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Overview

CrewForm can act as an MCP Server, exposing your agents as tools that any MCP-compatible client can discover and call. This means Claude Desktop, Cursor, other AI frameworks, or custom integrations can use your CrewForm agents as tools — without writing a single line of code.
This is the reverse of MCP Client support. MCP Client lets your agents use external tools. MCP Server Publishing lets external clients use your agents as tools.
External MCP Client  →  POST /mcp  →  Task Runner  →  Agent Execution
(Claude Desktop,         JSON-RPC       Auth +           Create task,
 Cursor, etc.)           Protocol       Routing          poll for result

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Quick Start

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1. Generate an MCP API Key

  1. Go to Settings → MCP Servers
  2. Scroll to MCP Server Publishing
  3. Click Generate MCP API Key
  4. Copy the key — it’s only shown once

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2. Publish Your Agents

  1. Open any agent’s detail page
  2. Click the MCP Publish button in the toolbar
  3. The agent now appears as an MCP tool

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3. Connect Your Client

In the MCP Server Publishing section of Settings, you’ll see an auto-generated config snippet. Copy it into your client: Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json): 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crewform": {
      "url": "https://runner.crewform.tech/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer cf_mcp_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}
Cursor (Settings → MCP): Add a new MCP server with your endpoint URL and Bearer token auth header.

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How It Works

When an MCP client connects to your CrewForm /mcp endpoint:
  1. initialize — Client establishes a session. CrewForm returns its server capabilities and protocol version.
  2. tools/list — Client discovers available tools. Each MCP-published agent becomes a tool with:
    • name — Derived from agent name (lowercase, underscored, max 64 chars)
    • description — The agent’s description
    • inputSchema — { message: string } — the prompt to send to the agent
  3. tools/call — Client invokes a tool. CrewForm creates a task, assigns it to the agent, and polls for completion. The agent’s output is returned as the tool result.

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Authentication

MCP Server requests are authenticated via Bearer tokens: 
Authorization: Bearer cf_mcp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The server accepts two types of API keys:
  • MCP Server keys (provider: 'mcp-server') — Dedicated keys generated from the UI
  • A2A keys (provider: 'a2a') — Existing A2A API keys also work as a fallback
Each key is scoped to a workspace. Only agents in that workspace are exposed.

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Managing API Keys

ActionHow
GenerateSettings → MCP Servers → MCP Server Publishing → Generate MCP API Key
RegenerateClick “Regenerate” next to the existing key (invalidates the old one)
RevokeClick “Revoke” to delete the key entirely
Regenerating or revoking a key immediately invalidates it. All connected MCP clients will need to be updated with the new key.

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Published Agent List

The MCP Server Publishing section in Settings shows all agents currently exposed as MCP tools, including their tool names. This lets you verify exactly what external clients will see when they call tools/list.

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Transport

CrewForm’s MCP Server uses Streamable HTTP transport:
  • Endpoint: POST /mcp
  • Content-Type: application/json
  • Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0
  • Methods: initialize, notifications/initialized, tools/list, tools/call, ping

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Self-Hosting

When self-hosting, your MCP endpoint is your task runner URL + /mcp: 
https://your-task-runner-host:3001/mcp
Set VITE_TASK_RUNNER_URL in your frontend environment to have the config snippet auto-populate with the correct URL.

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Security Considerations

  • Only agents explicitly marked as is_mcp_published = true are exposed
  • All requests require a valid Bearer token
  • Keys are workspace-scoped — one workspace’s key cannot access another’s agents
  • Each tool call creates a full task record with audit trail
  • Rate limiting is inherited from your task runner configuration