_post. Redirect URIs must use HTTPS, loopback HTTP, or a private-use scheme such as cursor://. Loopback callbacks may use any port; the rest of the URI must match exactly.

• Client ID metadata documents (CIMD): Clients can identify themselves with an HTTPS URL to a metadata document they publish. The document must match its URL, list the callback, and support public-client authentication. The consent screen shows the publishing domain. CIMD is enabled by CLIENT_ID_METADATA_DOCUMENTS=enabled, which yarn deploy sets; it's off for local development, which requires a client that supports DCR.

Access tokens are Are.na tokens passed through to the client, not separate MCP-audience tokens. Authorization codes are stored in Workers KV, which has no atomic consume, so single-use codes aren't strictly guaranteed under concurrent redemption.