qlows MCP - Tender Search & RFP Response Server

Find public tenders in 35 Countries (WTO-GPA Zone) and ground your AI while responding to RFPs

Documentation

qlows MCP connector

Bring your live qlows RFP/bid deals — and the public tender corpus — into Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, or any Model Context Protocol client.

qlows-mcp is a tiny local connector. It runs on your machine as a stdio MCP server and securely proxies tool calls to the qlows API (https://app.qlows.com). It stores nothing but your token, contains no backend logic, and is read-only — your AI can pull deal context, never write back.

Quotes. Flows. Close. qlows preps the bid; your AI drafts from real, grounded context.

Quick start (≈ 1 minute)

# 1. Connect your account (opens the browser, you paste a token back)
npx @qlows/mcp login

# 2. Verify it works
npx @qlows/mcp test          # → prints the available tools

# 3. Print the snippet for your AI client
npx @qlows/mcp config

Then add qlows to your client (example: Claude Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client. If you didn't run login, pass the token instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qlows": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@qlows/mcp"],
      "env": { "QLOWS_TOKEN": "qlw_live_…" }
    }
  }
}

You'll need a qlows account to mint a personal token (free tier works for tender search). Sign up + mint at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.

Try these prompts

After connecting, ask your AI:

"Use the qlows MCP to list my open deals, then summarize the top 3 risks in the most urgent one."
"Search public tenders for Zero-Trust networking in the EU closing in the next 30 days, and give me the qlows link for each."
"Read the deal <deal-id> from qlows and draft the Technical Approach section, grounding every claim in the compliance items and our approved answers."

What you get

All tools are read-only. Personal-data tools need a personal token; the tender tools also work on a free account.

Tool	What it does
`list_deals`	Your RFP/bid deals (lightweight metadata)
`get_deal_snapshot`	Full deal snapshot — RFP summary + compliance + Q-routing + intelligence
`search_compliance_items`	Keyword search across compliance items
`get_q_routing_state`	Sections + questions + answers + assignment state
`get_intelligence_summary`	AI summary + tailoring detection
`list_questions`	Flat question list
`list_competitors`	Per-deal competitor analysis
`search_tenders`	Public tender corpus search (FTS + filters)
`search_tenders_for_my_company`	Personalised semantic tender search
`get_tender_detail`	Full enriched record for one tender

The connector discovers tools live from the server, so new qlows tools appear without updating this package.

Commands

Command	Description
`qlows-mcp`	Run the MCP server over stdio (how clients launch it)
`qlows-mcp login`	Sign in via browser and store a token in `~/.qlows/config.json` (0600)
`qlows-mcp test`	List available tools to verify your token
`qlows-mcp config`	Print config path + a client setup snippet
`qlows-mcp help`	Usage

Environment variables

QLOWS_TOKEN — API token (overrides the stored one).
QLOWS_BASE_URL — defaults to https://app.qlows.com; point at http://localhost:3000 for local testing.

How it works

MCP client (Claude/Cursor)  ⇄  qlows-mcp (stdio, local)  ⇄  https://app.qlows.com/api/mcp/<token>/rpc

The connector is a transparent JSON-RPC proxy. It does not implement tools — it forwards initialize, tools/list, tools/call, and resources/* to the qlows server and relays the responses. The token travels in the request to qlows over HTTPS; treat it like a password.

Troubleshooting

No qlows token found — run qlows-mcp login, or set QLOWS_TOKEN.
Token missing, invalid, or expired — the token was revoked or expired; mint a new one at https://app.qlows.com/mcp and re-run login.
Rate limit exceeded — 60 requests/min per token; wait and retry.
Client doesn't see qlows — restart the client after editing config; validate the JSON (a stray comma silently breaks it); check the client's MCP logs.

Verify end-to-end with the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx @qlows/mcp

Privacy & security

Read-only: no tool writes back to your qlows account.
The connector stores only your token, locally, at ~/.qlows/config.json (permissions 0600). It collects no telemetry.
Tokens are SHA-256-hashed at rest on the qlows server and can be revoked instantly at https://app.qlows.com/mcp.
Privacy policy: https://qlows.com/privacy

Roadmap

One-click browser auto-capture for login (loopback callback).
Anthropic Connector Directory listing — requires OAuth 2.1 + PKCE and metadata discovery on the qlows server; tracked as a backend follow-up. This connector + the MCP Registry listing are the interim distribution path.
Desktop Extension (.mcpb) bundle for one-click Claude Desktop install.

Development

npm install
npm run build
QLOWS_TOKEN=… QLOWS_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 node dist/index.js test

Publishing is automated on v* tags (see .github/workflows/release.yml): npm publish → MCP Registry publish via GitHub OIDC.

License

MIT