opn-mcp

An MCP server for opn.onl — the open-source, self-hostable URL shortener. It lets AI assistants (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) shorten links, read analytics, generate QR codes, and manage links in natural language.

Works against the hosted service or your own self-hosted instance.

Setup

1. Get an API key

On your opn.onl instance, go to Settings → API Keys, create a key, and copy it (it starts with opn_ and is shown once).

2. Add the server to your MCP client

Claude Desktop — edit claude_desktop_config.json (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows):

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "opn": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "opn-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPN_API_KEY": "opn_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart your client. That's it — it talks to the hosted API (https://l.opn.onl) by default.

Prefer to run from source? Swap the args for the GitHub build — same config: "args": ["-y", "github:ysalitrynskyi/opn-mcp"] (it builds on install).

Self-hosted instance

Point OPN_BASE_URL at your own instance's API host:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "opn": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "opn-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPN_API_KEY": "opn_your_key_here",
        "OPN_BASE_URL": "https://l.your-domain.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Env var	Required	Default	Description
`OPN_API_KEY`	✅	—	Your API key (`opn_…`), from Settings → API Keys
`OPN_BASE_URL`	—	`https://l.opn.onl`	API base URL — set this for a self-hosted instance

Tools

Links

Tool	Description
`shorten_url`	Create a short link — optional alias, title, notes, scheduling (`starts_at`/`expires_at`), `max_clicks`, password, burn-after-reading, folder and tags
`shorten_urls_bulk`	Shorten many URLs at once, optionally into a folder
`list_links`	List your links (limit, offset, search, folder or tag filter)
`update_link`	Update destination, title, notes, scheduling, click limit, folder or protections; clear fields with `remove_*` flags
`delete_link`	Delete a link
`clone_link`	Duplicate a link under a fresh short code
`toggle_link_pin`	Pin or unpin a link
`check_alias_available`	Check whether a custom alias is free before using it

Analytics

Tool	Description
`get_link_stats`	Per-link analytics (clicks, unique visitors, geo, cities, devices, browsers, OS, referrers); optional `days` window
`get_dashboard_stats`	Account-wide analytics across all your links

QR & URL helpers

Tool	Description
`get_qr_code`	Get a link's QR image — optional brand colour, centre logo, PNG/SVG
`check_url_health`	Check a destination URL is reachable before shortening
`build_utm_url`	Append UTM campaign parameters to a URL
`preview_url_metadata`	Fetch Open Graph metadata (title, description, image) for a URL

Tags & folders

Tool	Description
`list_tags` / `create_tag`	List or create tags
`add_tags_to_link` / `remove_tags_from_link`	Attach or detach tags on a link
`list_folders` / `create_folder`	List or create folders
`move_links_to_folder`	Move links into a folder

Example prompts

"Shorten https://example.com/very/long/url and call it launch-2026"
"Shorten these five URLs into a new folder called Q3 Campaign"
"How many clicks did link 42 get in the last 30 days, and from which countries?"
"Give me a branded SVG QR code for link 42"
"Tag my last 10 links as 'newsletter' and show my dashboard stats"
"Build a UTM link for https://example.com — source newsletter, medium email"

Development

Terminal

npm install
npm run build      # tsc → dist/
npm test           # vitest
OPN_API_KEY=opn_… npm run dev   # run from source (stdio)

Releasing

All three registries are owned by ysalitrynskyi (npm user, GitHub user, and the io.github.ysalitrynskyi MCP-registry namespace), so publishing must be done while signed in as that account.

Bump the version in three places and keep them identical: package.json, server.json (top-level and the packages[0].version), and SERVER_VERSION in src/server.ts.
Land it: commit to main and push. CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs build + test — it does not publish.

Publish to npm (as npm user ysalitrynskyi):

Terminal

npm login
npm publish        # prepublishOnly runs the build

Publish to the MCP registry (as GitHub user ysalitrynskyi):

bash

mcp-publisher validate      # optional, offline check
mcp-publisher login github  # interactive browser OAuth
mcp-publisher publish

Smithery (smithery.yaml) and Glama (glama.json) track the npm/registry release automatically — no separate step.

Opn MCP README