SignNow MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI agents secure, structured access to SignNow eSignature workflows — templates, embedded signing, invites, status tracking, and document downloads — over STDIO or Streamable HTTP.

mcp-name: io.github.signnow/sn-mcp-server

Table of contents

• Features

• Quick start

  • Prerequisites
  • Quick run (uvx)
  • 1. Setup Environment Variables
  • 2. Install and Run
  • Local/Remote (HTTP)
  • Docker
  • Docker Compose

• Configuration

  • Authentication options
  • SignNow & OAuth settings
  • Production key management

• Client setup

  • VS Code — GitHub Copilot (Agent Mode) / Cursor
  • Claude Desktop
  • Glama (hosted MCP)
  • MCP Inspector (testing)

• Tools

• FAQ / tips

• Examples

• Useful resources

  • Sample apps
  • API documentation
  • SignNow API Helper MCP

• License

Features

• Templates & groups

  • Browse all templates and template groups
  • Create documents or groups from templates (one-shot flows included)

• Invites & embedded UX

  • Email invites and ordered recipients
  • Embedded signing/sending/editor links for in-app experiences

• Status & retrieval

  • Check invite status and step details
  • Download final documents (single or merged)
  • Read normalized document/group structure for programmatic decisions

• Transports

  • STDIO (best for local clients)
  • Streamable HTTP (best for Docker/remote)

Quick start

Prerequisites

• SignNow account. Create a free developer account.
• SignNow Credentials: You will need your account email, password, and the application Basic Authorization Token. Getting started.
• An active SignNow API application.
• Python 3.11+ installed on your system (check with python3 --version)
• UVX installed  (check with uvx --version). Recommended for the quickest setup.
• Environment variables configured
• If your client supports Streamable HTTP, you can use the pre-deployed server URL https://mcp-server.signnow.com/mcp instead of running it locally.

Quick run (uvx)

If you use uv, you can run the server without installing the package:

uvx --from signnow-mcp-server sn-mcp serve

1. Setup Environment Variables

# Create .env file with your SignNow credentials
# You can copy from env.example if you have the source code
# Or create .env file manually with required variables (see Environment Variables section below)

2. Install and Run

Option A: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

# Install the package from PyPI
pip install signnow-mcp-server

# Run MCP server in standalone mode
sn-mcp serve

Option B: Install from Source (Development)

# 1) Clone & configure
git clone https://github.com/signnow/sn-mcp-server.git
cd sn-mcp-server
cp .env.example .env
# fill in your values in .env

# 2) Install (editable for dev)
pip install -e .

# 3) Run as STDIO MCP server (recommended for local tools & Inspector)
sn-mcp serve

STDIO is ideal for desktop clients and local testing.

Local/Remote (HTTP)

# Start HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:8000
sn-mcp http

# Custom host/port
sn-mcp http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# Dev reload
sn-mcp http --reload

By default, the Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint is served under /mcp. Example URL:

http://localhost:8000/mcp

Docker

# Build
docker build -t sn-mcp-server .

# Run HTTP mode (recommended for containers)
docker run --env-file .env -p 8000:8000 sn-mcp-server sn-mcp http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

STDIO inside containers is unreliable with many clients. Prefer HTTP when using Docker.

Docker Compose

# Only the MCP server
docker-compose up sn-mcp-server

# Both services (if defined)
docker-compose up

Configuration

Copy .env.example → .env and fill in values. All settings are validated via pydantic-settings at startup.

Authentication options

1) API Key / Access Token (simplest)

SIGNNOW_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your_api_key>
# or equivalently:
SIGNNOW_API_KEY=<your_api_key>

Generate an API key →

2) Username / Password

SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL=<email>
SIGNNOW_PASSWORD=<password>
SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN=<base64 basic token>

3) OAuth 2.0 (for hosted/advanced scenarios)

SIGNNOW_CLIENT_ID=<client_id>
SIGNNOW_CLIENT_SECRET=<client_secret>
# + OAuth server & RSA settings below

When running via some desktop clients, only user/password may be supported.

Per-request access token (HTTP transport)

For multi-tenant / proxy deployments, a wrapping backend can attach the raw SignNow access token per request via a dedicated HTTP header — no env config, and without reusing Authorization (which carries the MCP/OAuth bearer):

X-SignNow-Access-Token: <raw SignNow access_token>

• Value is the raw token — no Bearer prefix.
• Resolved per request; nothing is cached or stored (stateless).
• Precedence: an env-configured SIGNNOW_ACCESS_TOKEN (Option 1) still wins. To use the header as a true per-request credential, do not also set SIGNNOW_ACCESS_TOKEN — otherwise every request collapses to the env token. The header outranks a generic Authorization: Bearer.
• HTTP transport only (sn-mcp http). It is not exposed as a tool argument, so the token never enters the model's context or conversation logs. Send over HTTPS.

SignNow & OAuth settings

# SignNow endpoints (defaults shown)
SIGNNOW_APP_BASE=https://app.signnow.com
SIGNNOW_API_BASE=https://api.signnow.com

# OAuth server (if you enable OAuth mode)
OAUTH_ISSUER=<your_issuer_url>
ACCESS_TTL=3600
REFRESH_TTL=2592000
ALLOWED_REDIRECTS=<comma,separated,uris>

# RSA keys for OAuth (critical in production)
OAUTH_RSA_PRIVATE_PEM=<PEM content>
OAUTH_JWK_KID=<key id>

Production key management

If OAUTH_RSA_PRIVATE_PEM is missing in production, a new RSA key will be generated on each restart, invalidating all existing tokens. Always provide a persistent private key via secrets management in prod.

Client setup

VS Code — GitHub Copilot (Agent Mode) / Cursor

Create .vscode/mcp.json / .cursor/mcp.json in your workspace:

STDIO (local):

{
  "servers": {
    "signnow": {
      "command": "sn-mcp",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {
        "SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL": "${env:SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL}",
        "SIGNNOW_PASSWORD": "${env:SIGNNOW_PASSWORD}",
        "SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN": "${env:SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

STDIO (uvx — no local install):

{
  "servers": {
    "signnow": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "signnow-mcp-server", "sn-mcp", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL": "${env:SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL}",
        "SIGNNOW_PASSWORD": "${env:SIGNNOW_PASSWORD}",
        "SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN": "${env:SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP (remote or Docker):

{
  "servers": {
    "signnow": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Then open Chat → Agent mode, enable the signnow tools, and use them in prompts.

Note: The same configuration applies in Cursor — add it under MCP settings (STDIO or HTTP). For STDIO, you can also use uvx as shown above.

Claude Desktop

Use Desktop Extensions or the manual MCP config (Developer → Edit config).

Steps:

1. Open Claude Desktop → Developer → Edit config
2. Add a new server entry under mcpServers
3. Save and restart Claude Desktop

Examples:

STDIO (local install):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "signnow": {
      "command": "sn-mcp",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {
        "SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL": "${env:SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL}",
        "SIGNNOW_PASSWORD": "${env:SIGNNOW_PASSWORD}",
        "SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN": "${env:SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

STDIO (uvx — no local install):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "signnow": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "signnow-mcp-server", "sn-mcp", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL": "${env:SIGNNOW_USER_EMAIL}",
        "SIGNNOW_PASSWORD": "${env:SIGNNOW_PASSWORD}",
        "SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN": "${env:SIGNNOW_API_BASIC_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP (remote or Docker):