Nextcloud MCP Server

Experimental — This repository is fully maintained by AI (Claude). It serves as an experiment in autonomous AI-driven open-source development.

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes Nextcloud APIs as tools for AI assistants. Connect any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.) to your Nextcloud instance and let AI manage files, read notifications, interact with Talk, and more.

Features

• File Management — List, read, upload, move, and delete files via WebDAV
• User Info — Get current user, list users, view user details
• Notifications — List and dismiss notifications (coming soon)
• Activity Feed — View recent activity (coming soon)
• Talk — List conversations, read and send messages (coming soon)
• Security-First — Granular permission levels control what AI can do

Security: Permission Model

Every tool has a required permission level. You control what the AI is allowed to do:

Level	What it can do	Environment variable
read (default)	List files, read files, get users, view notifications	NEXTCLOUD_MCP_PERMISSIONS=read
write	Everything in read + upload files, send messages, create folders	NEXTCLOUD_MCP_PERMISSIONS=write
destructive	Everything in write + delete files, remove shares	NEXTCLOUD_MCP_PERMISSIONS=destructive

If a tool is called without sufficient permission, it returns a clear error explaining what permission is needed — no silent failures, no accidental deletions.

Installation

pip install nextcloud-mcp-server

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/cloud-py-api/nextcloud-mcp-server.git
cd nextcloud-mcp-server
pip install -e .

Configuration

Set these environment variables:

# Required
export NEXTCLOUD_URL=https://your-nextcloud.example.com
export NEXTCLOUD_USER=your-username
export NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=your-app-password  # Use an app password, not your main password!

# Optional
export NEXTCLOUD_MCP_PERMISSIONS=read  # read (default), write, or destructive

Getting an App Password

1. Log into your Nextcloud instance
2. Go to Settings → Security
3. Under "Devices & sessions", create a new app password
4. Use this password for NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD

Usage

With Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nextcloud": {
      "command": "nextcloud-mcp",
      "env": {
        "NEXTCLOUD_URL": "https://your-nextcloud.example.com",
        "NEXTCLOUD_USER": "your-username",
        "NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD": "your-app-password",
        "NEXTCLOUD_MCP_PERMISSIONS": "read"
      }
    }
  }
}

As HTTP Server (for containers/remote)

nextcloud-mcp --transport http
# Listens on http://0.0.0.0:8100 by default

Stdio Mode (default)

nextcloud-mcp
# Communicates via stdin/stdout — used by MCP clients like Claude Desktop

Available Tools

Files (Phase 1 — available now)

Tool	Permission	Description
list_directory(path)	read	List files and folders
get_file(path)	read	Read a file's content
upload_file(path, content)	write	Upload or overwrite a file
create_directory(path)	write	Create a new directory
delete_file(path)	destructive	Delete a file or directory
move_file(source, destination)	destructive	Move or rename a file

Users (Phase 1 — available now)

Tool	Permission	Description
get_current_user()	read	Get current user info
list_users(search, limit)	read	List/search users
get_user(user_id)	read	Get specific user details

Coming Soon

• Notifications — list and dismiss
• Activity — recent activity feed
• Talk — conversations and messages
• Shares — manage file shares
• Calendar — events via CalDAV
• Contacts — contacts via CardDAV
• Deck — boards and cards

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/cloud-py-api/nextcloud-mcp-server.git
cd nextcloud-mcp-server
python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest                              # Unit tests
pytest tests/integration/ -v        # Integration tests (needs running Nextcloud)

# Lint & type check
ruff check . && ruff format --check .
pyright

Integration Tests

Integration tests run against a real Nextcloud instance. Set the environment variables and run:

export NEXTCLOUD_URL=http://localhost:8080
export NEXTCLOUD_USER=admin
export NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=admin
pytest tests/integration/ -v -m integration

CI automatically runs integration tests against a fresh Nextcloud Docker container.

About This Project

This project is an experiment in AI-autonomous open-source development. The entire codebase — including this README — is written and maintained by Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant). Human oversight is limited to:

• High-level design decisions
• Code review of pull requests
• Resolving architectural questions

The goal is to explore how far autonomous AI development can go in building production-quality, well-tested software.

License

MIT