MCP Overview
"MCP" shows up in two directions in Machina, and they're easy to conflate because both ultimately talk to the same kind of endpoint. Keep them separate:
MCP Builder (outbound)
Your project exposes its workflows, agents, prompts, and connector operations as tools, for an external agent to call.
External MCP (inbound)
Your project consumes tools from someone else's MCP server, making them available to the Studio Copilot.
The one thing both share: the connection endpoint
Every Machina project has an MCP endpoint at your project's API address plus a fixed path:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| URL | <your-project-api-address>/mcp/sse |
| Transport | sse |
| Auth header | X-Api-Token (or X-Session-Token) |
Whatever tools MCP Builder publishes (outbound) show up on this same endpoint. Resolve it with machina mcp url, or get it paired with an auth token ready to hand to an external agent with machina connect. See Connecting External Agents for ready-to-paste snippets (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Claude Desktop).
Quick decision guide
- "I want an external agent (SportsClaw, Claude Code, Cursor…) to call things in my project" → MCP Builder to choose what's exposed, then Connecting External Agents to wire the client.
- "I want my project's Copilot to use tools from someone else's MCP server" → External MCP.
Related
mcp,connect— the CLI commands.- Agent Commands via CLI — CLI command vs. instruction vs. workflow vs. MCP tool.