Payload MCP

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Payload CMS 3.0 that auto-generates tools from Payload's TypeScript type definitions.

Features

• Auto-generates MCP tools from Payload CMS 3.0 TypeScript definitions

• Provides an HTTP endpoint for LLMs to generate up-to-date Payload code

• Bridges the gap between LLM training cutoff and current Payload CMS API

• Supports all major Payload CMS features:

  • Collections

  • Globals

  • Fields

  • Authentication

  • Configuration

Related MCP server: MCP-Typescribe

How It Works

1. Parse Type Definitions: Uses ts-morph to analyze Payload's .d.ts files

2. Generate Tools: Converts types into MCP tools with parameters and code-gen logic

3. Serve Endpoint: Provides an /api/v1/payload-mcp endpoint for LLMs to query

4. Generate Code: Returns properly formatted Payload CMS 3.0 code

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)

• pnpm (v8 or higher)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/payload-mcp.git
cd payload-mcp

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Generate tools from Payload CMS type definitions
pnpm generate-tools

# Start the development server
pnpm dev

Usage

The MCP server exposes an endpoint at /api/v1/payload-mcp that accepts POST requests with the following structure:

{
  "model": "claude-3-opus-20240229",
  "tools": [
    {
      "name": "createCollection",
      "parameters": {
        "slug": "posts",
        "fields": [
          {
            "name": "title",
            "type": "text",
            "required": true
          }
        ],
        "admin": {
          "useAsTitle": "title"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

The server will respond with generated Payload CMS 3.0 code:

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "context": [
    {
      "id": "uuid",
      "data": {
        "code": "import { CollectionConfig } from 'payload/types';\n\nexport const postsCollection: CollectionConfig = {\n  slug: 'posts',\n  fields: [\n  {\n    \"name\": \"title\",\n    \"type\": \"text\",\n    \"required\": true\n  }\n],\n  // Add other properties as needed from params\n  ...{\n  \"admin\": {\n    \"useAsTitle\": \"title\"\n  }\n}\n};\n",
        "message": "Collection 'posts' created successfully"
      }
    }
  ],
  "tool_results": [
    {
      "tool_name": "createCollection",
      "output": {
        "code": "import { CollectionConfig } from 'payload/types';\n\nexport const postsCollection: CollectionConfig = {\n  slug: 'posts',\n  fields: [\n  {\n    \"name\": \"title\",\n    \"type\": \"text\",\n    \"required\": true\n  }\n],\n  // Add other properties as needed from params\n  ...{\n  \"admin\": {\n    \"useAsTitle\": \"title\"\n  }\n}\n};\n",
        "message": "Collection 'posts' created successfully"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Available Tools

The following tools are auto-generated from Payload CMS 3.0 type definitions:

• createCollection: Creates a collection configuration

• createGlobal: Creates a global configuration

• createField: Creates a field configuration

• createAuth: Creates authentication configuration

• createConfig: Creates the main Payload CMS configuration

Development

Regenerating Tools

If you update Payload CMS or want to regenerate the tools:

# Update Payload
pnpm add payload@latest

# Regenerate tools
pnpm generate-tools

Logging

The server uses Winston for logging. By default, logs are written to the logs directory with the following files:

• combined.log: All logs (info level and above)

• error.log: Error logs only

• exceptions.log: Uncaught exceptions

• rejections.log: Unhandled promise rejections

The server uses npm logging levels (from highest to lowest priority):

error: 0,
warn: 1,
info: 2,
http: 3,
verbose: 4,
debug: 5,
silly: 6

By default, the log level is set to info, which means only logs with level info, warn, and error will be recorded. To see more detailed logs:

• Set to verbose to see tool registration details

• Set to debug for even more detailed debugging information

• Set to silly for the most verbose output

You can change the log level by setting the LOG_LEVEL environment variable:

# Run with verbose logging (shows tool registration)
LOG_LEVEL=verbose pnpm start

# Run with debug logging (more detailed)
LOG_LEVEL=debug pnpm start

# Or set in .env file
# LOG_LEVEL=verbose

Testing

To test the auto-generated tools:

# Start the server
pnpm dev

# In another terminal, run the test script
node test-generated-tools.mjs

License

ISC

Sponsor

Govcraft is a one-person shop—no corporate backing, no investors, just me building useful tools. If this project helps you, sponsoring keeps the work going.