@cyanheads/mailchimp-mcp-server

Tools

Eighteen always-on tools plus two conditional ones — mailchimp_assets (when MAILCHIMP_ASSETS_DIR is set) and mailchimp_local_templates (when MAILCHIMP_TEMPLATES_DIR is set). Workflow helpers orchestrate common flows end-to-end, primitive tools expose fine-grained CRUD, and the instruction tool returns procedural guidance merged with live account state.

mailchimp_send_campaign

Compose and send (or schedule/test) a campaign in one call.

• Chains create → content → checklist → optional test → send/schedule

• Requests human confirmation via ctx.elicit when mode: 'send' | 'schedule' and the client supports elicitation

• Auto-deletes aborted or failed drafts when cleanupOnError: true (default)

• Supports html, plaintext, and templateId + mergeData content forms

mailchimp_replicate_campaign

Duplicate an existing campaign with optional overrides, then send/schedule/test or leave as draft.

• Overrides: subject, from name, reply-to, audience, segment, content

• Same elicit confirmation + cleanup semantics as mailchimp_send_campaign

• Tuned for the common "send v2 of last week's newsletter with an updated intro" pattern

mailchimp_upsert_subscriber

Add or update a subscriber in one idempotent call.

• Declarative tag sync — pass the desired active set and the tool computes the add/remove delta

• preserveTags protects named segment memberships (Mailchimp stores static-segment membership as tags)

• status: 'pending' triggers Mailchimp's double-opt-in email; 'subscribed' requires documented consent

• PUT /members/{hash} for create path, PATCH for update to skip re-validating pre-existing merge fields

mailchimp_import_subscribers

Batch add (and optionally update) subscribers in one call.

• Capped at 500 rows per call — chunk larger imports client-side

• Status defaults to pending (double-opt-in) to prevent accidental mass-sends

• Returns per-row succeeded/failed with error reasons

mailchimp_campaign_report

Aggregated post-send analytics for a campaign.

• Headline delivery metrics: sent, bounces, abuse reports

• Engagement: opens, clicks, unsubscribes

• Top-N clicked links, locations, recent unsubscribes

• Industry benchmarks when available

• Use mailchimp_reports with operation: 'slice' for a single dimension in detail

mailchimp_audience_overview

Single-call audience health digest — answers "what does this audience look like?" in one request.

• Audience info + live stats

• Configurable months of growth history

• Top email clients

• Full merge-field schema

• Recent activity

mailchimp_playbook

Returns a structured procedural playbook merged with live account state. Advice-only — the agent executes subsequent steps with other tools.

• Topics: send, post-send-review, deliverability, list-hygiene, onboarding, subscriber-triage, design-campaign

• Returns markdown instructions + a live-state snapshot

• nextToolSuggestions pre-fills arguments for the next likely tool call

Related MCP server: Mailchimp MCP Server

Resources and prompts

All resource data is also reachable via tools. Large collections (audiences, campaigns) are not exposed as resources — use the list operation on the corresponding tool instead. Design reference for the prompt: docs/email-design-playbook.md.

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

• Declarative tool, resource, and prompt definitions — single file per primitive, framework handles registration and validation

• Unified error handling — handlers throw, framework catches, classifies, and formats

• Pluggable auth: none, jwt, oauth

• Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing

• STDIO and Streamable HTTP transports

Mailchimp-specific:

• Auto-derives the API base URL from the -dc suffix on the API key

• Safe-by-default send workflows — elicit confirmation, pending-status imports, no permanent deletes from agent surface

• Workflow tools parallelize related sub-requests under a configurable concurrency limit

• Domain normalization shapes sparse upstream payloads into compact, LLM-friendly output without fabricating values

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file. See docs/api-key.md for how to generate a Mailchimp API key.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mailchimp-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/mailchimp-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "MAILCHIMP_API_KEY": "your-key-with-dc-suffix-e.g.-us22"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mailchimp-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/mailchimp-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "MAILCHIMP_API_KEY": "your-key-with-dc-suffix-e.g.-us22"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mailchimp-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "-e", "MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=your-key-with-dc-suffix-e.g.-us22",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/mailchimp-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=... bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.3.2 or higher (or Node.js v24+).

• A Mailchimp Marketing API key — the key's -dc suffix (e.g. -us22) identifies your data center and is parsed at startup.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/mailchimp-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd mailchimp-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set MAILCHIMP_API_KEY

Configuration

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Local assets (optional)

Set MAILCHIMP_ASSETS_DIR to enable a local-image workflow on top of Mailchimp's File Manager. Drop image files into the directory, reference them in HTML as @assets/<relative-path>, and the server uploads + rewrites at send time.

export MAILCHIMP_ASSETS_DIR=/Users/me/Pictures/email-assets

Then in a campaign:

<img src="@assets/hero.png" alt="Hero">
<a href="@assets/whitepaper.pdf">Download</a>

When mailchimp_send_campaign (or mailchimp_campaigns set-content / mailchimp_replicate_campaign contentOverride) sees these references, it:

1. Hashes each referenced file (SHA-256).

2. Uploads cache misses to Mailchimp File Manager via the mailchimp_files tool surface.

3. Caches sha256 → file_id + URL at <assetsDir>/.mailchimp-cache.json (atomic writes; safe to delete to force re-upload).

4. Rewrites every @assets/<path> to the public CDN URL before passing content upstream.

The mailchimp_assets tool exposes list, info, sync (pre-warm), and clear-cache for direct inspection — most workflows don't need it.

Caveats:

• Mailchimp caps images at 1 MB and other files at 10 MB. Oversize files fail before upload with an actionable error.

• Allowed extensions: see the mailchimp_files tool description. WebP and AVIF are NOT in the allowlist — convert to PNG/JPG.

• Path traversal is rejected (../ and absolute paths throw Forbidden).

• The mailchimp_assets tool is Node-only; on Cloudflare Workers it isn't registered.

Local templates (optional)

Set MAILCHIMP_TEMPLATES_DIR to enable a local-template authoring workflow on top of Eta (v4 — fast, ESM-native, supports partials/conditionals/loops). This is the canonical write path for templates on free-tier Mailchimp accounts, where the upstream /templates API is read-only.

export MAILCHIMP_TEMPLATES_DIR=/Users/me/email-templates

email-templates/
  welcome.eta              # body + optional YAML frontmatter
  newsletter.eta
  partials/
    header.eta
    footer.eta

Template (welcome.eta) — YAML frontmatter on top, Eta body below:

---
subject: "Welcome to {{brand}}"
previewText: "Onboarding starts here"
vars:
  - firstName
  - brand
---
<%~ include('partials/header', it) %>
<h1>Hello <%= it.firstName %></h1>
<p>Welcome to <%= it.brand %>.</p>
<img src="@assets/hero.png" alt="Hero">

Frontmatter is optional — a body with no --- block is treated as a meta-less template. All meta fields are optional too. The vars: list is informational only (declared variables aren't schema-enforced).

Sidecar fallback (legacy): prior to v0.3.1, meta lived in a separate <name>.meta.yaml file next to the body. That form still works for backward compatibility — if a .eta has no frontmatter, the loader falls back to reading the sidecar. Frontmatter takes precedence when both exist.

Reference from any campaign tool:

{
  "audienceId": "abc123",
  "subject": "Welcome to Acme",
  "fromName": "Casey",
  "replyTo": "casey@acme.com",
  "content": {
    "localTemplate": "welcome",
    "localTemplateVars": { "firstName": "Sam", "brand": "Acme" }
  },
  "mode": "draft"
}

The render pipeline:

1. Eta renders welcome.eta with it = { firstName: 'Sam', brand: 'Acme' }.

2. If L1 is configured, @assets/hero.png is uploaded to Mailchimp File Manager and rewritten to a CDN URL.

3. Final HTML is set on the campaign via Mailchimp's set-content.

The mailchimp_local_templates tool exposes list, get, render-preview (returns HTML without sending), and seed-from-mailchimp (reads a Mailchimp base/user template by ID and writes it to disk as a starting point — useful on free where you can read but not write upstream).

Example templates in this repo

The templates/ directory holds working examples — point MAILCHIMP_TEMPLATES_DIR at it directly to try them, or copy them into your own dir as a starting point:

Caveats:

• localTemplate is mutually exclusive with html and templateId on the same content block.

• Var validation isn't enforced by the schema — missing/extra vars surface as Eta render errors at send time.

• Path traversal is rejected.

• Node-only; not available on Workers.

Running the server

Local development

• Watch mode (transport via MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE):

  bun run dev                                     # stdio (default)
  MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http bun run dev             # http

• Build and run:

  bun run rebuild
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t mailchimp-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=your-key-us22 -p 3010:3010 mailchimp-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/mailchimp-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic

• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging

• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts

• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.