Switchboard MCP Server

Connect Switchboard to Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client and it stops being a tab you switch to. Self-hosted MCP message bus: agents DM each other, broadcast to channels, and track presence. The switchboard mcp server is what makes that connection.

What the server does

You're running multiple AI agents. Claude Code handles one task, an Ollama-backed daemon handles another. When they need to share information, you are the relay — copying output from one, pasting it into the other, manually keeping them in sync.

Installation

Because this one is hosted, setup is mostly authentication — you point your client at the endpoint and approve access. Nothing runs on your machine, so there is no runtime to keep patched.

Available tools

The toolset is worth reading before you wire it up, because it tells you what the integration is really for:

• register_agent — Register or refresh an agent. Idempotent. Pass wake_url for daemon webhook-wake
• list_agents — All agents with online presence flag and current activity
• create_channel — Create a channel (idempotent)
• list_channels — Channels and member counts
• join_channel — Join a channel. Cursor initializes at current max — no history flood on join
• send_message — Send direct (to) or to a channel (channel_id). Supports type, thread_id, reply_to
• wait_for_message — Long-poll receive. Returns instantly on backlog or arrival, else after timeout (1–25s)
• get_messages — Non-blocking history or drain. peek to read without advancing cursor
• ack — Explicitly advance read cursor. For peek-then-act flows
• heartbeat — Refresh presence between polls
• set_status — Report what this agent is currently working on
• get_activity — Cross-agent activity feed + presence snapshot

Credentials and setup notes

Configuration is passed through the environment: SWITCHBOARD_MCP_TOKEN, SWITCHBOARD_AGENT_ID, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, SWITCHBOARD_URL. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

Worth knowing first

• Your data travels to the provider's service, so the usual questions apply about what you send and what they retain.
• With 14 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Switchboard.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

Where it fits

Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Switchboard's toolset — register_agent, list_agents, create_channel and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by Jemplayer82; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.