dropscan-mcp

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Dropscan postal-mail-to-email API. Dropscan receives your physical letters at a scanbox; this server lets your MCP client list mailings, download the scans (PDF / ZIP / envelope image / OCR text), and, when explicitly enabled, request actions (scan / forward / destroy) and manage recipients, forwarding addresses and webhook rules.

mcp-name: io.github.bitterdev/dropscan-mcp

Safety first: Dropscan has no sandbox

Every request hits the real production account. Actions are irreversible: a destroyed letter is physically shredded and gone, a forward physically mails the letter and costs money.

Because of that, all write/action tools are gated twice:

DROPSCAN_ALLOW_WRITES environment flag. Unless it is set to 1/true/yes, every non-GET tool refuses to run. It is disabled by default.
confirm: true parameter. Each write/action tool takes an explicit confirm argument (default false) and refuses unless it is true.

Read-only GET tools are always available and never change state.

Tools

Read-only (always available)

Tool	Endpoint
`list_scanboxes`	`GET /scanboxes`
`list_mailings(scanbox_id, current_status?, older_than?)`	`GET /scanboxes/{id}/mailings`
`get_mailing(scanbox_id, uuid)`	`GET /scanboxes/{id}/mailings/{uuid}`
`get_mailing_pdf(scanbox_id, uuid, save_path?)`	`GET .../{uuid}/pdf`
`get_mailing_zip(scanbox_id, uuid, save_path?)`	`GET .../{uuid}/zip`
`get_mailing_envelope(scanbox_id, uuid, save_path?)`	`GET .../{uuid}/envelope`
`get_mailing_plaintext(scanbox_id, uuid)`	`GET .../{uuid}/plaintext`
`list_recipients(scanbox_id)`	`GET /scanboxes/{id}/recipients`
`get_recipient(scanbox_id, recipient_id)`	`GET /scanboxes/{id}/recipients/{id}`
`get_forwarding_address(address_id)`	`GET /forwarding_addresses/{id}`
`get_shipment(shipment_id)`	`GET /shipments/{id}`
`list_webhook_rules()`	`GET /webhook_rules`
`get_webhook_rule(rule_id)`	`GET /webhook_rules/{id}`

The download tools save the asset to disk (default ~/Downloads, override with save_path or the DROPSCAN_DOWNLOAD_DIR env var) and return the saved path, byte size and content type.

Write / action (double-gated: `DROPSCAN_ALLOW_WRITES=1` and `confirm=true`)

Tool	Endpoint
`request_mailing_action(scanbox_id, mailing_uuid, action_type, forwarding_address_id?, forwarding_date?, confirm)`	`POST .../{uuid}/action_requests`
`cancel_mailing_action(scanbox_id, mailing_uuid, action_request_id, confirm)`	`DELETE .../{uuid}/action_requests/{id}`
`set_mailing_recipient(scanbox_id, mailing_uuid, recipient_id, confirm)`	`PUT .../{uuid}/recipient`
`create_recipient(scanbox_id, type, firstname?, lastname?, name?, confirm)`	`POST /scanboxes/{id}/recipients`
`create_forwarding_address(firstname, lastname, street, number, zip_code, city, country_code, company?, info?, state?, confirm)`	`POST /forwarding_addresses`
`create_webhook_rule(url, events, authorization_header?, confirm)`	`POST /webhook_rules`
`update_webhook_rule(rule_id, url?, events?, authorization_header?, confirm)`	`PATCH /webhook_rules/{id}`
`delete_webhook_rule(rule_id, confirm)`	`DELETE /webhook_rules/{id}`

action_type is one of scan, forward, destroy (exact enum from the API). For forward, both forwarding_address_id and forwarding_date (ISO YYYY-MM-DD) are required.

Webhook events: mailing_received, scan_requested, mailing_scanned, mailing_archived, mailing_trashed, mailing_shredded, mailing_added_to_shipment, mailing_removed_from_shipment, shipment_sent, package_tracking_updated.

Requirements

Python >= 3.10
A Dropscan personal access token

Installation

From a local clone:

bash

python3 -m venv .venv
./.venv/bin/pip install .

Configuration

The token is read from the DROPSCAN_TOKEN environment variable and sent as Authorization: Bearer <token>. It is never hardcoded.

Claude Code

Terminal

claude mcp add dropscan -e DROPSCAN_TOKEN="dspat-..." -- dropscan-mcp

Claude Desktop / generic MCP client

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dropscan": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/dropscan-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "dropscan_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "DROPSCAN_TOKEN": "dspat-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

To enable the write/action tools, add "DROPSCAN_ALLOW_WRITES": "1" to env. Leave it out to keep the server strictly read-only.

The server runs over stdio.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
`DROPSCAN_TOKEN`	Required. Dropscan personal access token (Bearer).
`DROPSCAN_ALLOW_WRITES`	Set to `1`/`true` to enable write/action tools. Default: disabled.
`DROPSCAN_DOWNLOAD_DIR`	Default directory for downloaded PDFs/ZIPs/images. Default: `~/Downloads`.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.

Author

Fabian Bitter (fabian@bitter.de)