Outline MCP

An MCP (Model Control Protocol) server for integrating Outline with Claude.

Overview

This tool provides Claude with the ability to search and retrieve documents from your Outline knowledge base. Use it to help Claude answer questions using your organization's internal documentation.

Features

Search for documents in your Outline instance
Retrieve full document content by ID
Maintain persistent credentials between sessions

Installation

Note: Your Outline API key must have the following permissions:

documents.info - For retrieving document content

documents.search - For searching documents

Note: If OUTLINE_URL and OUTLINE_API_KEY are not provided in your config, Claude will prompt you for them. These credentials will be saved in ~/.outline_mcp_credentials.json for future use.

Option 1: Install via Smithery CLI (requires smithery key)

npx -y @smithery/cli@latest install @ChrisL108/outline-mcp --client claude --key your-smithery-api-key

You can enter your OUTLINE_URL and OUTLINE_API_KEY when prompted by Claude or add them to your claude_desktop_config.json directly:

"env": {
    "OUTLINE_URL": "https://your.outline.com",
    "OUTLINE_API_KEY": "your-outline-api-key"
}

Your config should look like this:

"outline-mcp": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "@smithery/cli@latest",
      "run",
      "@ChrisL108/outline-mcp",
      "--key",
      "your-smithery-api-key"
    ],
    "env": {
      "OUTLINE_URL": "https://your.outline.com",
      "OUTLINE_API_KEY": "your-outline-api-key"
    }
}

Option 2: Install via UVX

"outline-mcp": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "--from",
      "git+https://github.com/ChrisL108/outline-mcp",
      "outline-mcp"
    ],
    "env": {
      "OUTLINE_URL": "https://your.outline.com",
      "OUTLINE_API_KEY": "your-outline-api-key"
    }
}

Usage

Once installed, you can use the following functions in your conversations with Claude:

Search Documents

search_documents(query, outline_url=None, api_key=None, limit=5, status_filter="published", date_filter="year")

Parameters:

query: Search term (required)
outline_url: Base URL of your Outline instance (only needed first time)
api_key: Outline API key (only needed first time)
limit: Maximum number of results (default: 5)
status_filter: Filter by status (default: "published")
date_filter: Filter by date (default: "year")

Get Document by ID

get_document_by_id(document_id)

Parameters:

document_id: ID of the document to retrieve (required)

Update Credentials

update_credentials(outline_url, api_key)

Parameters:

outline_url: Base URL of your Outline instance
api_key: Outline API key

Ping

ping()

Simple test function to verify the MCP server is working.

Example Prompts

Here are some example prompts you can use with Claude:

"Search Outline for information about our product roadmap."
"Can you find any documents related to our hiring process?"
"Check our internal documentation for our AWS setup."
"Can you get the full content of this document? [document_id]"

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

Ensure your Outline URL and API key are correctly configured
Verify that your Outline instance is accessible
Check if your API key has the necessary permissions
Try the ping() function to verify the MCP server is running correctly

Security Considerations

Keep your API key secure and don't share it
The MCP server only has the permissions granted to your API key
Consider using a read-only API key if you only need search functionality

License

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Credits

Created by ChrisL108