MCP Integration¶

Vault exposes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI assistants and automation tools.

Transports¶

Transport	Endpoint	Use Case
Streamable HTTP	`http://<host>:24085/api/v1/mcp`	All clients, via a stdio bridge or a tunnel

The former vault mcp --db <path> stdio transport has been removed. It ran as a second process writing directly to the daemon's database from outside it, so jobs it created were never handed to the scheduler and silently never ran, and its changes bypassed the flash-storage flush and the live UI updates. Local clients should reach the HTTP endpoint through the mcp-remote stdio bridge described below, which exposes the same tools with those protections intact.

You can't paste the http://… endpoint straight into Claude Desktop. Its "Add custom connector" flow only accepts HTTPS URLs, and connectors are reached from Anthropic's cloud — so a LAN address (192.168.x.x, tower.local) is unreachable from Anthropic's servers and a self-signed certificate is rejected. Native HTTPS alone (see below) does not make a LAN URL work. Use one of the two paths in the Claude Desktop section.

Configuration¶

Claude Desktop¶

Pick the path that matches how you reach your server.

LAN-only (recommended): `mcp-remote` stdio bridge¶

Claude Desktop launches a local mcp-remote process that bridges to Vault's HTTP endpoint over your LAN. Vault must be configured to listen on a LAN-reachable address (Settings → Vault on the Unraid webgui — the default bind is 127.0.0.1, which is not reachable from another machine). Traffic, including the API key header, travels unencrypted over HTTP, so only use this on a trusted LAN. No TLS or public exposure is required; you just need Node.js installed on the same machine as Claude Desktop. A LAN bind also turns on mDNS discovery; see Network discovery.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://<host>:24085/api/v1/mcp",
        "--allow-http"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you have set an API key (Settings → API), pass it as a header. Note there is no space after the colon — mcp-remote mishandles spaces in header values:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://<host>:24085/api/v1/mcp",
        "--allow-http",
        "--header",
        "X-API-Key:<your-key>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Custom Connector: public HTTPS endpoint¶

To add Vault as a native Custom Connector, the endpoint must be reachable from Anthropic's cloud over HTTPS with a publicly-trusted certificate. Vault serves HTTPS natively when the daemon is started with --tls-cert/--tls-key, but a self-signed cert won't be accepted and a private IP won't be reachable. Put Vault behind a tunnel or reverse proxy that terminates trusted TLS — e.g. Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel, or nginx with a Let's Encrypt certificate — then add the resulting public https://…/api/v1/mcp URL under Settings → Connectors in Claude Desktop.

Claude Code¶

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://<unraid-host>:24085/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The daemon binds to loopback by default, so reach it over an SSH tunnel (ssh -L 24085:127.0.0.1:24085 root@<unraid-host>) and point the URL at http://127.0.0.1:24085/mcp. For a client that only speaks stdio, bridge it with npx mcp-remote http://127.0.0.1:24085/mcp rather than running a second process against the database directly.

Available Tools¶

The MCP surface is intentionally curated rather than a 1:1 mirror of every REST route. The daemon currently registers 27 tools across the groups below. Settings, encryption, replication mutations, recovery planning, and storage scan/import remain REST-only — see the API Reference.

Jobs¶

Tool	Description
`list_jobs`	List all backup jobs
`get_job`	Get a job and its items
`create_job`	Create a new backup job
`update_job`	Update an existing job
`delete_job`	Delete a job
`run_job`	Trigger an immediate backup
`get_job_history`	Job run history

Storage¶

Tool	Description
`list_storage`	List storage destinations
`get_storage`	Get a storage destination
`create_storage`	Create a storage destination
`update_storage`	Update a storage destination
`delete_storage`	Delete a storage destination
`test_storage`	Test a storage connection
`list_storage_files`	List files in storage

Discovery¶

Tool	Description
`list_containers`	Discover Docker containers
`list_vms`	Discover libvirt VMs
`list_folders`	Discover folder presets
`list_plugins`	Discover Unraid plugins

Status¶

Tool	Description
`get_health`	Basic health check
`get_health_summary`	Dashboard health metrics
`get_runner_status`	Current backup/restore state, with phase, byte and file counters, rate, and ETA
`get_activity_log`	Recent activity log
`get_run_logs`	Per-run streaming log entries

Restore¶

Tool	Description
`list_restore_points`	List restore points for a job
`restore_item`	Restore a backup item

Replication¶

Tool	Description
`list_replication`	List replication sources
`get_replication`	Get a replication source
`delete_replication`	Delete a replication source

REST-Only Endpoints¶

The following operations are available via REST API only and are not exposed through MCP:

Settings management and encryption configuration
Storage scan and import workflows
File downloads from storage
Replication create and sync flows
Recovery plan endpoint

See API Reference for the complete REST surface.