🌾 Harvest MCP Server

Unofficial Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for seamless integration with the Harvest time tracking API

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is an unofficial, third-party integration with the Harvest API. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Harvest or Forecast (the company behind Harvest).

✨ Features

• 🔗 Complete Harvest API v2 Coverage - 40+ tools covering all major endpoints
• 🛡️ Type-Safe - Full TypeScript support with Zod validation
• ⚡ High Performance - Built with async/await and proper rate limiting
• 🧪 Thoroughly Tested - Comprehensive unit, integration, and contract tests
• 📊 Rich Logging - Structured logging for debugging and monitoring
• 🔄 Auto-Retry - Intelligent retry logic with exponential backoff
• 📖 MCP Compliant - Works with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Harvest account with API access
• MCP-compatible client (like Claude Desktop)

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g @ianaleck/harvest-mcp-server

# Or install locally
npm install @ianaleck/harvest-mcp-server

Configuration

1. Get your Harvest API credentials:

   • Go to Harvest → Settings → Developers → Personal Access Tokens
   • Create a new token
   • Note your Account ID (visible in URL or settings)

2. Configure your MCP client (e.g., Claude Desktop):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harvest": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ianaleck/harvest-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "HARVEST_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_harvest_personal_access_token",
        "HARVEST_ACCOUNT_ID": "your_harvest_account_id"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Start using with Claude!

🎯 What You Can Do

Once connected, you can ask Claude to help with:

⏱️ Time Tracking

• "Show me all my time entries for this week"
• "Start a timer for the 'Development' task on the 'Website Project'"
• "How many hours did I work on Project X last month?"

📋 Project Management

• "List all active projects for client Acme Corp"
• "Create a new project called 'Mobile App' for client TechStart"
• "Show me project budget vs actual time spent"

👥 Team Management

• "Who are all the users in our Harvest account?"
• "Show me John's time entries for last week"

💰 Financial Tracking

• "Generate an expense report for Q4"
• "Show me all unpaid invoices"
• "What's our total billable hours this month?"

🛠️ Available Tools

<details> <summary><strong>📊 Company & Account (1 tool)</strong></summary>

• get_company - Get company information and settings

</details> <details> <summary><strong>⏰ Time Entries (8 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_time_entries - List time entries with filtering
• get_time_entry - Get specific time entry details
• create_time_entry - Create new time entry
• update_time_entry - Update existing time entry
• delete_time_entry - Delete time entry
• start_timer - Start a timer for a task
• stop_timer - Stop running timer
• restart_timer - Restart a previous time entry

</details> <details> <summary><strong>🏗️ Projects (7 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_projects - List all projects with filtering
• get_project - Get specific project details
• create_project - Create new project
• update_project - Update project details
• delete_project - Delete project
• list_project_task_assignments - List task assignments for project
• create_project_task_assignment - Assign task to project
• update_project_task_assignment - Update task assignment
• delete_project_task_assignment - Remove task assignment

</details> <details> <summary><strong>📝 Tasks (5 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_tasks - List all tasks
• get_task - Get specific task details
• create_task - Create new task
• update_task - Update task details
• delete_task - Delete task

</details> <details> <summary><strong>🏢 Clients (5 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_clients - List all clients
• get_client - Get specific client details
• create_client - Create new client
• update_client - Update client details
• delete_client - Delete client

</details> <details> <summary><strong>👤 Users (6 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_users - List all users in account
• get_user - Get specific user details
• get_current_user - Get current authenticated user
• create_user - Create new user
• update_user - Update user details
• delete_user - Delete user

</details> <details> <summary><strong>💸 Expenses (6 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_expenses - List expenses with filtering
• get_expense - Get specific expense details
• create_expense - Create new expense
• update_expense - Update expense details
• delete_expense - Delete expense
• list_expense_categories - List all expense categories

</details> <details> <summary><strong>🧾 Invoices (5 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_invoices - List invoices with filtering
• get_invoice - Get specific invoice details
• create_invoice - Create new invoice
• update_invoice - Update invoice details
• delete_invoice - Delete invoice

</details> <details> <summary><strong>📋 Estimates (5 tools)</strong></summary>

• list_estimates - List estimates with filtering
• get_estimate - Get specific estimate details
• create_estimate - Create new estimate
• update_estimate - Update estimate details
• delete_estimate - Delete estimate

</details> <details> <summary><strong>📈 Reports (4 tools)</strong></summary>

• get_time_report - Generate time reports with filtering
• get_expense_report - Generate expense reports
• get_project_budget_report - Get project budget analysis
• get_uninvoiced_report - Get uninvoiced time and expenses

</details>

🧪 Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/ianaleck/harvest-mcp-server.git
cd harvest-mcp-server
npm install

Environment Configuration

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Harvest API credentials

Testing

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run with coverage
npm run test:coverage

# Run specific test suites
npm run test:unit
npm run test:integration
npm run test:contract

Building

# Build for production
npm run build

# Start development server
npm run dev

📋 API Requirements

This server requires a Harvest account with API access. Users must comply with:

• Harvest API Terms of Service
• Harvest API Rate Limits (100 requests per 15 seconds)

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guidelines for details.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes with tests
4. Ensure all tests pass (npm test)
5. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
7. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Harvest for providing an excellent time tracking API
• Model Context Protocol team for the MCP specification
• Anthropic for Claude and the MCP SDK

📞 Support

• 🐛 Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
• 💡 Feature Requests: GitHub Discussions
• 📖 Documentation: MCP Documentation

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