MCP Server

The Para MCP server exposes Para’s backend services over the Model Context Protocol, enabling AI assistants like Claude to interact with your Para backend for configuration management, data operations, and full-text search.

Step 1: Enable the MCP Server in Para

The MCP server is disabled by default. To enable the Para MCP server, choose either “r” for read-only mode, or “rw” for full access, then add this to your para-application.conf:

para-application.conf

# Para MCP Mode (off, r=read-only, rw=read-write)
para.mcp_server_mode = "rw"

MCP Server Modes:

Mode	Value	Description
Off	off	MCP server disabled (default)
Read-only	r	Only read operations allowed (recommended for production)
Read+Write	rw	Full CRUD access including create/update/delete operations

Step 2: Get Your Para App Bearer Token

The MCP server requires authentication using a JWT Bearer token (see ‘super tokens’ below).

Option 1: Generate the token using Para CLI

1. Start Para server and run npx para-cli setup
2. Configure Para CLI to connect to your Para app
3. Run npx para-cli new-jwt --print
4. Copy the access token and paste it in your MCP configuration as shown below

Option 2: Generate the token manually using a JWT library of your choice

1. Copy the secret key for your Para app
2. Follow the section on “super tokens” below for the exact format
3. Generate and sign a new JWT with the secret key as a signing secret.

Step 3: Configure Your MCP Client

Claude Desktop and Claude Code

Add this configuration to your MCP settings file:

Location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "para": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8080/v1/_mcp",
      "mode": "streamable",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer {PARA_JWT_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Test the Connection

Restart your MCP client (Claude Desktop/Code) and verify the connection. Usually the commands are /mcp refresh and /mcp list. You should see Para as an MCP server.

Available Resources

Resources provide browsable context that can be loaded into your AI agent’s context window.

Resource	URI	Description
Root Index	para:///	Basic server info and overview
Para Server metadata	para:///metadata	Health status, modules, current app, version, etc.
Configuration Reference	para:///config	Complete Para configuration documentation (Markdown)

Example usage in your AI agent:

Show me the para:///metadata resource
What configuration options are available? (para:///config)

Available Tools

Tools are actions that AI agents can invoke to query or modify Para data.

Read-Only Tools (Mode: r or rw)

Tool	Description	Parameters
config_search	Fuzzy search across configuration metadata	query (string, optional), limit (int, default 10)
get_config_by_key	Get info about a single configuration property	key config key
list_types	A list of all Para object types which are currently registered in Para
search	Full-text search for Para objects using Lucene syntax	q (string, default *), type (string, optional), limit (int, default 10), page (int, default 1)
get_user_by_email	Find a user by email address	email (string, required)
get_object_by_id	Retrieve a Para object by ID	objectId (string, required)
get_app_settings	A list of all Para app settings for the current app

Write Tools (Mode: rw only)

Tool	Description	Parameters
create_app	Create a new Para application	appIdentifier (required), name, creatorId, sharedIndex, sharedTable Root app only
create_object	Create a new Para object	Dynamically shows which fields are required
update_object	Update an existing Para object	objectId (required) and also shows required fields
delete_object	Delete a Para object	objectId (required) + confirmation
put_app_setting	Adds a new Para app setting for the current app	key (string), value (any)
rebuild_index	Rebuilds the search index for the current app
clear_cache	Clears the object cache for the current app

Usage Examples

Ask your AI agent:

Search for all Para configuration options related to security

AI agent will invoke:

config_search(query="security", limit=10)

Ask your AI agent:

Find all users with email addresses ending in @example.com

AI agent will invoke:

search(q="email:*@example.com", type="user", limit=10)

Ask your AI agent:

Get the details for object ID abc123

AI agent will invoke:

get_object_by_id(objectId="abc123")

Ask Claude:

Create a new Para app called "blog-api"

AI agent will invoke:

create_app(appIdentifier="blog-api", name="Blog API")

The MCP server automatically redacts sensitive configuration values as <redacted> instead of printing out the actual value.

Troubleshooting

Connection Failed

Problem: Claude can’t connect to Para MCP server

Solutions:

1. Verify Para server is running: curl http://localhost:8080/v1/_mcp
2. Check if MCP server is enabled and your Bearer JWT is valid
3. Verify firewall allows connections on port 8080
4. Check Para logs for MCP server startup messages

If Para is behind a reverse proxy or load balancer use this system property when starting Para:

spring.ai.mcp.server.base-url=https://api.example.com