Swsd

What swsd does

swsd connects MCP clients to SolarWinds Service Desk, also known as SWSD or Samanage. Its tools cover the main service-management record types: incidents, comments, tasks, problems, changes, releases, solutions, service-catalog items, hardware and software assets, mobile devices, printers, configuration items, contracts, purchase orders, vendors, risks, and time records.

The server also provides lookup and administration-oriented operations. Agents can retrieve users, groups, roles, sites, departments, categories, custom-field definitions, and record audit history. Utility tools report server information, check connectivity, and identify the authenticated SWSD user.

How it works

MCP clients discover the tool names, input schemas, descriptions, and response shapes at runtime. The server communicates with the SWSD API using a JWT supplied by the user. Credentials are held only for request handling: tokens are forwarded to the configured SWSD API host, not persisted or logged.

The default deployment uses the stdio transport and can be started with npx -y swsd-mcp. A server configuration can select a tool profile through SWSD_PROFILE. Most record tools support listing and retrieval, while selected resources also support creation or updates. Incident lookups accept either an internal identifier or the shorter incident number shown in the SWSD interface. Incident lists can be filtered by relative update periods such as 24h, 7d, 1w, or 30d.

Seven read-oriented tools can return MCP Apps widgets on hosts that support that capability. These include incident lists and details plus solution details; text-only clients receive the regular structured responses instead.

Setup and configuration

Create a SolarWinds Service Desk administrator JWT in the SWSD interface under Setup → Users & Groups → Users, open the user record, and choose Actions → Generate JSON Web Token. Configure the server in the MCP client's mcpServers section:

{
  "swsd": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "swsd-mcp"],
    "env": {
      "SWSD_TOKEN": "your-jwt-here",
      "SWSD_BASE_URL": "https://api.samanage.com"
    }
  }
}

Use https://apieu.samanage.com for EU tenants. VS Code can add the server through MCP: Add Server..., using either the command or npm-package option. Claude Code can register the same process with claude mcp add. After restarting the client, call swsd_health_check to verify access.

Clients that cannot launch local processes need an HTTP deployment. Microsoft Copilot Studio is one example and requires that deployment approach rather than local stdio execution.

Tools and capabilities

• Check connectivity, server details, and the authenticated user.
• List, inspect, create, update, assign, comment on, and change the state of incidents.
• Manage incident tasks, problems, changes, releases, and service requests.
• Search, retrieve, create, and update knowledge-base solutions.
• Inspect hardware, mobile, printer, software, other-asset, and CMDB records.
• Work with contracts, purchase orders, vendors, risks, time entries, and attachments.
• Resolve users, groups, roles, sites, departments, categories, and custom fields.
• Retrieve audit records for supported SWSD records.

Limitations and notes

Write operations require the permissions associated with the supplied SWSD administrator token. Widget rendering depends on the MCP host; clients without MCP Apps support still receive structured tool output. The service catalog tools expose catalog items and can create service requests, while the documented catalog operations do not provide a general catalog-item editing workflow.