Total CMS Desktop Extension (MCPB)

A Claude Desktop extension that connects Claude to any Total CMS site's built-in MCP server. Install once, and Claude can search docs, browse content, and (with an API key) manage your Total CMS site directly.

This is a local bridge, not a hosted connector: it runs as a small Node process on your machine and proxies MCP traffic to your site's /mcp endpoint over HTTPS. That's what lets it attach a custom X-API-Key header for authenticated access - something Claude Desktop's built-in remote connectors can't do for servers that advertise optional auth.

Privacy Policy

This extension does not collect, transmit, or store any data of its own. It opens an HTTPS connection directly from your machine to the Total CMS MCP endpoint you configure (default: https://totalcms.co/mcp, the official Total CMS docs site) and relays MCP protocol messages between Claude Desktop and that endpoint. Your optional API key is stored in your OS's secure credential store (via Claude Desktop's sensitive: true config handling) and is sent only as an X-API-Key request header to the site you configured - never logged, never sent anywhere else.

For the privacy policy of the Total CMS product and totalcms.co itself, see https://totalcms.co/privacy.

Related MCP server: AutoWP MCP Server

Setup

Zero-config: ask about Total CMS itself

Just install the extension. It defaults to https://totalcms.co/mcp, the official Total CMS documentation server, so Claude can immediately answer questions like "how do I set up webhooks in Total CMS?" or "what schema fields does Total CMS support?" with no configuration.

Connect to your own site

1. In your Total CMS admin, go to Settings -> MCP and copy your site's MCP endpoint URL (it will look like https://yoursite.com/mcp, or include a subpath if you installed Total CMS in one).

2. In Claude Desktop's extension settings for Total CMS, paste that URL into Total CMS MCP endpoint.

3. Reinstall/reconnect. Claude can now browse and search your site's public collections.

Authenticated (admin) access

1. Generate a Total CMS API key for your site (Settings -> API Keys, or your preferred key-issuing flow).

2. Paste it into the API key (optional) field in the extension settings. It's stored in your OS keychain, not in plain text.

3. Claude now has admin-level access to your site's MCP tools (schema management, templates, site info, cache clearing, etc.) in addition to public content. Leave this field empty to keep Claude limited to public, anonymous access.

How it works

server/index.js is a small stdio MCP server that Claude Desktop spawns directly (no Node install required - MCPB bundles include their own runtime handling). It opens a streamable HTTP connection to the MCP_URL you configured and forwards every JSON-RPC message in both directions verbatim: initialize, tools/list, tools/call, resources/*, prompts/*, and all notifications. When API_KEY is set, every outbound HTTP request carries an X-API-Key header.

It refuses to start unless MCP_URL is https:// - plaintext credentials on the wire are not acceptable, even for local testing.

Why not mcp-remote?

We spiked it first (see BUILD-REPORT.md for the full writeup). Short version: mcp-remote unconditionally runs OAuth discovery on startup and, on any HTTP 401 response, launches a browser-based OAuth authorization flow with no flag to disable it. Total CMS uses a plain API-key header, not OAuth

• a bad key needs to surface as a clean 401 error to the MCP client, not hang behind a browser popup trying to OAuth against a server that doesn't implement it. So this bundle ships a small hand-rolled proxy built directly on @modelcontextprotocol/sdk's StreamableHTTPClientTransport and StdioServerTransport instead.

Development

npm install
npm run build     # typecheck -> esbuild bundle -> mcpb validate -> mcpb pack

Produces dist/totalcms.mcpb. Install by dragging that file onto Claude Desktop.

npm run typecheck and npm run validate are available standalone.

Security notes

• Zero filesystem access, zero subprocess spawns, outbound HTTPS to exactly one host (whatever MCP_URL points at).

• The API key is read from the API_KEY environment variable (set by Claude Desktop from your keychain-stored config) and is never written to stdout, stderr, or any log.

• MCP_URL must be https:// or the process refuses to start.

License

Source code is MIT licensed. The Total CMS name, flame logo, and the bundled icon.png are trademarks and are not covered by that grant — you may fork the code, but a redistributed version must not present itself as published or endorsed by Total CMS.