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MCP servers

Toby can connect to any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and use its tools in chat. Unlike Slack or Todoist, MCP is a protocol: you can add as many servers as you want.

Add a server​

  1. Open Settings → Integrations.
  2. In MCP servers, click Add new MCP server.
  3. Give it a display name.
  4. Choose a transport:
    • Local command (stdio) — runs a command on this Mac (npx, a binary, …)
    • Streamable HTTP — a remote MCP URL
    • Legacy SSE — older HTTP+SSE servers
  5. Choose authentication:
    • None
    • Environment variables (stdio)
    • Bearer token or custom HTTP headers
    • OAuth 2.1 (HTTP/SSE; Toby opens a browser)
  6. Save. Toby connects and loads the server’s tools into chat.

Each MCP server appears as its own row under MCP servers. Disconnect stops it but keeps the configuration. Remove deletes it.

Tools in chat​

MCP tools show up in chat with a prefix so two servers can both expose search without colliding. For a server named GitHub, a tool called search is registered as mcp_github_search.

You can optionally allow only some original tool names on the server’s detail page (Tool allowlist).

Security​

  • A stdio connection runs a local command. Only use commands you trust.
  • Secrets (tokens, env JSON, headers) are stored in encrypted credentials, not in config.json.
  • OAuth uses http://127.0.0.1:9879/mcp/callback. Register that redirect URI if the provider asks for one.

CLI​

toby connections list
toby connections add --name GitHub --transport http --url https://example.com/mcp --auth headers --bearer "$TOKEN"
toby connections add --name Files --transport stdio --command npx --args '["-y","@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem"]'
toby connections remove mcp_github