Provides comprehensive access to Nextcloud instances with 90+ tools across 8 apps including Notes (create, read, update, delete, search), Calendar/CalDAV (events, todos, recurring events, attendees), Contacts/CardDAV (contact and address book management), Files/WebDAV (file operations with OCR/document processing for PDFs, images, and documents), Deck (project management with boards, stacks, cards), Cookbook (recipe management and import from URLs), Tables (row operations), and sharing functionality.
Nextcloud MCP Server
Enable AI assistants to interact with your Nextcloud instance.
The Nextcloud MCP (Model Context Protocol) server allows Large Language Models like Claude, GPT, and Gemini to interact with your Nextcloud data through a secure API. Create notes, manage calendars, organize contacts, work with files, and more - all through natural language.
Nextcloud has two ways to enable AI access: Nextcloud provides Context Agent, an AI agent backend that powers the Assistant app and allows AI to interact with Nextcloud apps like Calendar, Talk, and Contacts. Context Agent runs as an ExApp inside Nextcloud and also exposes an MCP server for external MCP clients.
This project (Nextcloud MCP Server) is a dedicated standalone MCP server designed specifically for external MCP clients like Claude Code and IDEs, with deep CRUD operations and OAuth support. It does not require any additional AI-features to be enabled in Nextcloud beyond the apps that you intend to interact with.
High-level Comparison: Nextcloud MCP Server vs. Nextcloud AI Stack
Aspect | Nextcloud MCP Server (This Project) | Nextcloud AI Stack (Assistant + Context Agent) |
Purpose | External MCP client access to Nextcloud | AI assistance within Nextcloud UI |
Deployment | Standalone (Docker, VM, K8s) | Inside Nextcloud (ExApp via AppAPI) |
Primary Users | Claude Code, IDEs, external developers | Nextcloud end users via Assistant app |
Authentication | OAuth2/OIDC or Basic Auth | Session-based (integrated) |
Notes Support | ✅ Full CRUD + search (7 tools) | ❌ Not implemented |
Calendar | ✅ Full CalDAV + tasks (20+ tools) | ✅ Events, free/busy, tasks (4 tools) |
Contacts | ✅ Full CardDAV (8 tools) | ✅ Find person, current user (2 tools) |
Files (WebDAV) | ✅ Full filesystem access (12 tools) | ✅ Read, folder tree, sharing (3 tools) |
Document Processing | ✅ OCR with progress (PDF, DOCX, images) | ❌ Not implemented |
Deck | ✅ Full project management (15 tools) | ✅ Basic board/card ops (2 tools) |
Tables | ✅ Row operations (5 tools) | ❌ Not implemented |
Cookbook | ✅ Full recipe management (13 tools) | ❌ Not implemented |
Talk | ❌ Not implemented | ✅ Messages, conversations (4 tools) |
❌ Not implemented | ✅ Send email (2 tools) | |
AI Features | ❌ Not implemented | ✅ Image gen, transcription, doc gen (4 tools) |
Web/Maps | ❌ Not implemented | ✅ Search, weather, transit (5 tools) |
MCP Resources | ✅ Structured data URIs | ❌ Not supported |
External MCP | ❌ Pure server | ✅ Consumes external MCP servers |
Safety Model | Client-controlled | Built-in safe/dangerous distinction |
Best For | • Deep CRUD operations • External integrations • OAuth security • IDE/editor integration | • AI-driven actions in Nextcloud UI • Multi-service orchestration • User task automation • MCP aggregation hub |
See our detailed comparison for architecture diagrams, workflow examples, and guidance on when to use each approach.
Want to see another Nextcloud app supported? Open an issue or contribute a pull request!
Authentication
Mode | Security | Best For |
OAuth2/OIDC ⚠️ Experimental | 🔒 High | Testing, evaluation (requires patch for app-specific APIs) |
Basic Auth ✅ | Lower | Development, testing, production |
OAuth is experimental and requires a manual patch to the user_oidc app for full functionality:
Required patch:
user_oidcapp needs modifications for Bearer token support (issue #1221)Impact: Without the patch, most app-specific APIs (Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Deck, etc.) will fail with 401 errors
What works without patches: OAuth flow, PKCE support (with
oidcv1.10.0+), OCS APIsProduction use: Wait for upstream patch to be merged into official releases
See OAuth Upstream Status for detailed information on required patches and workarounds.
OAuth2/OIDC provides secure, per-user authentication with access tokens. See Authentication Guide for details.
Quick Start
1. Install
See Installation Guide for detailed instructions, or Helm Chart README for Kubernetes deployment.
2. Configure
Create a .env file:
For Basic Auth (recommended for most users):
For OAuth (experimental - requires patches):
See Configuration Guide for all options.
3. Set Up Authentication
Basic Auth Setup (recommended):
Create an app password in Nextcloud (Settings → Security → Devices & sessions)
Add credentials to
.envfileStart the server
OAuth Setup (experimental):
Install Nextcloud OIDC apps (
oidcv1.10.0+ +user_oidc)Apply required patch to
user_oidcapp for Bearer token support (see OAuth Upstream Status)Enable dynamic client registration or create an OIDC client with id & secret
Configure Bearer token validation in
user_oidcStart the server
See OAuth Quick Start for 5-minute setup or OAuth Setup Guide for detailed instructions.
4. Run the Server
The server starts on http://127.0.0.1:8000 by default.
See Running the Server for more options.
5. Connect an MCP Client
Test with MCP Inspector:
Or connect from:
Claude Desktop
Any MCP-compatible client
Documentation
Getting Started
Installation - Install the server
Configuration - Environment variables and settings
Authentication - OAuth vs BasicAuth
Running the Server - Start and manage the server
Architecture
Comparison with Context Agent - How this MCP server differs from Nextcloud's Context Agent
OAuth Documentation (Experimental)
OAuth Quick Start - 5-minute setup guide
OAuth Setup Guide - Detailed setup instructions
OAuth Architecture - How OAuth works
OAuth Troubleshooting - OAuth-specific issues
Upstream Status - Required patches and PRs ⚠️
Reference
Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
App-Specific Documentation
MCP Tools & Resources
The server exposes Nextcloud functionality through MCP tools (for actions) and resources (for data browsing).
Tools
The server provides 90+ tools across 8 Nextcloud apps. When using OAuth, tools are dynamically filtered based on your granted scopes.
For a complete list of all supported OAuth scopes and their descriptions, see OAuth Scopes Documentation.
Available Tool Categories
App | Tools | Read Scope | Write Scope | Operations |
Notes | 7 |
|
| Create, read, update, delete, search notes |
Calendar | 20+ |
|
| Events, todos (tasks), calendars, recurring events, attendees |
Contacts | 8 |
|
| Create, read, update, delete contacts and address books |
Files (WebDAV) | 12 |
|
| List, read, upload, delete, move files; OCR/document processing |
Deck | 15 |
|
| Boards, stacks, cards, labels, assignments |
Cookbook | 13 |
|
| Recipes, import from URLs, search, categories |
Tables | 5 |
|
| Row operations on Nextcloud Tables |
Sharing | 10+ |
|
| Create, manage, delete shares |
Document Processing (Optional)
The WebDAV file reading tool (nc_webdav_read_file) supports automatic text extraction from documents and images:
Supported Formats:
Documents: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, RTF, ODT, EPUB
Images: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP (with OCR)
Email: EML, MSG files
Features:
Progress Notifications: Long-running OCR operations (up to 120s) send progress updates every 10 seconds to prevent client timeouts
Pluggable Architecture: Multiple processor backends (Unstructured.io, Tesseract, custom HTTP APIs)
Automatic Detection: Files are processed based on MIME type
Graceful Fallback: Returns base64-encoded content if processing fails
Configuration:
Example Usage:
See env.sample for complete configuration options.
Example Tools:
nc_notes_create_note- Create a new notenc_cookbook_import_recipe- Import recipes from URLs with schema.org metadatadeck_create_card- Create a Deck cardnc_calendar_create_event- Create a calendar eventnc_calendar_create_todo- Create a CalDAV task/todonc_contacts_create_contact- Create a contactnc_webdav_upload_file- Upload a file to NextcloudAnd 80+ more...
OAuth Scope Filtering: When connecting via OAuth, MCP clients will only see tools for which you've granted access. For example, granting only notes:read and notes:write will show 7 Notes tools instead of all 90+ tools. See OAuth Scopes Documentation for the complete scope reference, or OAuth Troubleshooting - Limited Scopes if you're only seeing a subset of tools.
Known Issue: Claude Code and some other MCP clients may only request/grant Notes scopes during initial connection. Track progress at #234.
Resources
Resources provide read-only access to Nextcloud data:
nc://capabilities- Server capabilitiescookbook://version- Cookbook app version infonc://Deck/boards/{board_id}- Deck board datanotes://settings- Notes app settingsAnd more...
Run uv run nextcloud-mcp-server --help to see all available options.
Examples
Create a Note
Manage Recipes
Manage Calendar
Organize Files
Project Management
Transport Protocols
The server supports multiple MCP transport protocols:
streamable-http (recommended) - Modern streaming protocol
sse (default, deprecated) - Server-Sent Events for backward compatibility
http - Standard HTTP protocol
SSE transport is deprecated and will be removed in a future MCP specification version. Please migrate tostreamable-http.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome!
Report bugs or request features: GitHub Issues
Submit improvements: Pull Requests
Read CLAUDE.md for development guidelines
Security
This project takes security seriously:
OAuth2/OIDC support (experimental - requires upstream patches)
Basic Auth with app-specific passwords (recommended)
No credential storage with OAuth mode
Per-user access tokens
Regular security assessments
Found a security issue? Please report it privately to the maintainers.
License
This project is licensed under the AGPL-3.0 License. See LICENSE for details.