MCP Overview & Setup

kendo exposes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI coding assistants manage project work directly from the terminal. Create issues, log time, plan sprints, and search your board — all through natural language.

What is MCP?

MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how AI applications connect to external tools and data sources. Instead of copy-pasting issue IDs or switching between browser tabs, your AI assistant reads project context and takes actions on your behalf.

kendo's MCP server provides:

• Tools — create, update, search, and delete issues, time entries, epics, sprints, comments, reports, and branch links
• Resources — read-only access to projects, issues, lanes, sprints, epics, members, teams, and GitHub repos

Authorization & Security

All MCP data is scoped to the authenticated user's role and team access. You only see projects, issues, and data you're authorized to access in the UI — this isn't just filtering, it's programmatic enforcement through Laravel Gates and project accessibility checks.

• OAuth tokens carry an mcp:use scope that limits what the token can do
• Project access is checked on every request — you can only interact with projects assigned to your teams or where accessAllProjects is enabled on your role
• Role-based permissions are enforced per-resource, per-action: each role defines Create, Read, Update (None/Own/All), and Delete (None/Own/All) scopes for 16 resources
• Project owners automatically get full access to all project-scoped resources in their own projects
• Admins bypass all permission checks
• Rate limiting prevents abuse via the throttle:mcp middleware
• Audit logging records every tool invocation with user, project, tool name, and status

Server URL

The MCP server URL is tenant-specific:

https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo

Replace {tenant} with your organization's subdomain (e.g., https://acme.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo).

Setup: Claude Code

The quickest way to add kendo is via the CLI:

claude mcp add kendo --transport http https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo

Or add it manually to your configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kendo": {
      "url": "https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo",
      "headers": {
        "Accept": "application/json, text/event-stream"
      }
    }
  }
}

When you first connect, Claude Code will open a browser window for OAuth authentication. After authorizing, the token is stored locally and refreshed automatically.

Setup: Cursor

In Cursor, go to Settings → MCP Servers and add:

• Name: kendo
• Type: sse
• URL: https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo

Cursor will prompt for OAuth authorization on first use.

Setup: Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop connects via mcp-remote, a small Node proxy. Requires Node.js 18+.

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kendo": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/mcp/kendo"]
    }
  }
}

OS	Config path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

After saving, fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q on macOS — closing the window is not enough). A browser window will open for OAuth on first launch.

OAuth Flow

kendo uses OAuth 2.0 for MCP authentication:

1. Your AI client requests authorization from https://{tenant}.kendo.dev/oauth/authorize
2. A browser window opens for you to log in and approve the connection
3. The client receives an access token with the mcp:use scope
4. All subsequent MCP requests include this token in the Authorization header
5. Tokens are automatically refreshed when they expire

Available Tools

Tool	Description	Page
create-issue	Create a new issue in a project	Issues
bulk-create-issues	Create up to 25 issues at once, straight into the backlog	Issues
update-issue	Update an existing issue (including lane changes)	Issues
delete-issue	Delete an issue permanently	Issues
search-issues	Search issues by text and filters	Issues
get-my-issues	Get issues assigned to you	Issues
add-comment	Add a comment to an issue	Comments
update-comment	Edit an existing comment	Comments
delete-comment	Delete a comment permanently	Comments
create-time-entry	Log time against an issue	Time Entries
get-time-entries	Query time entries with grouping	Time Entries
update-time-entry	Update a time entry	Time Entries
delete-time-entry	Delete a time entry permanently	Time Entries
record-token-usage	Record an agent session's token usage on an issue	Token Usage
create-epic	Create an epic	Epics
update-epic	Update an epic	Epics
delete-epic	Delete an epic	Epics
get-epics	List epics with progress data	Epics
tick-epic-wish	Tick a Done when wish of an epic	Epics
untick-epic-wish	Untick a Done when wish of an epic	Epics
get-labels	List a project's labels	Labels
create-label	Create a label	Labels
update-label	Rename or recolor a label	Labels
delete-label	Delete a label	Labels
sync-issue-labels	Set, replace, or clear the labels on an issue	Labels
get-sprints	List sprints for a project, with optional status or single-sprint filter	Sprints
create-sprint	Create a new sprint	Sprints
update-sprint	Update sprint details	Sprints
complete-sprint	Complete the active sprint	Sprints
delete-sprint	Delete a planned sprint	Sprints
assign-issues-to-sprint	Bulk-assign many issues to a sprint in one call	Sprints
prepare-project-context	Gather project + lanes + active sprint + members + current user in one read	Issues
prepare-issue-context	Gather a single issue's full payload (comments, branches, attachments) and linked epic	Issues
start-work-on-issue	Pick up an issue end-to-end — assign, move lane, set sprint, link branch	Issues
kendo-today	Return the Today snapshot (active sprints, my open issues, today's logged minutes)	Issues
link-branch	Link a Git branch to an issue	Branches
unlink-branch	Remove a Git branch link from an issue (multi-repo: pass repo_full_name to disambiguate)	Branches
list-reports	List reports for triage	Reports
get-report	Fetch a single report with attachments and triage status	Reports
create-report	Create a new report	Reports
promote-reports	Promote reports to an issue	Reports
dismiss-report	Dismiss a report	Reports
delete-report	Delete a report permanently	Reports
send-feedback	Send feedback, bug reports, or suggestions about Kendo itself to the Kendo team	Reports
get-error-groups	Get error groups (recurring exceptions/crashes) across projects or for one	Error Tracking
fetch-attachment	Fetch attachment bytes (image or text) for multimodal agents	Attachments

String arguments

Every tool treats string arguments the way the kendo web app treats form input. Leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed from every string, including strings inside arrays and nested objects, so a Markdown body also loses the indentation of its first line and its trailing newlines. An empty or whitespace-only string is then treated as null: sending "" for an optional field works exactly like sending null, and sending it for a required field fails validation.

Available Resources

URI Pattern	Description	Page
kendo://projects	List accessible active projects	Resources
kendo://projects/archived	Archived projects, kept out of the list above	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}	Project details with GitHub repos	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/issues	All issues in a project	Resources
kendo://issues/{id}	Single issue with comments and time	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/lanes	Board lanes with issue counts	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/sprints	Sprint list with issue counts	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/epics	Epics with status and progress	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/members	Project members for assignment	Resources
kendo://projects/{id}/github-repos	Linked GitHub repositories	Resources
kendo://teams	Teams and their members	Resources

See Also

• Workflows — Common multi-step MCP workflows with example prompts
• API Overview — API documentation
• Quick Start — Get started with kendo