Help Scout MCP Server — Claude Code MCP server: setup guide
Connects Claude Code and other editors to Help Scout inboxes, customer profiles, and Docs articles. It helps support teams inspect tickets and threads right inside their coding assistant.
claude mcp add --env HELPSCOUT_APP_ID=<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID> --env HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET=<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET> --env REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT=<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT> --transport stdio help-scout-mcp-server -- npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverWhat Help Scout MCP Server does
The server gives your coding assistant access to Help Scout conversations, customer records, and Docs knowledge base articles. To avoid overloading LLM context windows with dozens of tool schemas at once, it exposes three compact discovery tools. The assistant searches available operations through search_help_scout, inspects argument schemas with describe_help_scout, and calls the target endpoint via read_help_scout. In total, 55 read operations are reachable across the Mailbox and Docs APIs.
Authentication relies strictly on the OAuth2 Client Credentials flow. Personal access tokens are not supported. Because the private app runs with the full permissions of the account owner who created it, write capabilities remain turned off out of the box.
Querying knowledge base articles requires a separate HELPSCOUT_DOCS_API_KEY, because the Docs API v1 operates independently from the Mailbox API. You can also pass REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT to trim message payloads and reduce token consumption during large searches.
What it helps with
- Filter conversations by inbox, status, tag, or email domain
- Fetch complete thread histories and customer details before drafting answers
- Search help center articles using the Docs API v1
- Pull team productivity statistics and customer happiness reports
Example prompts for the agent
- Find all unresolved Help Scout tickets tagged with billing from the past 7 days
- Retrieve the full message thread for conversation 12845 and summarize customer concerns
- Search Docs articles for webhook setup instructions
How to install Help Scout MCP Server
Platform CLI
claude mcp add --env HELPSCOUT_APP_ID=<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID> --env HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET=<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET> --env REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT=<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT> --transport stdio help-scout-mcp-server -- npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values
Platform CLI
codex mcp add help-scout-mcp-server --env HELPSCOUT_APP_ID=<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID> --env HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET=<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET> --env REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT=<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT> -- npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values
Config file
{
"mcpServers": {
"help-scout-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"help-scout-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"HELPSCOUT_APP_ID": "<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID>",
"HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET": "<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET>",
"REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT": "<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values
Config file
{
"servers": {
"help-scout-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"help-scout-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"HELPSCOUT_APP_ID": "<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID>",
"HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET": "<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET>",
"REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT": "<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT>"
}
}
}
}Replace <…> with your own values
Platform CLI
gemini mcp add -e HELPSCOUT_APP_ID=<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID> -e HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET=<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET> -e REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT=<REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT> help-scout-mcp-server npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverReplace <…> with your own values
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about Help Scout MCP Server
How to install Help Scout MCP Server in Claude Code?
Run claude mcp add help-scout-mcp -e HELPSCOUT_APP_ID=<HELPSCOUT_APP_ID> -e HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET=<HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET> -- npx -y help-scout-mcp-server in your terminal with your private app credentials.
What does Help Scout MCP Server do?
It exposes Help Scout conversations, customer data, and Docs articles to AI tools via MCP. This lets assistants inspect tickets and pull context without leaving the editor.
Why are write operations disabled by default?
Help Scout private apps inherit all permissions of the user who registered them. The server keeps write_help_scout disabled unless you explicitly enable write flags in the configuration.
