Novu MCP Server

Connect Cursor, Claude, and other AI tools to the Novu MCP server to manage notifications, workflows, and subscribers using natural language.

The Novu MCP Server exposes Novu’s notification infrastructure as tools that AI assistants can discover and use in real time. Connect your AI tool to https://mcp.novu.co/ to manage subscribers, workflows, integrations, and delivery activity from natural-language prompts.

Novu also hosts a separate documentation MCP server at docs.novu.co/mcp that lets AI tools search and read this documentation site. The server on this page (mcp.novu.co) manages your Novu account — triggers, workflows, subscribers, and more.

About the Novu MCP server

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external services. The Novu MCP Server prepares your notification infrastructure for the broader AI ecosystem — any MCP-compatible client like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or VS Code can connect and act on your Novu environment.

Once connected, you can prompt your AI assistant to:

• Trigger workflows for specific subscribers
• Search and inspect subscriber data
• Update subscriber notification preferences
• Debug failed notifications and delivery issues
• Analyze notification activity and logs
• Create and manage workflows

Some AI tools support both MCP and Agent Skills. MCP gives your assistant live access to your Novu account, while skills instruct agents how to use Novu APIs and SDKs effectively. They are complementary — connect the MCP server for account operations and install skills for implementation guidance.

How the Novu MCP works

The Novu MCP Server exposes your notification system as a set of tools.

When your AI assistant connects:

1. It authenticates using your API key.
2. It discovers available tools.
3. It executes actions based on your prompts.

Instead of calling APIs directly, the AI translates your request into tool calls and executes them against your Novu environment.

Prerequisites

To use the Novu MCP Server, you need:

• A Novu API key
• An MCP-compatible AI tool (Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code)

Some tools like Claude Desktop require Node.js to run MCP servers locally through the mcp-remote proxy.

Access the Novu MCP server

The Novu MCP Server is hosted at https://mcp.novu.co/ and uses Streamable HTTP transport. Authenticate every request by sending your secret key in the Authorization header as Bearer your-novu-api-key.

Setting	Value
Transport	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	Bearer token (Novu secret key)
US endpoint	https://mcp.novu.co/
EU endpoint	https://mcp.novu.co/?region=eu

Your region is determined by your dashboard URL:

Dashboard URL	Region	MCP URL
dashboard.novu.co	US	https://mcp.novu.co/
eu.dashboard.novu.co	EU	https://mcp.novu.co/?region=eu

Use the MCP URL that matches your dashboard region in every configuration example below.

Setup

1. Get your secret key

   Your secret key authenticates your AI tool with Novu.

   1. Go to the Novu Dashboard.
   2. Navigate to API Keys.
   3. Under Secret Keys, copy your secret key.
2. Identify your region

   Check your dashboard URL to choose the correct MCP endpoint. US accounts use https://mcp.novu.co/; EU accounts use https://mcp.novu.co/?region=eu.

3. Configure your AI tool

   Follow the client-specific instructions in the next section. Replace your-novu-api-key with the secret key you copied, and use the MCP URL for your region.

4. Test the connection

   Ask your assistant to run a simple prompt such as “Check my Novu API key status” or “Show me all my notification workflows.” If you get results back, the server is connected.

Connect your AI tool

Cursor

Cursor supports remote MCP servers through its built-in settings UI, which writes to an mcp.json file.

1. Open MCP settings

   Open Cursor Settings, select Tools & Integrations, then under MCP Tools select New MCP Server. This opens your mcp.json file.

2. Add the Novu MCP server

   Add the following to the mcpServers object:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "novu": {
         "url": "https://mcp.novu.co/",
         "headers": {
           "Authorization": "Bearer your-novu-api-key"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   
3. Save and verify

   Save the file. Cursor detects the new server automatically. In Cursor’s chat, ask “What MCP tools do you have available?” — you should see the Novu server listed.

VS Code

VS Code reads MCP configuration from .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace, or from user-level MCP settings.

1. Create mcp.json

   Create a .vscode/mcp.json file in your project (or open your user MCP settings).

2. Add the Novu MCP server

   Add the following configuration:

   {
     "servers": {
       "novu": {
         "type": "http",
         "url": "https://mcp.novu.co/",
         "headers": {
           "Authorization": "Bearer your-novu-api-key"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   
3. Reload and verify

   Reload VS Code and open the MCP panel. The novu server should appear as a connected server.

Codex

Codex reads MCP configuration from ~/.codex/config.toml. The CLI and IDE extension share this file.

1. Export your API key

   export NOVU_API_KEY="your-novu-api-key"
   
2. Add the Novu MCP server

   Open ~/.codex/config.toml and add:

   [mcp_servers.novu]
   url = "https://mcp.novu.co/"
   bearer_token_env_var = "NOVU_API_KEY"
   
3. Restart and verify

   Save the file and restart Codex. Run /mcp inside the Codex TUI — you should see novu listed as a connected server.

Claude Code

Claude Code manages MCP servers through its claude mcp command.

1. Add the Novu MCP server

   In your terminal, run:

   claude mcp add --transport http novu https://mcp.novu.co/ \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer your-novu-api-key"
   
2. Optional: make it global

   To make Novu available across all projects, add the --scope user flag:

   claude mcp add --scope user --transport http novu https://mcp.novu.co/ \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer your-novu-api-key"
   
3. Verify the connection

   Run claude mcp list, or run /mcp inside Claude Code to check server status.

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop connects to remote MCP servers through a local proxy (mcp-remote), which requires Node.js 18 or higher.

1. Open Claude Desktop config

   Open Claude Desktop, go to Settings, find the Developer section, and select Edit Config. This opens your claude_desktop_config.json file.

2. Add the Novu MCP server

   Add the following to the mcpServers object (or create the object if it does not exist):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "novu": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "mcp-remote",
           "https://mcp.novu.co/",
           "--header",
           "Authorization: Bearer ${NOVU_API_KEY}"
         ],
         "env": {
           "NOVU_API_KEY": "your-novu-api-key"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   
3. Restart Claude Desktop

   Quit and reopen Claude Desktop to load the new MCP configuration.

Other tools

Any MCP-compatible tool can connect to the Novu MCP Server using these connection details:

Setting	Value
URL	https://mcp.novu.co/ (US) or https://mcp.novu.co/?region=eu (EU)
Transport	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	Authorization: Bearer your-novu-api-key

Example prompts

After connecting the Novu MCP server, copy or open these prompts in Cursor to verify the connection and perform common tasks.

Replace placeholder values (for example, subscriber IDs and workflow identifiers) with values from your Novu dashboard.

Verify connection

Test your Novu MCP connection

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

List your notification workflows

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

Subscriber management

Find a subscriber by email

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

Create a new subscriber

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

Trigger and debug

Trigger a workflow for a subscriber

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

Debug failed notifications

CopiedCopy promptOpen in Cursor

MCP tools

The Novu MCP server provides tools for interacting with your Novu environment. Your AI assistant discovers tools at connection time through the MCP tools/list handshake.

Agents determine when to call each tool based on your prompt. For example, a request to “find subscriber [e-mail]” may call find_subscribers, while “send a welcome email” may call trigger_workflow.

Core operations

These tools let you inspect your account configuration:

Tool	Description
get_api_key_status	Check API key status and region configuration
get_environments	List development and production environments

Subscriber management

These tools let you create, inspect, and manage your subscribers:

Tool	Description
create_subscriber	Create a new subscriber with attributes like name, email, phone, and custom data
get_subscriber	Retrieve a single subscriber by their subscriberId
update_subscriber	Update an existing subscriber’s attributes
delete_subscriber	Delete a subscriber by their subscriberId
find_subscribers	Search for subscribers using various query parameters

Preferences

These tools let you view and update how subscribers receive notifications:

Tool	Description
get_subscriber_preferences	Get subscriber notification preferences for all channels
update_subscriber_preferences	Update subscriber notification preferences for specific channels

Workflow management

These tools let you create, inspect, and manage notification workflows:

Tool	Description
create_workflow	Create a new workflow with comprehensive configuration including steps
get_workflow	Get detailed information about a specific workflow
get_workflows	Get all available workflows
update_workflow	Update an existing workflow
delete_workflow	Delete an existing workflow by its unique identifier

Triggering and events

These tools let you execute workflows and manage pending notifications:

Tool	Description
trigger_workflow	Trigger a workflow to send notifications to a subscriber
bulk_trigger_workflow	Trigger multiple workflows in a single API call
cancel_triggered_event	Cancel a pending triggered event

Notifications

These tools let you inspect delivery and execution data:

Tool	Description
get_notification	Get a specific notification by ID with detailed execution logs
get_notifications	Get notifications and events with advanced filtering options

Integrations

These tools let you manage the channel providers connected to your Novu account:

Tool	Description
get_integrations	List all channel integrations (email, SMS, push, chat, in-app)
get_active_integrations	List only the active integrations
delete_integration	Delete an integration by its integrationId
set_primary_integration	Mark an integration as the primary for its channel

Use multiple MCP servers

You can connect both the Novu MCP server and the Novu documentation MCP server at the same time. Each server serves a different purpose:

Server	URL	Purpose
Novu MCP	https://mcp.novu.co/	Manage your Novu account — workflows, subscribers, triggers
Novu Docs MCP	https://docs.novu.co/mcp	Search and read Novu documentation

Connected MCP servers do not consume context until the AI calls a tool. Be specific in your prompts so the assistant uses the most relevant server — for example, “trigger my welcome workflow” uses the Novu MCP, while “how do I configure digest steps?” uses the Docs MCP.

Troubleshooting

If your setup is not working, the following sections cover the most common issues.

Authentication errors

• Verify your API key is valid and has no extra spaces or line breaks.
• Check that you are using the correct header format: Authorization: Bearer your-api-key.

Empty results

Confirm you are using the correct region. If your dashboard is at eu.dashboard.novu.co, you need the EU endpoint (https://mcp.novu.co/?region=eu).

Connection issues

• Restart your AI assistant after making configuration changes.
• For Claude Desktop, ensure Node.js is installed and accessible from your terminal.
• For Claude Code, run claude mcp list to confirm the server is registered.
• For Codex, run /mcp in the TUI to check server status.

Related topics

Agent Skills

Give AI coding assistants implementation guidance for Novu SDKs and workflows.

Agent Toolkit

Embed Novu tools inside your own AI agents with the @novu/agent-toolkit package.

Novu Docs MCP

Connect AI tools to search and read this documentation site.

API keys

Learn how to create and manage the secret keys used to authenticate the MCP server.