glif-mcp-server

MCP server for running AI workflows from glif.app.

This server provides tools for running glifs, managing bots, and accessing glif metadata through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

This server also allows for customizing all the tools available via add-tool, remove-tool etc meta-tools, including lot full glif agents as a set of tools (and personality). This is highly experimental.

For more info check out https://glif.app or join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/glif

Features

Run glifs with inputs
Get detailed information about glifs, runs, and users
Access glif metadata through URI-based resources

Setup

Running via npx (recommended)

If you have nodejs installed, you can run our @glifxyz/glif-mcp-server package via npx:

Get your API token from https://glif.app/settings/api-tokens

Add the server in your Claude Desktop config file. On macOS this is: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glif": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@glifxyz/glif-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "GLIF_API_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running from a local checkout

First, checkout this code and install dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/glifxyz/glif-mcp-server
cd glif-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
# there's now a build/index.js file which is what we'll run next

Then configure your MCP client (e.g. Claude Desktop) to load this server from disk.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glif": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/glif-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GLIF_API_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can also specify glifs IDs (comma-separated) which will be loaded automatically when the server starts. This is useful for testing or if you want to share a pre-made glif configuration with someone else.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glif": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/glif-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GLIF_API_TOKEN": "your-token-here",
        "GLIF_IDS": "cm2v9aiga00008vfqdiximl2m,cm2v98jk6000r11afslqvooil,cm2v9rp66000bat9wr606qq6o",
        "IGNORE_SAVED_GLIFS": true,
      }
    }
  }
}

Run remotely with Smithery

To install glif-mcp for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery, which hosts and runs the MCP server for you:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @glifxyz/glif-mcp-server --client claude

Usage Limits

Subject to same limits as user accounts
Purchase more credits at https://glif.app/pricing

Resources

glif://{id} - Get glif metadata
glifRun://{id} - Get run details
glifUser://{id} - Get user profile

Tools

General Glif Tools

run_glif - Run a glif with the specified ID and inputs
glif_info - Get detailed information about a glif including input fields
list_featured_glifs - Get a curated list of featured glifs
search_glifs - Search for glifs by name or description

Bot Tools

list_bots - Get a list of featured bots and sim templates
load_bot - Get detailed information about a specific bot, including its skills
save_bot_skills_as_tools - Save all skills from a bot as individual tools

User-specific Tools

my_glifs - Get a list of your glifs
my_glif_user_info - Get detailed information about your user account, recent glifs, and recent runs

Glif->Tool Tools (metatools)

save_glif_as_tool - Save a glif as a custom tool
remove_glif_tool - Remove a saved glif tool
remove_all_glif_tools - Remove all saved glif tools and return to a pristine state
list_saved_glif_tools - List all saved glif tools

How to turn glifs into custom tools

We have a general run_glif tool, but it (a) isn't very descriptive, and (b) requires doing a glif_info call first in order to learn how to call said glif. Plus, you need to know that glif exists.

We're experimenting with several new meta-tools which turn specific glifs into new standalone tools:

An example prompt session:

what are some cool new glifs?
[toolcall: list_featured_glifs...]
ok i like 1970s sci-fi book cover generator, make that into a tool called "scifi_book_image"
[toolcall: save_glif_as_tool glifId=... toolName=scifi_book_image]
[now user can just type "make sci fi book image of blah"]

You can list these special tools with list_saved_glif_tools and remove any you don't like with remove_glif_tool

Note that Claude Desktop requires a restart to load new tool definitions. Cline & Cursor seem to reload automatically on changes and requery for available tools

Info about authenticated user's glifs:

my_glifs - current user's published glifs (no drats)
my_liked_glifs - current user's liked glifs
my_runs - current user's public runs

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the server:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run dev

To run the test suite:

npm run test

And to continuously run tests on changes:

npm run test:watch

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector:

npm run inspector

The Inspector will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser.

You can also look at the glif-mcp logs inside the Claude logs directy if you're using Claude Desktop.

MCP registries

smithery badge

Development

Releasing a new version

Edit package.json and src/index.ts and bump the version number
Run npm install to update the versions stored in the lockfile
Commit and push your changes to GitHub and merge to main
If you have gh installed, switch to main and run npm run release which will create a git tag for the new version, push that tag to github, and use gh release create to publish a new version with an automatically-generated changelog. If you don't have gh, you can do the above manually in the GitHub web UI
A GitHub Action will use the NPM_TOKEN secret to publish it to NPM

License

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