Freedcamp MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that wraps the Freedcamp REST API. It lets any MCP-compatible LLM client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, etc.) manage Freedcamp projects, tasks, users, and comments through natural language.

Features

• 17 tools covering projects, tasks, users, comments, and health checks

• HMAC-SHA1 authentication — the API secret never leaves the server; only a signed hash is sent per request

• Name resolution — pass user names, emails, or project names instead of raw numeric IDs; the server resolves them automatically with TTL-based caching

• Field limiting — request only the fields you need with dot-notation (id,title,comments.created_ts) to reduce response size

• Status label mapping — accept human-readable strings like "in progress" instead of numeric codes

• Response filtering — internal API fields are automatically stripped from responses

• Graceful shutdown — drains in-flight requests before exiting

• Retry + backoff — retries on 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff

• No build step — runs TypeScript directly via tsx

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18

• A Freedcamp account with API credentials (Settings → API)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/mahrukh-n8n/freedcampMCP.git
cd freedcampMCP
npm install

Configuration

Option A: .env file

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Freedcamp API key and secret

Option B: Claude Code MCP settings

No .env file needed — pass credentials as environment variables:

claude mcp add freedcamp npx tsx /path/to/freedcampMCP/scripts/mcp-server.ts \
  -e FREEDCAMP_API_KEY=your_key \
  -e FREEDCAMP_API_SECRET=your_secret

Environment Variables

Running

With Claude Code (recommended)

After adding the MCP server with claude mcp add, just start a conversation. Claude will call tools automatically when needed.

With MCP Inspector

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx tsx scripts/mcp-server.ts

Opens a browser UI where you can call each tool and inspect responses.

Direct (stdio)

npx tsx scripts/mcp-server.ts

The server listens on stdin/stdout using the MCP stdio transport. The host process (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) manages its lifecycle.

Tools

Health

Projects

Tasks

Users

Comments

Name Resolution

Most ID parameters accept names, emails, or numeric IDs. Examples:

• project_id: "Marketing" — resolves to the project's numeric ID

• assigned_to_id: "alice@example.com" — resolves to the user's numeric ID

• assigned_to_id: ["Alice", 42] — mixed lists accepted

Resolution results are cached with a configurable TTL (CACHE_TTL_MS).

Status Mapping

Task status accepts both numeric codes and string labels:

Example: status: "in progress" is equivalent to status: 1.

Field Limiting

All list and get tools accept a fields parameter with dot-notation paths:

fields="id,title,priority,comments.created_ts"

This reduces response size and focuses the LLM on relevant data. Nested arrays are preserved — comments.created_ts on [{created_ts: 1}] yields [{created_ts: 1}], not a flat list.

App ID Constants (for comments)

Authentication

The server uses HMAC-SHA1 authentication. On every request:

1. A Unix timestamp is generated

2. A hash is computed: HMAC-SHA1(secret, apiKey + timestamp)

3. Auth params are sent as query string: ?api_key=...×tamp=...&hash=...

The secret never goes over the wire. At boot, the server validates credentials with GET /api_key/check.

Error Codes

Development

# Type check
npx tsc --noEmit

# Run tests
npx vitest run

# Watch mode
npx vitest

# Run server in dev mode
npm run dev

Testing

The test suite uses Vitest with mocked API responses:

npx vitest run           # Single run
npx vitest               # Watch mode
npx vitest --coverage    # With coverage

Project Structure

scripts/mcp-server.ts              Entry point
src/lib/freedcamp/
  api-client.ts                    HTTP client with HMAC auth, retry, filtering
  register-tools.ts                Wire all tools to the MCP registry
  auth/hmac.ts                     HMAC-SHA1 computation
  auth/hmac-validator.ts           Boot-time credential validation
  tools/
    health.ts                      health.check
    projects.ts                    project.list/get/create/update
    tasks.ts                       task.list/get/create/update/delete/assign
    users.ts                       user.list/get/current/create/update_current
    comments.ts                    comment.add/update/delete
  utils/
    name-resolver.ts               Name/email → ID resolution with caching
    response-filter.ts             Strip internal fields from API responses
    field-limiter.ts               Dot-notation field extraction
    date-utils.ts                  Date validation and formatting
    resolution-cache.ts            TTL-based LRU cache
    logger.ts                      Structured logging with verbose mode
    validation.ts                  Input validation helpers
src/modules/mcp/
  registry/tool-registry.ts        MCP tool registry
  services/create-mcp-server.ts    MCP server factory
  services/stdio-transport.ts      Stdio transport
  types.ts                         MCP result types
  utils/serialize.ts               Result envelope helpers (dataResult, commitResult, etc.)

License

MIT