mcp-workato

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes the Workato Platform API to Claude Desktop (and any other MCP-compatible client).

With this server connected, you can ask Claude things like:

• "List my Workato recipes that are currently running."

• "Show me the last 10 failed jobs for recipe 12345."

• "Stop recipe 67890."

• "Get the source code of custom connector 111."

Features

Exposes the following Workato operations as MCP tools:

Related MCP server: Dataiku DSS MCP Server

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (tested on Node 22) — required for the built-in fetch API.

• A Workato account with API access enabled.

• Your Workato credentials — choose one of three authentication methods:

This server supports three authentication methods. The auth mode is auto-detected:

Method 1: API Token ⭐ (simplest — all you need is one token)

This is the simplest method and works with the single token shown on Workato's API Clients page (https://app.<pod>.workato.com/members/api/clients). The token is sent as Authorization: Bearer <token>.

1. Sign in to Workato.

2. Open API Clients: https://app.<your-pod>.workato.com/members/api/clients (e.g. for Singapore: https://app.sg.workato.com/members/api/clients).

3. Copy the API Token shown on that page → WORKATO_TOKEN.

That's it — no user id, no client id/secret needed.

{
  "WORKATO_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN",
  "WORKATO_POD": "sg"
}

💡 Make sure WORKATO_POD matches the subdomain of your Workato URL (app.sg.workato.com → sg, app.eu.workato.com → eu, etc.).

Method 2: API Client / OAuth2 (for automation / service accounts)

Uses Workato's OAuth2 client_credentials flow. You need a Client ID and Client Secret.

1. Sign in to Workato.

2. Go to Tools → API Clients (or App Console → API Clients on some plans).

3. Click "Create API Client" (or "New Client").

4. Copy the Client ID → WORKATO_CLIENT_ID

5. Copy the Client Secret (shown once!) → WORKATO_CLIENT_SECRET

💡 With this method, you do NOT need WORKATO_TOKEN or WORKATO_USER_ID. The server automatically exchanges client_id + client_secret for a Bearer access token.

Method 3: Access Token (legacy personal API token)

Uses the x-client-secret + x-user-id header scheme. You need a token and user ID.

1. Sign in to Workato.

2. Go to Account → API Tokens (or Settings → Account → API Tokens).

3. Click an existing token, or Create Token.

4. Copy the Access token → WORKATO_TOKEN

5. Copy the User ID (a number like 12345) → WORKATO_USER_ID

⚠️ User ID is a numeric id, NOT your email/username. Find it next to the token, or in Settings → Profile.

Data center / pod

All auth methods need to know your Workato data center. Look at the Workato URL:

Installation

git clone <this-repo> mcp_workato
cd mcp_workato
npm install
npm run build

This produces the compiled server at dist/index.js.

Configuration

Configuration is read from environment variables (or command-line --key value args). See .env.example.

Connect to Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

💡 On Windows, replace D:\\Projects\\Pribadi\\mcp_workato below with the absolute path to your project folder. Use double backslashes (\\) in JSON.

Add the mcp-workato server:

Simplest — API Token mode (Method 1):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workato": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["D:\\Projects\\Pribadi\\mcp_workato\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "WORKATO_TOKEN": "your_api_token_here",
        "WORKATO_POD": "sg"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or, with OAuth2 (Method 2):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workato": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["D:\\Projects\\Pribadi\\mcp_workato\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "WORKATO_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "WORKATO_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret",
        "WORKATO_POD": "us"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then:

1. Save the file.

2. Quit Claude Desktop completely (system tray → Quit, not just close the window).

3. Restart Claude Desktop.

4. Start a new chat. You should see the workato server's tools available. Try asking: "Can you list my Workato recipes?"

Verify your credentials (ping test)

Before wiring the server into Claude, test that your Workato credentials work. There are three ways:

Option 1 — npm run ping (recommended, easiest)

# Simplest: API token only (Method 1)
npm run ping -- --token YOUR_TOKEN --pod sg

# Or set env vars first (Windows)
set WORKATO_TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN
set WORKATO_POD=sg
npm run ping

# OAuth2 mode (Method 2)
npm run ping -- --client-id YOUR_ID --client-secret YOUR_SECRET

Expected output with valid credentials:

✅ MCP handshake OK: { name: 'mcp-workato', version: '1.0.0' }
⏳ Calling ping tool...
✅ Ping SUCCESS! Workato responded with:
{ "id": 12345, "name": "Your Name", ... }

If credentials are wrong you'll see:

❌ Ping FAILED:
Error: Workato API error: GET .../api/users/me -> 401 Unauthorized

Option 2 — MCP inspector (interactive UI)

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

This opens a web UI where you can connect, list tools, and call ping manually.

Option 3 — Through Claude Desktop

Once configured (see below), just ask Claude: "Can you ping Workato to check the connection?"

Run from CLI args (alternative to env vars)

Every setting can also be passed as a command-line argument:

# API token only (Method 1 - simplest)
node dist/index.js --token "YOUR_TOKEN" --pod sg --debug

# OAuth2 mode (Method 2)
node dist/index.js --client-id "YOUR_ID" --client-secret "YOUR_SECRET" --pod eu

Development

npm run build     # compile TypeScript -> dist/
npm run lint      # type-check without emitting
npm start         # run the compiled server
npm run dev       # build + run in one step

Project structure

mcp_workato/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts            # MCP server entry (stdio transport)
│   ├── tools.ts            # MCP tool definitions + zod schemas
│   ├── workato-client.ts   # Workato REST API client
│   └── config.ts           # env/arg config loader
├── dist/                   # compiled output (after build)
├── .env.example
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

How it works

Claude Desktop  ──stdio──►  mcp-workato (this server)  ──HTTPS──►  Workato Platform API

• Claude Desktop spawns the server as a child process and talks to it over stdin/stdout using the JSON-RPC–based MCP protocol.

• The server authenticates to Workato using one of three methods (see above): Authorization: Bearer <token> (api_token), the OAuth2 client_credentials flow, or the legacy x-client-secret + x-user-id headers.

• Each MCP tool maps to one Workato API endpoint; results are returned as JSON text content that Claude can read and reason about.

Security notes

• Your Workato token is powerful. Treat it like a password.

• The token is only stored in your local claude_desktop_config.json (or env). It is not sent anywhere except Workato.

• Set WORKATO_DEBUG=true only for troubleshooting — it logs request URLs (not secrets) to stderr.

Troubleshooting

"Missing required Workato configuration" → The required env vars for your chosen auth mode aren't set in the Claude Desktop config's env block. At minimum, provide WORKATO_TOKEN (for api_token mode), plus WORKATO_USER_ID (access_token mode), or WORKATO_CLIENT_ID + WORKATO_CLIENT_SECRET (oauth2 mode).

401 / "Unauthorized" from Workato → Token is wrong/expired, or the user id doesn't match the token. Regenerate the token in Workato.

Wrong data center / 404 → Set WORKATO_POD to match your Workato URL (e.g. eu, sg), or set WORKATO_BASE_URL directly.

Claude Desktop doesn't see the tools → Fully quit and restart Claude Desktop. Check the project path uses double backslashes on Windows. Check Claude's logs (%APPDATA%\Claude\logs).

License

MIT