mcp-api-connect™

One payload in, any API out. mcp-api-connect is a protocol- and auth-agnostic connector engine: describe a target service (URL, protocol, auth, request/ response shape) once, then send it a normalized payload and get a normalized response back — whether the target is a REST/JSON API, a legacy SOAP service, protected by an API key, Basic auth, a Bearer token, or OAuth2 client credentials.

It ships as three things built on the same core engine, so however you want to use it, you can:

• A Python library — pip install mcp-api-connect, call MCPAPIConnectEngine directly, no server required.

• A standalone HTTP API — pip install mcp-api-connect[api], run mcp-api-connect-api, POST to /invoke.

• An MCP server — pip install mcp-api-connect[mcp], run mcp-api-connect, point any MCP client (Claude, etc.) at it so an agent can call registered connectors — or arbitrary services on the fly — as tools.

Why

Every integration project reinvents the same wheel: a REST client here, a SOAP client there, one auth flow per service, ad-hoc request/response mapping scattered across the codebase. mcp-api-connect centralizes that into one declarative spec (InvokeSpec) and one execution engine, so adding a new target service is config, not code.

Related MCP server: MCP REST Server

Quick start (library)

pip install mcp-api-connect

import asyncio
from mcp_api_connect import MCPAPIConnectEngine, InvokeSpec, Target, AuthSpec, AuthType, RequestFormat, ResponseFormat

spec = InvokeSpec(
    target=Target(base_url="https://api.example.com"),
    auth=AuthSpec(type=AuthType.API_KEY, config={"api_key": "secret", "header_name": "X-API-Key"}),
    request_format=RequestFormat(method="POST", path="/v1/orders", content_type="json"),
    response_format=ResponseFormat(content_type="json"),
)

async def main():
    async with MCPAPIConnectEngine() as engine:
        result = await engine.invoke(spec, {"customer": "jane"})
        print(result.success, result.data)

asyncio.run(main())

Quick start (HTTP API)

pip install "mcp-api-connect[api]"
mcp-api-connect-api   # serves on :8000, interactive docs at /docs

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/invoke -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
  "spec": {
    "target": {"base_url": "https://api.example.com"},
    "auth": {"type": "api_key", "config": {"api_key": "secret"}},
    "request_format": {"method": "POST", "path": "/v1/orders"},
    "response_format": {"content_type": "json"}
  },
  "payload": {"customer": "jane"}
}'

Register a reusable connector once, then invoke it by name:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/connectors -d '{"name": "orders-api", "spec": {...}}'
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/connectors/orders-api/invoke -d '{"customer": "jane"}'

Quick start (MCP)

pip install "mcp-api-connect[mcp]"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-api-connect": { "command": "/path/to/.venv/bin/mcp-api-connect" }
  }
}

Or run it in a container (stdio transport):

docker build -t mcp-api-connect .
docker run --rm -i mcp-api-connect

Exposes tools: invoke (stateless, one-off), register_connector, list_connectors, invoke_connector (by name), delete_connector. An agent can register a connector for "the Salesforce API" once, then just say "call it with this payload" from then on.

➜ Full setup for Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor, persistence, security notes, and a worked example: docs/mcp-integration.md.

Core concepts

• Target — base URL, protocol (rest | soap), timeout, default headers.

• AuthSpec — type (none, api_key, basic, bearer, oauth2_client_credentials) + a config dict shaped for that type. OAuth2 tokens are fetched and cached automatically.

• RequestFormat / ResponseFormat — content type (json, xml, soap) plus a declarative field_map ({"target.path": "$.source.jsonpath"}) for reshaping payloads without writing code, or a Jinja2 body_template for full control (required for SOAP envelopes).

• InvokeSpec — bundles the three above; the unit of "how to reach one service." Store it as a named Connector or pass it inline per call.

See src/mcp_api_connect/core/models.py for the full schema, and docs/auth-reference.md for the config shape each auth type expects.

Documentation

• docs/mcp-integration.md — full MCP client setup (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor), persistence, security, tool reference, worked example, troubleshooting

• docs/auth-reference.md — config fields for every auth type

• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev setup, running tests, PR expectations

Extending

• New auth type: implement AuthStrategy, register via engine.register_auth_strategy(...).

• New protocol (e.g. GraphQL): implement ProtocolAdapter, register via engine.register_adapter(...).

• New connector storage backend: implement ConnectorStore (ships with InMemoryConnectorStore and SqliteConnectorStore, credentials encrypted at rest via Fernet).

Roadmap

• OAuth2 authorization-code flow, mTLS, AWS SigV4 auth strategies

• WSDL-driven SOAP (optional zeep-backed adapter, no hand-written envelope needed)

• GraphQL adapter

• Postgres-backed ConnectorStore

• Retry/backoff + rate limiting policies per connector

• SSRF-safe target allow-listing for public deployments

Development

python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev,api,storage,mcp]"
pytest

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Contributions are accepted under the same license (inbound = outbound); see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Trademark

mcp-api-connect™ is a trademark of Balaji Venkatasubramaniyar. The Apache 2.0 license covers copyright and patents but grants no trademark rights. You may use the name to refer to this project and to state compatibility, but not to name a fork, product, or service, or to imply endorsement. See TRADEMARKS.md for the full policy.