Backlog MCP Server

An MCP server that exposes Backlog project management as tools for Claude Desktop (or any MCP-compatible client). Search and manage issues, comments, wiki pages, milestones, custom fields, notifications, and more — directly from a conversation with Claude.

Features

• 21 tools covering issues, comments, wiki, categories, issue types, milestones, custom fields, attachments, activity feeds, notifications, watchers, and stars. Tools are grouped by subject with a kind/action selector rather than split one-per-endpoint, so there is less schema for the model to scan.

• Multi-space support — configure any number of Backlog spaces (e.g. separate client/company instances) and target them by name per tool call, without restarting or reconfiguring.

• One request per change — update_issues and add_comment send every field change plus the comment plus the mention notification in a single PATCH, so Backlog's 課題の変更履歴 gets one entry instead of one per field.

• Full ticket field coverage — 状態 / 担当者 / 優先度 / 種別 / マイルストーン / カテゴリー / 発生バージョン / 開始日 / 期限日 / 予定時間 / 実績時間 / 完了理由, each settable by display name or numeric id ('Closed', 'clos' and '4' all work), with a clear_fields argument to blank them out.

• Real mentions — passing mention_user_ids posts a comment that renders as a highlighted @Name mention and triggers a real Backlog notification (bell + email), matching what you get from typing @ in the Backlog UI. Plain @Name text does neither.

• Parallel fetching and updating for bulk operations (get_issue, get_comments, update_issues, delete_issue all accept a list of keys).

• Read-only tools require no confirmation; every create/update/delete tool is marked in its docstring for the client to confirm with the user before calling.

Related MCP server: Backlog MCP Server

Setup

1. Install dependencies

uv sync
# or
pip install -e .

Requires Python 3.11+.

2. Configure Backlog spaces

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your space(s). Each space needs three variables sharing a common <NAME> suffix:

BACKLOG_API_KEY_<NAME>=...
BACKLOG_HOST_<NAME>=...
PROJECT_KEY_<NAME>=...

<NAME> (lowercased) becomes the source argument you pass to tools. Add as many spaces as you need by repeating the pattern with a different <NAME>. Optionally set DEFAULT_SOURCE=<name> to control which space is used when source is omitted — otherwise the first configured space is used.

Get your API key from Backlog under Personal Settings → API.

3. Register with Claude Desktop

Copy claude_desktop_config.example.json to your Claude Desktop config location, fill in the real command/args paths and credentials, and merge it into your existing mcpServers block if you already have other servers configured:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "backlog": {
      "command": "/path/to/backlog-mcp/.venv/Scripts/python.exe",
      "args": ["/path/to/backlog-mcp/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "BACKLOG_API_KEY_SPACE1": "your_api_key_here",
        "BACKLOG_HOST_SPACE1": "your-space.backlog.com",
        "PROJECT_KEY_SPACE1": "YOUR_PROJECT_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your filled-in claude_desktop_config.json is machine-specific and contains live credentials — keep it out of version control (already covered by .gitignore).

Tools

Discovery & metadata

• get_sources — list the configured Backlog spaces.

• get_project_metadata — one call for every lookup list: project, statuses, users, issue_types, categories, milestones, versions, priorities, resolutions, custom_fields, plus space-level projects and myself. Cached per server run, so kinds='all' is cheap.

Issues

• get_issues — search/filter; count_only=True returns just the match count.

• get_issue — one or many keys, fetched in parallel; full=False for slim records.

• get_related_issues — parent, children, or both.

• get_recently_viewed — recently viewed issues or wikis.

• create_issue — create with every field set at once.

• update_issues — the write tool. One or many keys; sets any combination of 状態 / 担当者 / 優先度 / 種別 / 完了理由 / マイルストーン / カテゴリー / 発生バージョン / 開始日 / 期限日 / 予定時間 / 実績時間, plus summary, description, parent_issue_id, a comment, mention_user_ids and clear_fields — all in a single request per issue.

• delete_issue — one or many keys.

Comments

• get_comments — one or many issues; last_n=0 for the full thread, last_n=N for the newest N (slimmed).

• add_comment — comment + optional mention + optional field changes, all in one request.

• manage_comment — action='update' or 'delete'.

Attachments

• get_attachments — lists an issue's or wiki page's attachments; pass attachment_id to download one. Images come back inline, text files as text, other binaries as base64.

Project admin

• manage_project_setting — kind of category / issue_type / milestone / custom_field × action of add / update / delete. Clears the metadata cache on success.

Wiki

• get_wikis — list, read one page (wiki_id), or count_only.

• manage_wiki_page — action='create' / 'update' / 'delete'.

Activity & notifications

• get_activities — scope='project' or 'space'.

• get_notifications — list, or count_only.

• mark_notifications_read — one notification, or all when notification_id=0.

Watchers & stars

• manage_watchers — action='list' / 'add' / 'delete'.

• add_star — star an issue, comment, or wiki page.

Project layout

server.py               entry point — Claude Desktop configs point here
backlog_mcp/
  config.py             builds the multi-space source registry from env vars
  app.py                the FastMCP object and process entry point
  common.py             sentinels shared by tools (default source, "unchanged")
  fields.py             ticket-field value -> Backlog form body; mention rewriting
  api/                  everything below the tool definitions
    secrets.py          API-key redaction (security-critical — read this first)
    sources.py          source name -> configured Backlog space
    http.py             the retrying request path all traffic goes through
    meta.py             project lookup lists, caching, name -> id resolution
    slim.py             payload trimming
    issues.py           paginated issue / comment fetching
    parallel.py         fan-out for multi-key tools
  tools/                the MCP tools, one module per subject
    metadata.py         get_sources, get_project_metadata
    issues.py           get_issues, get_issue, get_related_issues,
                        create_issue, update_issues, delete_issue
    comments.py         get_comments, add_comment, manage_comment
    attachments.py      get_attachments
    project_settings.py manage_project_setting
    wiki.py             get_wikis, manage_wiki_page
    activity.py         get_activities, get_recently_viewed,
                        get_notifications, mark_notifications_read
    social.py           manage_watchers, add_star

Each layer only imports the ones above it: config → api/ → common/fields → app → tools/. Importing backlog_mcp registers every tool, because each tool module applies @mcp.tool() at import time.

Adding a tool: put it in the matching tools/ module (or add a new module and list it in tools/__init__.py). Reach Backlog through api.get / api.post / api.patch / api.delete rather than requests directly — that request path is what keeps the API key out of error messages.

Security note

Backlog authenticates with a ?apiKey= query parameter, so the key is part of every request URL, and requests puts the full URL into its exception messages. Those messages reach the MCP client. api/secrets.py scrubs the key out of every error leaving the HTTP layer — if you add a code path that talks to Backlog outside api/http.py, scrub it there too.

License

No license specified — all rights reserved by default.