BigTime MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides Claude with access to BigTime's time tracking and project management API. This server enables Claude to retrieve information about clients, projects, staff, time entries, and daily totals from your BigTime account.

Features

• Client Management: Retrieve client details and listings

• Project Access: Get project information and details

• Staff Information: Access staff member data and details

• Time Tracking: Retrieve time entries and daily totals

• Task Management: Access task information

Related MCP server: FreshBooks MCP Server

Installation

npm install bigtime-mcp-server

Setup

1. Get your BigTime API credentials:

   • API Token from your BigTime account

   • Firm ID from your BigTime settings

2. Create a .env file in your project root:

   BIGTIME_API_TOKEN=your_api_token_here
   BIGTIME_FIRM_ID=your_firm_id_here

Quick Start

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Project Structure

bigtime-mcp-server/
├── src/
│   ├── tools/        # MCP Tools
│   │   └── ExampleTool.ts
│   └── index.ts      # Server entry point
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Adding Components

The project comes with an example tool in src/tools/ExampleTool.ts. You can add more tools using the CLI:

# Add a new tool
mcp add tool my-tool

# Example tools you might create:
mcp add tool data-processor
mcp add tool api-client
mcp add tool file-handler

Tool Development

Example tool structure:

import { MCPTool } from "mcp-framework";
import { z } from "zod";

interface MyToolInput {
  message: string;
}

class MyTool extends MCPTool<MyToolInput> {
  name = "my_tool";
  description = "Describes what your tool does";

  schema = {
    message: {
      type: z.string(),
      description: "Description of this input parameter",
    },
  };

  async execute(input: MyToolInput) {
    // Your tool logic here
    return `Processed: ${input.message}`;
  }
}

export default MyTool;

Publishing to npm

1. Update your package.json:

   • Ensure name is unique and follows npm naming conventions

   • Set appropriate version

   • Add description, author, license, etc.

   • Check bin points to the correct entry file

2. Build and test locally:

   npm run build
   npm link
   bigtime-mcp-server  # Test your CLI locally

3. Login to npm (create account if necessary):

   npm login

4. Publish your package:

   npm publish

After publishing, users can add it to their claude desktop client (read below) or run it with npx

## Using with Claude Desktop

### Local Development

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop config file:

**MacOS**: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
**Windows**: `%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bigtime-mcp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args":["/absolute/path/to/bigtime-mcp-server/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

After Publishing

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop config file:

MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bigtime-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["bigtime-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BIGTIME_API_TOKEN": "your_api_token_here",
        "BIGTIME_FIRM_ID": "your_firm_id_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Building and Testing

1. Make changes to your tools

2. Run npm run build to compile

3. The server will automatically load your tools on startup

Learn More

• MCP Framework Github

• MCP Framework Docs