Trello MCP Server

A powerful MCP server for interacting with Trello boards, lists, and cards via AI Hosts.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Prerequisites
• Pre-installation
• Installation
• Server Modes
• Configuration
• Client Integration
• Capabilities
• Detailed Capabilities
  • Board Operations
  • List Operations
  • Card Operations
• Usage
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.12 or higher, can easly managed by uv
2. Claude for Desktop installed
3. Trello account and API credentials
4. uv package manager installed

Pre-installation

1. Make sure you have installed Claude Desktop App
2. Make sure you have already logged in with your account into Claude.
3. Start Claude

Installation

1. Set up Trello API credentials:

   • Go to Trello Apps Administration
   • Create a new integration at New Power-Up or Integration
   • Fill in your information (you can leave the Iframe connector URL empty) and make sure to select the correct Workspace
   • Click your app's icon and navigate to "API key" from left sidebar.
   • Copy your "API key" and on the right side: "you can manually generate a Token." click the word token to get your Trello Token.

2. Rename the .env.example file in the project root with .env and set vairables you just got:

TRELLO_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
TRELLO_TOKEN=your_token_here

3. Install uv if you haven't already:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

4. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/m0xai/trello-mcp-server.git
cd trello-mcp-server

5. Install dependencies and set server for Claude using uv::

uv run mcp install main.py

6. Restart Claude Desktop app

Server Modes

This MCP server can run in two different modes:

Claude App Mode

This mode integrates directly with the Claude Desktop application:

1. Set USE_CLAUDE_APP=true in your .env file (this is the default)
2. Run the server with:

uv run mcp install main.py

3. Restart the Claude Desktop application

SSE Server Mode

This mode runs as a standalone SSE server that can be used with any MCP-compatible client, including Cursor:

1. Set USE_CLAUDE_APP=false in your .env file
2. Run the server with:

python main.py

3. The server will be available at http://localhost:8000 by default (or your configured port)

Docker Mode

You can also run the server using Docker Compose:

1. Make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed
2. Create your .env file with your configuration
3. Build and start the container:

docker-compose up -d

4. The server will run in SSE mode by default
5. To view logs:

docker-compose logs -f

6. To stop the server:

docker-compose down

Configuration

The server can be configured using environment variables in the .env file:

Variable	Description	Default
TRELLO_API_KEY	Your Trello API key	Required
TRELLO_TOKEN	Your Trello API token	Required
MCP_SERVER_NAME	The name of the MCP server	Trello MCP Server
MCP_SERVER_HOST	Host address for SSE mode	0.0.0.0
MCP_SERVER_PORT	Port for SSE mode	8000
USE_CLAUDE_APP	Whether to use Claude app mode	true

You can customize the server by editing these values in your .env file.

Client Integration

Using with Claude Desktop

1. Run the server in Claude app mode (USE_CLAUDE_APP=true)
2. Start or restart Claude Desktop
3. Claude will automatically detect and connect to your MCP server

Using with Cursor

To connect your MCP server to Cursor:

1. Run the server in SSE mode (USE_CLAUDE_APP=false)
2. In Cursor, go to Settings (gear icon) > AI > Model Context Protocol
3. Add a new server with URL http://localhost:8000 (or your configured host/port)
4. Select the server when using Cursor's AI features

You can also add this configuration to your Cursor settings JSON file (typically at ~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trello": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    }
  }
}

Using with Other MCP Clients

For other MCP-compatible clients, point them to the SSE endpoint at http://localhost:8000.

Minimal Client Example

Here's a minimal Python example to connect to the SSE endpoint:

import asyncio
import httpx

async def connect_to_mcp_server():
    url = "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    headers = {"Accept": "text/event-stream"}
    
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        async with client.stream("GET", url, headers=headers) as response:
            # Get the session ID from the first SSE message
            session_id = None
            async for line in response.aiter_lines():
                if line.startswith("data:"):
                    data = line[5:].strip()
                    if "session_id=" in data and not session_id:
                        session_id = data.split("session_id=")[1]
                        
                        # Send a message using the session ID
                        message_url = f"http://localhost:8000/messages/?session_id={session_id}"
                        message = {
                            "role": "user",
                            "content": {
                                "type": "text",
                                "text": "Show me my Trello boards"
                            }
                        }
                        await client.post(message_url, json=message)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(connect_to_mcp_server())

Capabilities

Operation	Board	List	Card
Read	✅	✅	✅
Write	❌	✅	✅
Update	❌	✅	✅
Delete	❌	✅	✅

Detailed Capabilities

Board Operations

• ✅ Read all boards
• ✅ Read specific board details

List Operations

• ✅ Read all lists in a board
• ✅ Read specific list details
• ✅ Create new lists
• ✅ Update list name
• ✅ Archive (delete) lists

Card Operations

• ✅ Read all cards in a list
• ✅ Read specific card details
• ✅ Create new cards
• ✅ Update card attributes
• ✅ Delete cards

Usage

Once installed, you can interact with your Trello boards through Claude. Here are some example queries:

• "Show me all my boards"
• "What lists are in board [board_name]?"
• "Create a new card in list [list_name] with title [title]"
• "Update the description of card [card_name]"
• "Archive the list [list_name]"

Here are my example usages:

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Verify your Trello API credentials in the .env file
2. Check that you have proper permissions in your Trello workspace
3. Ensure Claude for Desktop is running the latest version
4. Check the logs for any error messages with uv run mcp dev main.py command.
5. Make sure uv is properly installed and in your PATH

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues and enhancement requests!