MCP on a self-hosted install

The Nodaro MCP server lets AI clients such as Claude, Cursor, Cline, Continue, Goose and ChatGPT use the tools of your self-hosted install on a user's behalf. It is off by default. To enable it, you give MCP its own hostname, route that hostname to the API, and set two variables. Users then sign in to your install with OAuth from their client.

How MCP is served

• The API serves MCP at the path /mcp, on port 9000 inside the nodaro container.
• The web server on port 3000 refuses MCP requests. A request to /mcp on the app's main address answers 405 with the error wrong_mcp_host and the address of the real endpoint.
• So MCP needs its own hostname, such as mcp.nodaro.example.com, whose traffic reaches the API directly. On the Business and Cloud editions, you can serve it by path on your own hosts instead.
• Sign-in stays on your main domain. The OAuth discovery document /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and the consent screen are served on PUBLIC_URL.

Enable MCP

  nodaro:
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "127.0.0.1:9000:9000"

railway domain add mcp.your-domain.com --service backend

MCP_ENABLED=true                              # required; the default is off
MCP_PUBLIC_URL=https://mcp.your-domain.com    # the hostname from step 1

curl https://mcp.your-domain.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource
curl https://your-domain.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

MCP by path (no dedicated MCP host)

Business and Cloud editions only. It is a surface profile key, which Community ignores. A deployment with no hostname to spare for mcp.<your-domain>, or whose network allows only its own listed hosts, can serve the same MCP endpoint under a path:

NODARO_SURFACE_PROFILE={"mcp":{"byPath":true}}

• Where it answers. At https://<host>/v1/mcp on each host the deployment declares as its own: PUBLIC_URL and every CORS_ORIGIN entry. mcp.path sets another path: /v1/mcp or a lower-case path under it, with no trailing slash and at most 64 characters. Any other path falls back to /v1/mcp, with a warning.
• What it needs. MCP_ENABLED=true, and PUBLIC_URL set to the deployment's own address. Without PUBLIC_URL, the server logs a warning and keeps MCP on /mcp.
• No proxy change. The bundled proxy already forwards /v1/* and /.well-known/oauth-* to the API. MCP_PUBLIC_URL is not needed either.
• Every address follows the host. The 401 challenge, the OAuth discovery documents, the consent screen and the links the tools hand out all name the declared host the client connected through. People sign in on the site they are on. A request on a host the deployment did not declare gets the addresses of PUBLIC_URL.
• One sign-in works on every host. A client signed in through one of the deployment's hosts may use the same token on another.
• The path replaces /mcp. While the mode is on, /mcp and its /.well-known/…/mcp documents are not served. A client set up with an earlier /mcp address reconnects at the path.

List only origins this deployment serves in CORS_ORIGIN: each one counts as one of its own hosts while the mode is on. With the mode off, the default, every MCP answer is unchanged.

To check it:

curl https://your-domain.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/v1/mcp

The resource must be https://your-domain.com/v1/mcp. Users then add https://your-domain.com/v1/mcp as the connector URL.

Which clients can register

MCP clients sign in with OAuth. Supported clients register themselves with your install through dynamic client registration (RFC 7591). Two variables control it, and their defaults suit most installs:

The default allowlist is: Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Continue, Goose, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Lovable, Gemini, Gemini CLI, Codex, MCP Inspector and mcp-inspector. To add your own client, set the full list:

MCP_DCR_ALLOWLIST=Claude,Cursor,Cline,Continue,Goose,YourCustomClient

allowlist is the recommended mode.

What the clients can do

The MCP server covers the generation tools for image, video, audio, characters, locations and objects, and tools for the gallery, workflows, apps, saved components and models. Each user acts as their own account on your install. See the MCP tools reference and MCP troubleshooting.