Freshdesk README

Freshdesk MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants with structured access to the Freshdesk customer support platform — tickets, contacts, companies, agents, groups, the knowledge base, and SLA/business-hours configuration.

Note: This project is maintained by Wyre Technology. It wraps the published @wyre-technology/node-freshdesk SDK.

Quick Start

The primary deployment is through the WYRE MCP Gateway, which hosts the containerized server and injects per-request credentials. To run it yourself:

Claude Code (CLI):

Terminal

claude mcp add freshdesk-mcp \
  -e FRESHDESK_DOMAIN=your-subdomain \
  -e FRESHDESK_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -- npx -y github:WYRE-AI/freshdesk-mcp

FRESHDESK_DOMAIN is the part before .freshdesk.com (for https://acme.freshdesk.com it is acme). Find your FRESHDESK_API_KEY in the Freshdesk portal under Profile Settings.

Features

🔌 MCP Protocol Compliance: Tools, prompts, and elicitation support
🎫 Full Helpdesk Coverage: Tickets, contacts, companies, agents, groups, solutions, SLA policies, business hours, and canned responses
🌳 Decision-Tree Navigation: Start at freshdesk_navigate, enter a domain to reveal its tools, and freshdesk_back to return — keeping the tool list small and focused
⚠️ Destructive-Action Guardrails: Irreversible and high-impact tools are clearly flagged and confirmed via elicitation before they run
🔒 Secure Authentication: HTTP Basic Auth with your Freshdesk API key (domain + key)
🌐 Dual Transport: stdio (local) and Streamable HTTP (remote/Docker/gateway)
🐳 Docker Ready: Containerized deployment with HTTP transport and health checks

Connecting via the Gateway

When AUTH_MODE=gateway, every /mcp request must include credentials injected by the WYRE MCP Gateway. A request missing either header returns 401 and does not fall back to FRESHDESK_DOMAIN or FRESHDESK_API_KEY in the process environment.

Header	Maps to	Description
`x-freshdesk-domain`	`FRESHDESK_DOMAIN`	Freshdesk account subdomain
`x-freshdesk-api-key`	`FRESHDESK_API_KEY`	Freshdesk API key

Each request is stateless: the gateway provides the credentials, and the server rebuilds its Freshdesk client for that request only. When CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is set, the request must also include a valid X-Gateway-S2S header.

Configuration

Copy .env.example and set the variables below. The stdio transport reads FRESHDESK_DOMAIN and FRESHDESK_API_KEY and does not use CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET.

Variable	Description	Default
`FRESHDESK_DOMAIN`	Account subdomain (before `.freshdesk.com`). Required for stdio and for HTTP when `AUTH_MODE=env`. Gateway mode does not read it.	—
`FRESHDESK_API_KEY`	Freshdesk API key. Required for stdio and for HTTP when `AUTH_MODE=env`. Gateway mode does not read it.	—
`MCP_TRANSPORT`	Transport mode (`stdio` or `http`)	`stdio`
`AUTH_MODE`	`env` (process environment) or `gateway` (per-request `x-freshdesk-domain` and `x-freshdesk-api-key`, no env fallback). The container image and Compose default to `gateway`.	`env`
`CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET`	Required for HTTP. HMAC secret checked against `X-Gateway-S2S` on every `/mcp` request. The process logs an error and exits non-zero when this is empty or a known placeholder (`changeme`, `placeholder`, `secret`, `your-s2s-secret`, and similar public example values). Compose will not start when it is unset. Never commit a real value. Generate one with `openssl rand -hex 32`. The value is never logged.	—
`MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV`	Set to exactly `1` only for local development to start HTTP without `CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET`. The process logs a warning, does not enforce `X-Gateway-S2S`, and binds `127.0.0.1` only. A wider `MCP_HTTP_HOST` (including `0.0.0.0`) is ignored and the override is logged. A known placeholder secret is still rejected.	—
`MCP_HTTP_HOST`	Bind address when `MCP_TRANSPORT=http`. Unset binds `127.0.0.1`. A configured `CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET` honors this value (the container image sets `0.0.0.0`). With no secret, the insecure-dev bypass forces `127.0.0.1`.	`127.0.0.1`
`MCP_HTTP_PORT`	HTTP server port	`8080`
`LOG_LEVEL`	Log level (`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`)	`info`

/health stays unauthenticated and does not read credentials.

HTTP authentication

With MCP_TRANSPORT=http and CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET set, every /mcp request must include X-Gateway-S2S:

Code

t=<unix seconds>,v1=<hex hmac-sha256>

v1 is the lowercase hex HMAC-SHA256 of the ASCII message t=<unix seconds>, keyed by CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET. The timestamp must be within 300 seconds of the server clock. A missing or invalid header returns 401 before any vendor credential is read. The secret is never written to logs or error bodies.

In AUTH_MODE=gateway, /mcp also requires x-freshdesk-domain and x-freshdesk-api-key. Those headers are the only credential source for the request. A missing header returns 401. The server does not fall back to FRESHDESK_DOMAIN or FRESHDESK_API_KEY in the process environment.

Code

X-Gateway-S2S: t=1710000000,v1=<hmac-sha256 of "t=1710000000">
x-freshdesk-domain: acme
x-freshdesk-api-key: <api key>

Single-tenant HTTP (AUTH_MODE=env) still requires a valid X-Gateway-S2S header. Vendor credentials then come from FRESHDESK_DOMAIN and FRESHDESK_API_KEY.

Tool Overview

The server uses decision-tree navigation. At the top level you see only freshdesk_navigate, freshdesk_back, and freshdesk_status. Call freshdesk_navigate with a domain to reveal that domain's tools; call freshdesk_back to return to the top.

Domain	Tools
tickets	search, list, get, create, update, reply, add_note, list_conversations, update_conversation, delete, delete_conversation
contacts	search, list, get, create, update, autocomplete, make_agent†, restore, send_invite, merge†, soft_delete†, hard_delete*
companies	search, list, get, create, update, autocomplete, delete*
agents	list, get, me, create, update, delete*
groups	list, get, create, update, delete*
solutions	categories / folders / articles: list, get, create, update, delete*
sla-business	SLA policies (list, create, update), business hours (list, get), canned responses (list_folders, get_folder, list_responses)

* = Tier A (irreversible delete) — flagged ⚠ DESTRUCTIVE — IRREVERSIBLE, requires confirmation. † = Tier B (high-impact reversible) — flagged ⚠ HIGH-IMPACT, requires confirmation.

Read tools (search/list/get/autocomplete/status) carry no warning and are marked read-only.

freshdesk_status performs a live connectivity check by calling agents/me.

Docker Deployment

The image listens on 0.0.0.0 inside the container (MCP_HTTP_HOST) and defaults to AUTH_MODE=gateway. Publish the port on loopback and pass the S2S secret. In gateway mode the domain and API key arrive on each request as x-freshdesk-domain and x-freshdesk-api-key. They are not read from the environment.

Terminal

docker run \
  -e CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
  freshdesk-mcp

Compose refuses to start when CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is unset, sets AUTH_MODE=gateway, publishes 127.0.0.1:8080:8080, and does not set FRESHDESK_DOMAIN, FRESHDESK_API_KEY, or env_file:

bash

CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" docker compose up -d

Single-tenant HTTP (AUTH_MODE=env) still requires the S2S secret, then uses FRESHDESK_DOMAIN and FRESHDESK_API_KEY:

Terminal

docker run \
  -e CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" \
  -e AUTH_MODE=env \
  -e FRESHDESK_DOMAIN=your-subdomain \
  -e FRESHDESK_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
  freshdesk-mcp

Local HTTP without a secret is development-only. It binds 127.0.0.1 even when MCP_HTTP_HOST is 0.0.0.0, and logs a warning. A known placeholder secret still refuses to start:

bash

MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV=1 npm run start:http

See docker-compose.yml. The build installs @wyre-technology/node-freshdesk from GitHub Packages via a BuildKit npmrc secret (never baked into a layer):

bash

printf '@wyre-ai:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com\n@wyre-technology:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com\n//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=%s\n' "$(gh auth token)" > /tmp/.npmrc
docker build --secret id=npmrc,src=/tmp/.npmrc -t freshdesk-mcp .
rm /tmp/.npmrc

Development

server.ts

export NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=$(gh auth token)   # to install @wyre-technology/node-freshdesk
npm install
npm run build       # Build the project
npm run dev         # Watch mode
npm run test        # Run tests
npm run lint        # Type-check
npm run clean       # Remove dist/

# HTTP refuses to start until CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is set
CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" npm run start:http

# Local HTTP only, without a service-to-service secret (always binds 127.0.0.1)
MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV=1 npm run start:http

Testing

Terminal

npm test            # Run test suite
npm run test:watch  # Watch mode

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Freshdesk MCP Server

Quick Start

Features

Connecting via the Gateway

Configuration

HTTP authentication

Tool Overview

Docker Deployment

Development

Testing

Contributing

License