MCP servers in a plugin

An MCP server is a connection to an external tool server that the agents of a plugin can call while they work, such as a browser, an issue tracker or a service of your own. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. In Athenode an MCP server belongs to an plugin, which is a named bundle of what your AI coding tools work with: skills, agents, rules, MCP servers and plugin files. You describe a server once, and installing the plugin adds it to the MCP configuration of each AI tool you selected.

The standard Athenode plugin holds one MCP server, athenode. It is how your AI agent reads and writes specifications, ToDo cards and plugins, and the Athenode MCP server page covers it.

Field	Applies to	Meaning
Name	Every server	The name your AI tools and skills know the server by, such as github or playwright. It is unique in the plugin.
Transport	Every server	How the AI tool reaches the server: Local command, HTTP or SSE.
Command	Local command	The program that starts the server, such as npx.
Args	Local command	The arguments passed to the command, in order.
Env	Local command	Environment variables set for the server's process.
URL	HTTP and SSE	The address of the running server.
Headers	HTTP and SSE	Headers sent with each request, such as an Authorization header.

With Local command your AI tool starts the server on your machine. With HTTP it connects to a running server over streamable HTTP, and with SSE over server-sent events. When a server offers both, choose HTTP.

You need the owner or editor role to change a plugin. A viewer can open a server and read it. The roles and permissions page has the full list.

A plugin holds as many MCP servers as you need.

Add an MCP server from the catalogue

Add a server from the catalogue when it is a public MCP server. Its connection arrives filled in, and you can add several servers at once.

1. On the Plugins page, select the plugin's card. Its blueprint appears below the cards.
2. On the MCP servers part of the blueprint, select the add button (Add to MCP servers).
3. In the inspector, choose Find it in the MCP catalog.
4. Under 1 · Find, enter at least two characters to search the catalogue.
5. Under 2 · Choose MCP servers, select the servers you want and expand each one to check it.
6. If a server has more than one Install option, choose one. A package option runs the server on your machine, and a remote option connects to a server at a URL.
7. Read the Configuration, the Warnings and the Required variables, and change the Server name if you want another one. If the name is taken in the plugin, Athenode suggests a free one for you to confirm or edit.
8. Select the import button, which reads Import 2 servers when two are selected.

Each result shows the server's version and a link to its repository. Required variables lists every environment variable the server needs, what it is for, where it is used (an argument, the environment, a header or the URL) and whether it is a secret. Set these variables in the environment where your AI tool runs.

Some servers ask you to sign in. The sign-in happens in your AI tool, when it connects to the server.

Add an MCP server by hand

Configure a server yourself when it is one you run, or one the catalogue does not hold.

1. On the MCP servers part of the blueprint, select the add button and choose Configure it yourself.
2. Enter the Server name.
3. Choose the Transport.
4. For Local command, enter the Command, then add the arguments with Add arg and the environment variables with Add variable.
5. For HTTP or SSE, enter the URL and add the headers with Add header.
6. Select Add server.

While you fill in the form, a preview line shows the command your AI tool will run or the URL it will call. A local server for the web shop's issue tracker could have the command npx, the argument @example/tracker-mcp, and the variable TRACKER_TOKEN with the value ${TRACKER_TOKEN}.

Keep secrets out of the plugin with ${VAR} references

A plugin is shared with every member who installs it, so a token, key or password does not belong in it. Write a ${VAR} reference where the secret goes, such as ${GITHUB_TOKEN} or Bearer ${GITHUB_TOKEN}, and set the variable in the environment where your AI tool runs. Athenode never stores the values.

• A value stored under a name that looks like a secret, such as a token, key or password, must be a ${VAR} reference. Athenode refuses to save a literal value there.
• A server added from the catalogue arrives with references in place of its secrets, so you only set the variables it lists.
• After an install, the CLI lists the variables that the installed servers need and that are not set. It can check only its own environment, so make sure the variables are set where your AI tool runs. A reference with a default, such as ${PORT:-3000}, is not listed.
• Publishing a plugin to the plugin library is refused while any environment variable or header of one of its servers holds a literal value, whatever its name.

Edit an MCP server

Select a server in the MCP servers part of the blueprint to open it in the inspector. The header shows its transport, whether it was added from the catalogue or Configured by hand, and the AI tools that do not get it.

The name is edited in place. A skill or an agent that calls the server by its old name needs the same change. When you change the transport or any connection field, a bar reads Unsaved changes. Select Save changes to keep them or Revert to drop them.

See which AI tools get a server

Most AI tools take all three transports and any ${VAR} reference. These are the exceptions:

AI tool	What is installed
Codex	Local-command and HTTP servers. For an HTTP server the URL must contain no ${VAR} reference, and a header value that uses a reference must be exactly ${VAR}, or exactly Bearer ${VAR} in the Authorization header.
Mistral Vibe	Local-command and HTTP servers.
Goose	Local-command servers.

A server that an AI tool cannot take is left out for that tool and installed for the others. In the web UI the server carries the mark Not exported to followed by the tools' names. In the plan that init shows, the server appears under "Not installed" for each selected tool that does not get it.

Add a server that a skill needs

A skill can declare the MCP servers it uses. When a skill of the plugin needs a server the plugin does not have, the MCP servers part of the blueprint shows the server's name with the mark Missing. Under the name, the line "Needed by" lists the skills. Select Add next to it to add the server. The same check runs when you import skills, where a panel lists the servers the imported skills use.

Remove an MCP server from a plugin

Open the server, open its menu and select Remove from plugin, then confirm with Remove. The server leaves the plugin at once. It leaves the MCP configuration of your AI tools the next time you run init.

Find the plugin's servers in your AI tool

Servers reach your repository when you install the plugin with init, and again each time you run init after changing the plugin in the web UI.

athenode init

For a tool that receives the plugin as files, Athenode adds the plugin's servers to the tool's MCP configuration file, for example .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor and .codex/config.toml for Codex. For a tool that receives the plugin as a plugin package, such as Claude Code, the servers are inside the plugin package, except those the files installed per tool page lists, which go to the tool's MCP configuration file. Servers and settings of your own in those files are kept, with two things to know:

• A server of yours with the same name as one of the plugin is overwritten. The plan warns you before you confirm.
• TOML and YAML configuration files are rewritten when Athenode changes them, and they may lose comments and formatting. The plan warns you first.

The files installed per tool page gives the configuration file for each of the 30 supported AI tools.

An agent can also have MCP servers that only it uses. They are set on the agent, as agents in a plugin describes.

Manage MCP servers from your AI tool

From your AI tool, ask /atn:manage to list, add, change or remove a server. If you paste a secret, it stores a ${VAR} reference in its place and tells you which variable to set. It works on the installed plugin unless you name another, and it updates the installed files itself.

Your AI agent reaches the same actions through the tools mcp_servers_list, mcp_servers_create, mcp_servers_update and mcp_servers_remove of the Athenode MCP server. Their transports are named stdio for a local command, http and sse.

Searching the catalogue is done in the web UI.