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MCP Tools

Nibchat connects to any server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Tools are automatically discovered, injected into the agent context, and called on-demand during conversations.

How it works​

  1. On startup, Nibchat reads your agent.yaml for the list of MCP servers.
  2. When a user first sends a message, Nibchat opens a per-session connection to each server.
  3. Available tools are listed in the /api/mcp/connect response and shown to the LLM.
  4. When the LLM decides to call a tool, Nibchat executes it server-side and streams the result back.

Configuring MCP servers​

Add servers under mcpServers in agent.yaml:

mcpServers:
  - url: https://my-files-server.example.com
    name: files

  - url: https://my-database-server.example.com
    name: db
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer secret-token"

Static auth headers​

If your MCP server requires authentication but doesn't use OAuth, set static headers. This bypasses the OAuth flow entirely.

mcpServers:
  - url: https://my-server.example.com
    name: myserver
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer my-api-key"
      X-Custom-Header: "some-value"

OAuth authentication​

MCP servers that implement OAuth 2.0 are supported. When a server requires authorization:

  1. An amber Authorize button appears in the sidebar.
  2. The user clicks it — this opens an OAuth popup (must be user-triggered to pass browser popup blockers).
  3. After completing OAuth, Nibchat stores the tokens in the database and reconnects.

OAuth tokens are persisted per-session and survive server restarts.

PUBLIC_URL

For OAuth to work, set PUBLIC_URL to your server's public URL. The redirect URI registered with your OAuth provider must be {PUBLIC_URL}/oauth/callback.

Tool name collisions​

If multiple MCP servers expose tools with the same name, Nibchat automatically prefixes them:

{serverName}__{toolName}

The serverName comes from the name field in agent.yaml, falling back to the server hostname.

Viewing available tools​

The UI shows all connected tools in the bottom bar of the chat panel. Hover over the tools indicator to see the full list.