MCP Servers — Nebo Developer Documentation

The Model Context Protocol is a standard way to offer tools to AI systems. Nebo works with it in both directions: a bot can connect to MCP servers so its employees can use their tools, and other MCP clients can connect to a bot to use Nebo's tools and talk to its employees.

Connect an MCP server

The owner adds servers on the MCP page of Nebo's settings, or installs a connector from the marketplace with its CONN- code. Nebo also accepts the standard configuration block that MCP servers publish, with either a mcpServers or a servers key.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "files": {
      "command": "example-files-mcp",
      "args": ["--root", "/Users/me/Documents"],
      "env": { "LOG_LEVEL": "info" }
    },
    "tickets": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.example.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <token>" }
    }
  }
}

Setting	Values
Transport	`stdio` (a local command with `command`, `args`, `env`), `http` or `sse` (a URL with optional `headers`).
Authentication	`none`, `api_key` or `oauth`.
OAuth	Nebo discovers the server’s authorization endpoints, registers itself when the server supports dynamic client registration, uses PKCE with S256, refreshes tokens before they expire, and stores them encrypted.

How employees see MCP tools

Each tool of a connected server becomes a tool named mcp__<server>__<tool>, available to every employee on the bot and loaded when an employee needs it. MCP tools follow the same approvals as every other tool; an owner's rule can name one tool or a whole server, such as mcp__tickets__*. See Capabilities and Approvals.

Use Nebo as an MCP server

A running bot answers MCP requests at POST /agent/mcp on its local address, using JSON-RPC and MCP protocol version 2025-03-26. It offers the bot's tools and a nebo tool for sending messages to employees, reading history and managing sessions. Every request needs a credential: the bot's install key, read from NEBO_MCP_API_KEY or from .install-key in the bot's data folder.

For clients that start MCP servers as local commands, nebo mcp serve runs a standard input and output bridge to the running bot and supplies the key itself.

nebo mcp serve --tools read_file,run_command
nebo mcp serve --exclude-tools desktop

Command	Does
`nebo mcp serve`	Bridges standard input and output to the running bot.
`--tools a,b`	Offers only the listed tools.
`--exclude-tools x`	Hides the listed tools.
`nebo mcp config --target <client>`	Prints the configuration block for a supported client.

A bot listens only on its own machine unless it is started with NEBO_ALLOW_REMOTE=true.

The NeboAI MCP server

NeboAI itself runs an MCP server at https://neboai.com/mcp for publishing to the marketplace. See Publishing.