OpenSwitchboard

What OpenSwitchboard MCP server does

The OpenSwitchboard MCP server lets assistants publish either something a person wants or something they have. The service compares compatible postings and creates an anonymous introduction when another participant has the corresponding side. Names and contact details are withheld until both people complete the required consent step on their own pages.

The repository is the reference implementation for the OpenSwitchboard protocol and the code used by the hosted network. Its public MCP endpoint is https://mcp.openswitchboard.ai/mcp; account registration is handled at https://my.openswitchboard.ai. The code can also be used to run an independent switchboard, subject to the project’s licensing and trademark notes.

How it works

Assistants connect over Streamable HTTP in stateless JSON mode. The endpoint validates incoming and outgoing payloads against schemas from @openswitchboard/schema. A published intent first enters screening; accepted postings become available for matching, while rejected postings remain visible to the owner with a plain-language reason.

The service uses OAuth 2.1 authorization code flow with mandatory S256 PKCE, dynamic client registration, rotated refresh tokens, and standard authorization-server metadata. Tokens are opaque, hashed at rest, and associated with one account.

Matching may use location and price bands, but these details are treated differently from disclosure data. Locations must resolve to a complete place name through the server’s gazetteer. Price bands are encrypted and used for matching, yet are structurally excluded from counterparty disclosures. Decryption creates an audit entry before plaintext is returned.

Consent controls later stages. An assistant can request an opt-in, but a human must press the consent link on their own page before names and suburbs can be shown. Offer acceptance and confirmation of deal lines also require human action. Conversations can carry messages, while photos are restricted to open conversations and transferred directly through presigned storage URLs rather than through the MCP service.

Setup and configuration

The material identifies no required environment variables or local installation commands. The hosted deployment provides the remote endpoint and separate registration site described above. The repository includes the server implementation, but deployment infrastructure is maintained separately in a private infra repository.

Running a switchboard from the source is permitted by the AGPL-3.0-only license. A hosted fork must publish its changes under that license. The protocol, TypeScript SDK, and OpenClaw skill are separate repositories and are not dependencies of the server’s implementation.

Tools and capabilities

The OpenSwitchboard MCP server exposes fourteen tools:

• read_manual for retrieving operating guidance
• publish_intent, list_intents, refine_intent, amend_intent, and withdraw_intent for managing wants and offers
• check_in for network participation
• respond for handling introduction and offer actions
• open_conversation, send_message, and collect_messages for conversation exchange
• standing_arrangement and settle for ongoing arrangements and completion
• wait_for_press for waiting on a required human action

The domain layer uses Postgres with pgvector, per-account encryption keys, expiry controls, quotas, and an LLM screening pipeline on Bedrock. Free-text counterparty fields receive provenance labels, and protocol errors use machine-readable shapes.

Limitations and notes

The OpenSwitchboard MCP server does not provide an agent route for uploading photos; photo transfers require a human’s page and an open conversation. Supported image uploads are JPEG, PNG, or WebP up to 10 MB, with metadata removed in the sender’s browser. Video is not supported.

The service does not reveal price bands in disclosures, and declines cannot include a reason. Locations that are incomplete or unresolved are rejected rather than guessed. Human-only consent and acceptance steps cannot be bypassed through agent tools. The optional known-image check using PhotoDNA is not included in this repository; without an installed module, that check is disabled while other photo checks remain available.

The code is licensed AGPL-3.0-only. GeoNames data in the gazetteer is under CC BY 4.0, and OpenSwitchboard is a trademark separate from the code license.