MCP Server Reference

EmDash includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at /_emdash/api/mcp that exposes content management operations as tools for AI assistants.

This page covers the protocol details: authentication, transport, tool specifications, OAuth discovery, and error handling.

Authentication

The MCP server supports three authentication methods:

Session cookies (from the admin UI) also work but aren’t practical for external MCP clients.

Scopes

Tokens are scoped to limit what operations a client can perform. Scopes are requested during OAuth authorization and enforced on every tool call. On the authorization-code consent page, all requested scopes are selected by default for compatibility; the user can remove scopes before approval but cannot add scopes the client did not request. The effective grant is also restricted by the client’s registered scopes and the user’s role, and EmDash rejects an empty grant.

The admin scope grants access to core operations, but it does not grant plugin MCP access. Plugin tools always require mcp:tools or the matching plugin-specific scope. Session-based auth has access based on the user’s role and the plugin’s explicit admin enablement.

content:write implicitly grants taxonomies:manage and menus:manage so personal access tokens issued before those scopes were split out continue to work without re-issue. New tokens should request the granular scopes.

Role Requirements

In addition to scopes, some tools require a minimum RBAC role. Both must be satisfied — a token with the right scope still fails if the calling user’s role is too low.

Plugin tools use the permission declared by their underlying route. They are absent from tools/list until an administrator enables that plugin’s MCP surface. Tool names use the deterministic <pluginId>__<localName> form, and invocations are recorded in the audit log with plugin, tool, route, and actor provenance.

See the Authentication guide for role definitions.

Transport

The server uses the Streamable HTTP transport in stateless mode. Each request is independent — there are no sessions or long-lived connections.

• POST /_emdash/api/mcp — Send JSON-RPC tool calls
• GET /_emdash/api/mcp — Returns 405 (no SSE in stateless mode)
• DELETE /_emdash/api/mcp — Returns 405 (no session to close)

Responses follow the JSON-RPC 2.0 format. Errors use standard JSON-RPC error codes, with MCP-specific codes for scope and permission failures.

Tools

The server exposes tools across eight domains: content, schema, media, search, taxonomies, menus, revisions, and settings. Each tool returns results as JSON text content, or an error message with isError: true on failure.

Content Tools

content_list

List content items in a collection with optional filtering and pagination.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

content_get

Get a single content item by ID or slug. Returns all field values, metadata, and a _rev token for optimistic concurrency.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

content_create

Create a new content item. The data object should contain field values matching the collection’s schema — use schema_get_collection to check what fields are available. Items are created as draft by default.

Scope: content:write

content_update

Update an existing content item. Only include fields you want to change — unspecified fields are left unchanged.

Scope: content:write

content_delete

Soft-delete a content item by moving it to the trash. Use content_restore to undo, or content_permanent_delete to remove it forever.

Scope: content:write | Destructive: Yes

content_restore

Restore a soft-deleted content item from the trash.

Scope: content:write

content_permanent_delete

Permanently and irreversibly delete a trashed content item. The item must be in the trash first.

Scope: content:write | Destructive: Yes

content_publish

Publish a content item, making it live on the site. Creates a published revision from the current draft. Further edits create a new draft without affecting the live version until re-published.

Scope: content:write

content_unpublish

Revert a published item to draft status. It will no longer be visible on the live site but its content is preserved.

Scope: content:write

content_schedule

Schedule a content item for future publication. It will be automatically published at the specified date/time.

Scope: content:write

content_unschedule

Cancel a previously scheduled publication. The item keeps its current status; only the scheduledAt timestamp is cleared. Idempotent — calling on an item that isn’t scheduled is a no-op.

Scope: content:write

content_compare

Compare the published (live) version of a content item with its current draft. Returns both versions and a flag indicating whether there are changes.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

content_discard_draft

Discard the current draft and revert to the last published version. Only works on items that have been published at least once.

Scope: content:write | Destructive: Yes

content_list_trashed

List soft-deleted content items in a collection’s trash.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

content_duplicate

Create a copy of an existing content item. The duplicate is created as a draft with “(Copy)” appended to the title and an auto-generated slug.

Scope: content:write

content_translations

Get all locale variants of a content item. Returns the translation group and a summary of each locale version. Only relevant when i18n is enabled.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

Schema Tools

schema_list_collections

List all content collections defined in the CMS. Returns slug, label, supported features, and timestamps.

No parameters.

Scope: schema:read | Minimum role: Editor | Read-only: Yes

schema_get_collection

Get detailed info about a collection including all field definitions. Fields describe the data model: name, type, constraints, and validation rules. Use this to understand what content_create and content_update expect.

Scope: schema:read | Minimum role: Editor | Read-only: Yes

schema_create_collection

Create a new content collection. This creates a database table and schema definition. The slug must be lowercase alphanumeric with underscores, starting with a letter.

Scope: schema:write | Minimum role: Admin

schema_delete_collection

Delete a collection and its database table. This is irreversible and deletes all content in the collection.

Scope: schema:write | Minimum role: Admin | Destructive: Yes

schema_create_field

Add a new field to a collection’s schema. This adds a column to the database table.

Field types: string, text, number, integer, boolean, datetime, select, multiSelect, portableText, image, file, reference, json, slug.

For select and multiSelect types, provide allowed values in validation.options.

Scope: schema:write | Minimum role: Admin

schema_delete_field

Remove a field from a collection. This drops the column and deletes all data in that field. Irreversible.

Scope: schema:write | Minimum role: Admin | Destructive: Yes

Media Tools

media_list

List uploaded media files with optional MIME type filtering and pagination.

Scope: media:read | Read-only: Yes

media_upload

Upload a media file from base64-encoded data or an external URL and register it in the media library. Returns the media item with id, storageKey, and url — ready to reference from content fields (e.g. featured_image) via content_create / content_update.

Uploads are deduplicated by content hash: re-uploading identical bytes returns the existing item with deduplicated: true. Image uploads are enriched automatically with dimensions, a blurhash placeholder, and the dominant color.

Scope: media:write | Minimum role: Contributor

media_create

Register a media file that has already been uploaded to storage. The caller is responsible for placing the file at storageKey (typically using a signed upload URL from the admin UI or a separate API). This tool persists the metadata record so the file is discoverable via media_list / media_get and can be referenced by content.

Scope: media:write | Minimum role: Author

media_get

Get details of a single media file by ID. Returns metadata including filename, MIME type, size, dimensions, alt text, and URL.

Scope: media:read | Read-only: Yes

media_update

Update metadata of an uploaded media file. The file itself cannot be changed.

Scope: media:write

media_delete

Permanently delete a media file. Removes the database record and the file from storage. Content referencing this media will have broken references.

Scope: media:write | Destructive: Yes

media_usage_repair

Repair content media usage indexes for one collection or every collection. Repair runs synchronously and can be slow or expensive on large sites; prefer collection scope when possible.

The result has a structured status of complete, partial, failed, or stale, plus aggregate and per-collection source counts. All four statuses are successful MCP tool results, so callers must inspect status rather than relying on isError. Authentication, validation, or unexpected repair errors return isError: true.

Scope: admin | Minimum role: Admin

Search Tool

search

Full-text search across content collections. Collections must have search in their supports list and fields must be marked as searchable.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

Taxonomy Tools

taxonomy_list

List all taxonomy definitions (e.g. categories, tags). Returns name, label, whether hierarchical, and associated collections.

No parameters.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

taxonomy_list_terms

List terms in a taxonomy with pagination.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

taxonomy_create_term

Create a new term in a taxonomy. For hierarchical taxonomies, specify a parentId to create a child term. The parent’s ancestor chain must not exceed 100 levels.

Scope: taxonomies:manage | Minimum role: Editor

taxonomy_update_term

Update an existing term in a taxonomy. Any field can be omitted to leave it unchanged. Renaming a slug must not collide with another term in the same taxonomy. Set parentId to null to detach from a parent. The new parent must exist, belong to the same taxonomy, and not introduce a cycle.

Scope: taxonomies:manage | Minimum role: Editor

taxonomy_delete_term

Permanently delete a term from a taxonomy. Any content tagged with the term loses the association. Cannot delete a term that has children — delete children first.

Scope: taxonomies:manage | Minimum role: Editor | Destructive: Yes

Menu Tools

menu_list

List navigation menus. Menus are per-locale: pass locale to return one locale’s rows only, or omit it to list every locale variant.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

menu_get

Get a menu by name including all its items in order. Items have a label, URL, type, and optional parent for nesting. When the same menu name exists in multiple locales, pass locale to resolve the intended translation.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

menu_create

Create a new navigation menu. The name is the stable identifier used by site templates; label is the human-readable name shown in the admin. Menus are per-locale, so pass locale when the same menu name exists in multiple translations. Add items afterwards with menu_set_items. If translationOf is set, locale must also be set.

Scope: menus:manage | Minimum role: Editor

menu_update

Update a menu’s label. The name (stable identifier) cannot be changed. On multi-locale installs, pass locale so the correct translation is updated.

Scope: menus:manage | Minimum role: Editor

menu_delete

Delete a menu and all its items. Cannot be undone. On multi-locale installs, pass locale so only the intended translation is removed.

Scope: menus:manage | Minimum role: Editor | Destructive: Yes

menu_set_items

Replace the entire item list of a menu in one call. Atomic: existing items are deleted and the new list is inserted in the order provided. Use this rather than per-item add/remove operations so the resulting order and parent links are unambiguous. On multi-locale installs, pass locale so only the intended translation is rewritten.

Items are positioned by array index. Nesting is expressed via parentIndex — an item with parentIndex: 0 is nested under the item at index 0. The parent must appear earlier in the list. Items without parentIndex are top-level.

Each MenuItem has:

Scope: menus:manage | Minimum role: Editor

Revision Tools

revision_list

List revision history for a content item, newest first. Requires the collection to support revisions.

Scope: content:read | Read-only: Yes

revision_restore

Restore a content item to a previous revision. Replaces the current draft with the specified revision’s data. Not automatically published — use content_publish afterward if needed.

Scope: content:write

Settings Tools

Site-wide settings — title, tagline, logo, favicon, canonical URL, default page size, date and time formatting, social handles, and SEO defaults.

settings_get

Get all site-wide settings. Media references (logo, favicon, seo.defaultOgImage) include resolved URLs alongside the underlying mediaId. Unset values are omitted from the response.

No parameters.

Scope: settings:read | Minimum role: Editor | Read-only: Yes

settings_update

Update one or more site-wide settings. Partial update: only the fields provided are changed; omitted fields are left as-is. Returns the full settings object after the update.

To set a media reference (logo, favicon, seo.defaultOgImage), pass an object with mediaId (and optional alt). The media item must already exist — use media_create first.

The seo object accepts:

Scope: settings:manage | Minimum role: Admin

OAuth Discovery

Most MCP clients handle this for you; this section is for building an MCP client against EmDash directly. Clients that support OAuth 2.1 discover how to authenticate from two metadata documents the server publishes:

Protected Resource Metadata

Request the protected resource metadata at the following endpoint:

GET /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource

The server responds with the resource identifier, its authorization server, and supported scopes:

{
  "resource": "https://example.com/_emdash/api/mcp",
  "authorization_servers": ["https://example.com/_emdash"],
  "scopes_supported": [
    "content:read", "content:write",
    "media:read", "media:write",
    "schema:read", "schema:write",
    "taxonomies:manage", "menus:manage",
    "settings:read", "settings:manage",
    "admin"
  ],
  "bearer_methods_supported": ["header"]
}

Authorization Server Metadata

Request the authorization server metadata at the following endpoint:

GET /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server/_emdash

The server responds with the endpoints, scopes, and grant types it supports:

{
  "issuer": "https://example.com/_emdash",
  "authorization_endpoint": "https://example.com/_emdash/oauth/authorize",
  "token_endpoint": "https://example.com/_emdash/api/oauth/token",
  "scopes_supported": ["content:read", "content:write", "..."],
  "response_types_supported": ["code"],
  "grant_types_supported": [
    "authorization_code",
    "refresh_token",
    "urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code"
  ],
  "code_challenge_methods_supported": ["S256"],
  "token_endpoint_auth_methods_supported": ["none"],
  "device_authorization_endpoint": "https://example.com/_emdash/api/oauth/device/code"
}

When an unauthenticated request hits the MCP endpoint, the server returns:

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
WWW-Authenticate: Bearer resource_metadata="https://example.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource"

This triggers the standard MCP client discovery flow.

Error Handling

Tool errors are returned as text content with isError: true. The message is prefixed with a stable [CODE], and the same code is repeated in _meta.code:

{
  "content": [{ "type": "text", "text": "[NOT_FOUND] Collection 'nonexistent' not found" }],
  "isError": true,
  "_meta": { "code": "NOT_FOUND" }
}

Scope and permission errors use the same tool error envelope:

{
  "content": [
    { "type": "text", "text": "[INSUFFICIENT_SCOPE] Insufficient scope: requires content:write" }
  ],
  "isError": true,
  "_meta": { "code": "INSUFFICIENT_SCOPE" }
}

Transport-level errors (server misconfiguration, unhandled exceptions) return JSON-RPC error code -32603 (Internal error) without leaking implementation details.