The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard for helping AI tools and LLMs talk to applications and services like Directus.

The Directus Content MCP Server is an interface for Directus users to interact with their data and manage their system through LLMs. Some good use cases are:

• Content Editors: build custom pages, write blog posts, update content, organize assets and more inside your Directus project.
• Data Analysts: query collections, generate reports, analyze trends, and extract insights from your Directus data using natural language.
• System Administrators: create and manage collections, configure user roles and permissions, set up relationships between data models, and customize system settings.
• Developers: rapidly prototype data structures, configure access controls, and manage schema changes through natural language interactions.

The server includes both content management tools for day-to-day operations and administrative management tools for system configuration. Administrative tools include safety features and can be selectively disabled for production environments to prevent accidental data loss.

• An existing Directus project

If you don't have an existing Directus project, you can get started with a free trial on Directus Cloud at https://directus.cloud/register

OR

You can spin up a sample Directus instance locally with the following terminal command.

npx directus-template-cli@latest init

You can use email and password or generate a static token to connect the MCP to your Directus instance.

To get a static access token:

1. Login to your Directus instnace
2. Go to the User Directory and choose your own user profile
3. Scroll down to the Token field
4. Generate token and copy it
5. Save the user (do NOT forget to save because you’ll get an error that shows Invalid token!)

1. Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings.

2. Under the Developer tab, click Edit Config to open the configuration file.

3. Add the following configuration:

   {
   	"mcpServers": {
   		"directus": {
   			"command": "npx",
   			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
   			"env": {
   				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-url.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your-directus-token>"
   			}
   		}
   	}
   }

   or if you're using email and password

   {
   	"mcpServers": {
   		"directus": {
   			"command": "npx",
   			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
   			"env": {
   				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-url.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_USER_EMAIL": "john@example.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_USER_PASSWORD": "your-password"
   			}
   		}
   	}
   }

   Make sure you replace the placeholder values with your URL and credentials.

4. Save the configuration file and restart Claude desktop.

5. From the new chat screen, you should see an icon appear with the Directus MCP server.

1. Open Cursor and create a .cursor directory in your project root if it doesn't exist.

2. Create a .cursor/mcp.json file if it doesn't exist and open it.

3. Add the following configuration:

   {
   	"mcpServers": {
   		"directus": {
   			"command": "npx",
   			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
   			"env": {
   				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-url.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your-directus-token>"
   			}
   		}
   	}
   }

   or if you're using email and password

   {
   	"mcpServers": {
   		"directus": {
   			"command": "npx",
   			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
   			"env": {
   				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-url.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_USER_EMAIL": "john@example.com",
   				"DIRECTUS_USER_PASSWORD": "your-password"
   			}
   		}
   	}
   }

   Make sure you replace the placeholder values with your URL and credentials.

4. Save the configuration file.

5. Open Cursor and navigate to Settings/MCP. You should see a green active status after the server is successfully connected.

The MCP Server provides the following tools to interact with your Directus instance:

The administrative management tools provide powerful capabilities for managing your Directus instance. To ensure safe operation:

Tools marked with destructive capabilities (delete operations) should be used with caution:

• delete-collection: Permanently removes collections and all data
• delete-relation: Removes relationships between collections
• delete-role: Removes user roles (affects user access)
• delete-permission: Revokes access permissions

You can disable specific tools using the DISABLE_TOOLS environment variable. For production environments, consider disabling destructive operations:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "directus": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-url.com",
        "DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your-directus-token",
        "DISABLE_TOOLS": ["delete-collection", "delete-relation", "delete-role", "delete-permission"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Administrative tools require appropriate Directus permissions:

• Collections: Requires admin access or specific collection permissions
• Roles & Permissions: Requires admin access or role management permissions
• Relations: Requires admin access or schema management permissions
• Settings: Requires admin access

The MCP server comes with a system prompt that helps encourage the right tool use and provides guiderails for the LLM. You can overwrite the default system prompt in your env configuration by setting the MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT variable.

You can also disable the system prompt entirely if desired.

Just set MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_ENABLED to false

The MCP server supports dynamic prompts stored in a Directus collection. Prompts are not widely supported across MCP Clients, but Claude Desktop does have support for them.

You can configure the following:

• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION_ENABLED: Set to "true" to enable prompt functionality
• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION: The name of the collection containing prompts
• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_NAME_FIELD: Field name for the prompt name (default: "name")
• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_DESCRIPTION_FIELD: Field name for the prompt description (default: "description")
• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_SYSTEM_PROMPT_FIELD: Field name for the system prompt text (default: "system_prompt")
• DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_MESSAGES_FIELD: Field name for the messages array (default: "messages")

Both system prompts and message content support mustache templating using the {{ variable_name }} syntax:

1. Define variables in your prompts using double curly braces: Hello, {{ name }}!
2. When calling a prompt, provide values for the variables in the arguments parameter
3. The MCP server will automatically replace all variables with their provided values

1. Clone the repo
2. pnpm install && pnpm build to build the server
3. Configure Claude Desktop or Cursor like above, but pointing it to the dist file instead:
4. Use pnpm dev to watch for changes and rebuild the server

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "node",
			"args": ["/path/to/directus-mcp-server/dist/index.js"]
		}
	}
}

Sample Claude Desktop Config for local dev with full settings

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "node",
			"args": [
				"/path/to/directus-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
			],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "DIRECTUS_URL",
				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "DIRECTUS_TOKEN",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_ENABLED": "true",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT": "You're a content editor working at Directus.\nYou're a master at copywriting and creating messaging that resonates with technical audiences.\nYou'll be given details about a Directus instance and the schema within it. You'll be asked to update content and other helpful tasks. **Rules** \n - If you're updating HTML / WYSWIG fields inside the CMS - DO NOT ADD extra styling, classes, or markup outside the standard HTML elements. If you're not 95% sure what values should go into a certain field, stop and ask the user. Before deleting anything, confirm with the user and prompt them for an explicit DELETE confirmation via text.",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION_ENABLED": "true",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION": "ai_prompts"
			}
		}
	}
}

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-instance.com",
				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your_directus_token"
			}
		}
	}
}

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-instance.com",
				"DIRECTUS_USER_EMAIL": "user@example.com",
				"DIRECTUS_USER_PASSWORD": "your_password"
			}
		}
	}
}

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-instance.com",
				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your_directus_token",
				"DISABLE_TOOLS": ["delete-item", "update-field"],
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_ENABLED": "true",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT": "You are an assistant specialized in managing content for our marketing website.",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION_ENABLED": "true",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_COLLECTION": "ai_prompts",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_NAME_FIELD": "name",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_DESCRIPTION_FIELD": "description",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_SYSTEM_PROMPT_FIELD": "system_prompt",
				"DIRECTUS_PROMPTS_MESSAGES_FIELD": "messages"
			}
		}
	}
}

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "https://your-directus-instance.com",
				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your_directus_token",
				"DISABLE_TOOLS": [
					"delete-collection",
					"delete-relation", 
					"delete-role",
					"delete-permission",
					"delete-item"
				],
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_ENABLED": "true",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT": "You are a Directus administrator assistant. You can read and create content, manage collections and permissions, but cannot perform destructive operations."
			}
		}
	}
}

{
	"mcpServers": {
		"directus": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["@directus/content-mcp@latest"],
			"env": {
				"DIRECTUS_URL": "http://localhost:8055",
				"DIRECTUS_TOKEN": "your_dev_token",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT_ENABLED": "true",
				"MCP_SYSTEM_PROMPT": "You are a Directus development assistant with full administrative access. You can create, modify, and delete collections, manage permissions, and perform all system operations."
			}
		}
	}
}

We love to see community contributions, but please open an issue first to discuss proposed changes before submitting any PRs.

This started as an experiment by the dude, the legend, the @rijkvanzanten 🙌

MIT