brandpilot-mcp

brandpilot-mcp

MCP server for BrandPilot: bring a brand into your coding agent - list your brands, read a design's context and continuation contract, install its repo rules pack and tokens, and fetch its Claude Design kit - natively from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop or any other MCP client.

The package runs in one of two modes:

• With a workspace API key (BRANDPILOT_API_KEY): a thin stdio proxy onto the hosted BrandPilot MCP at https://brandpilot.dev/api/mcp. Every tools/list, tools/call, prompts/list and prompts/get is forwarded and the answer relayed, so the tool list is always the one BrandPilot serves today - new tools arrive without a package update.
• Without one: the legacy 0.2.x server - the public design-system tools, plus the design-scoped tools behind a per-design handoff key (deprecated, see Legacy handoff keys).

It never touches a database; any machine with network access to brandpilot.dev can run it. Requires Node.js 20 or newer.

Connect with an API key

Create a workspace API key in BrandPilot under Settings, API keys. It starts with bp_live_. Replace bp_live_your_key_here below with it, and keep it out of committed files.

Claude Code

claude mcp add brandpilot --scope user -e BRANDPILOT_API_KEY=bp_live_your_key_here -- npx -y brandpilot-mcp

Then run /mcp in Claude Code to confirm brandpilot is connected, and ask "Ask BrandPilot who I am and list my brands".

Codex

codex mcp add brandpilot --env BRANDPILOT_API_KEY=bp_live_your_key_here -- npx -y brandpilot-mcp

or in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.brandpilot]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "brandpilot-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.brandpilot.env]
BRANDPILOT_API_KEY = "bp_live_your_key_here"

To keep the key out of the file, export BRANDPILOT_API_KEY in your shell and use env_vars = ["BRANDPILOT_API_KEY"] in place of the env table.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brandpilot": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "brandpilot-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BRANDPILOT_API_KEY": "bp_live_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any other MCP client

Run npx -y brandpilot-mcp as a stdio server with BRANDPILOT_API_KEY in its environment. The same shape works in Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json.

What the errors mean

Message	Cause	Fix
BrandPilot rejected the API key (HTTP 401)	The key is mistyped, expired or revoked	Create a new key and restart the server
The API key does not have the permission this call needs (HTTP 403)	The key lacks a scope (for example a read-only key calling finish_external_design)	Use a key with that scope
The hosted BrandPilot MCP is not enabled (HTTP 404)	The hosted MCP is not switched on for that BrandPilot instance yet	Unset BRANDPILOT_API_KEY to use the legacy tools meanwhile, or check BRANDPILOT_MCP_URL
did not answer within N s	The hosted call took longer than BRANDPILOT_TIMEOUT_MS	Retry; raise the timeout for slow calls

The key is sent only in the Authorization header and is never printed, including in error messages and on stderr.

Tools

In API-key mode the tools and prompts come from the hosted server (whoami, list_brands, get_design_context, get_repo_rules_pack, get_claude_design_kit, finish_external_design and more, plus the deprecated aliases below); the current list is at https://brandpilot.dev/api/v1/mcp/tools and on brandpilot.dev/docs. A good first call is whoami.

The legacy mode serves these eight tools:

Tool	Auth	What it does
list_systems	none	List public design systems (name, slug, brand color, token count, status)
get_system_adoption	none	Full adoption manifest for a public system: tokens, components, pages, brand assets, direction
get_system_tokens	none	Export a system's tokens (globals-css, colors-ts, spacing-ts, typography-ts, tailwind-theme, brand-manifest)
get_agent_prompt	none	Markdown onboarding doc with copy-paste prompts for bootstrapping a design package
get_design_handoff	handoff key	A design's continuation bundle: brief, tokens, board digest, continuation contract, inventory, coherence audit
get_design_prompt_pack	handoff key	The sequential Claude Design prompt pack for continuing a design: v1 by default, the v2 explore/lock passes with pass, or the copy map
import_design_artifacts	handoff key	Import externally designed components/pages/assets back as DRAFT for review
finish_external_design	handoff key	Resume a mid-flow external design run at the coherence audit

On the hosted server, list_systems, get_agent_prompt and get_design_handoff are deprecated aliases of list_brands, get_repo_rules_pack and get_design_context.

Prompt pack v2

get_design_prompt_pack returns the v1 pack when called with only designId. The v2 pack runs in two passes in one Claude Design project:

• pass: "explore" - every surface asks for 2-3 clearly different directions with a short critique. Add with3d: true for one 3D Objects prompt.
• pass: "lock", direction: "<the direction you picked>" - every surface is built in the chosen direction (max 2000 characters, required for this pass).

format: "json" returns the structured pack instead of markdown, and format: "copy-map" returns the copy map the v2 pack lists as a project file. direction and with3d without a pass are rejected rather than silently returning v1.

Legacy handoff keys

Legacy per-design handoff keys are deprecated and stop working on 2027-01-31. Move to a workspace API key: one key covers every design in the workspace.

Until then, the legacy design-scoped tools (get_design_handoff, get_design_prompt_pack, import_design_artifacts, finish_external_design) accept a Bearer key scoped to one design, minted on the design page (/designs/<id>, section "Continue this design", "Copy API key"). Pass it as DESIGNFLOW_HANDOFF_KEY in the server's environment, or as a per-call handoffKey argument, which overrides the environment variable for that one call. When DESIGNFLOW_HANDOFF_KEY is set the server prints one deprecation line to stderr at startup. When BRANDPILOT_API_KEY is also set, the API key wins and the handoff key is ignored.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Purpose
BRANDPILOT_API_KEY	(none)	Workspace API key; turns on proxy mode
BRANDPILOT_MCP_URL	${BRANDPILOT_ORIGIN}/api/mcp	Hosted MCP endpoint in proxy mode. Must be https, except on localhost
BRANDPILOT_TIMEOUT_MS	70000	Per-request timeout in proxy mode (1000 to 600000)
BRANDPILOT_ORIGIN	https://brandpilot.dev	Origin for the legacy tools, and the base of the default BRANDPILOT_MCP_URL - override to point at a local dev server
DESIGNFLOW_HANDOFF_KEY	(none)	Deprecated default Bearer key for the legacy design-scoped tools

Local development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

npm link then an MCP config pointing at the linked bin is the fastest way to verify against a live server: in API-key mode confirm whoami names your workspace; without a key confirm list_systems returns the curated pool and nothing private.

See CHANGELOG.md for release notes.