# Help Scout MCP Server

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.

- MCP server · `type=mcp` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Cline, Zed, Gemini CLI · ★ 45
- Author: drewburchfield
- License: MIT · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/drewburchfield/help-scout-mcp-server
- Updated: 2026-08-01
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/help-scout-mcp-server

## What it 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.

## Requirements
- Needs: Node.js (commands run via npx)
- Environment variables: `HELPSCOUT_APP_ID`, `HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET`, `REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT` — keys and tokens: ask the human for the values, never commit them or put them in shared files.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

**Platform CLI**
```bash
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-server
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### Codex

**Platform CLI**
```bash
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-server
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### Cursor

**Config file**
File `.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "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

### GitHub Copilot

**Config file**
File `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "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

### Gemini CLI

**Platform CLI**
```bash
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-server
```
Replace <…> with your own values

## When to use it
- 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
- 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

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