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Outline MCP

MCP stdio server for Outline (Cloud/Self-hosted) with permissions, templates, memberships, and multi-agent lease control.

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outline-mcp

A production-focused MCP (stdio) server for Outline. Use it from MCP clients (Codex, Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) via npm without cloning this repo.

What Is Outline?

Outline is a collaborative knowledge base and documentation platform for teams. It is commonly used for internal docs, runbooks, product specs, onboarding guides, and shared process playbooks.

outline-mcp connects MCP clients to Outline workspaces so agents can safely read, update, and manage this knowledge through structured tools.

Install From npm

Package:

npm i -g @sigee-min/outline-mcp

Run:

outline-mcp

Or run without global install:

npx -y @sigee-min/outline-mcp

MCP Client Config (Copy/Paste)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outline": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@sigee-min/outline-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OUTLINE_API_KEY": "your_api_key",
        "OUTLINE_BASE_URL": "https://app.getoutline.com",
        "OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS": "read,write,delete"
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment Guides

Outline Cloud (recommended)

Use this for app.getoutline.com workspaces.

OUTLINE_API_KEY=your_api_key
OUTLINE_BASE_URL=https://app.getoutline.com
OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write,delete

Self-hosted Outline

Use your self-hosted endpoint.

OUTLINE_API_KEY=your_api_key
OUTLINE_BASE_URL=https://outline.your-company.internal
OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write,delete

Read-only agent (safe mode)

Use this when agents must never mutate content.

OUTLINE_API_KEY=your_api_key
OUTLINE_BASE_URL=https://app.getoutline.com
OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read

Read/write without delete

Use this when agents can draft/edit but must not remove resources.

OUTLINE_API_KEY=your_api_key
OUTLINE_BASE_URL=https://app.getoutline.com
OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write

Lease backed by data attributes (multi-agent)

Use this for cross-process lease coordination.

OUTLINE_API_KEY=your_api_key
OUTLINE_BASE_URL=https://app.getoutline.com
OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write,delete
OUTLINE_LEASE_STRATEGY=data_attribute
OUTLINE_LEASE_ATTRIBUTE_ID=your_data_attribute_id
OUTLINE_LEASE_DEFAULT_TTL_SECONDS=600
OUTLINE_LEASE_MAX_TTL_SECONDS=7200

Supported Features (At a Glance)

Area	What you can do	Main MCP tools	Required action
Collections	List, create, update, delete collections	`list_collections`, `create_collection`, `update_collection`, `delete_collection`	`read`, `write`, `delete`
Documents	Search/read/create/update/move/delete documents	`search_documents`, `read_document`, `create_document`, `update_document`, `move_document`, `delete_document`	`read`, `write`, `delete`
Document Insights	Resolve IDs, structure, backlinks, and markdown export	`get_collection_structure`, `get_document_id_from_title`, `get_document_backlinks`, `export_document`	`read`
Document Lifecycle	Archive, unarchive, restore, and inspect archived/trash docs	`archive_document`, `unarchive_document`, `restore_document`, `list_archived_documents`, `list_trash`	`read`, `write`
Batch Operations	Execute create/update/move/archive/delete over many docs	`batch_create_documents`, `batch_update_documents`, `batch_move_documents`, `batch_archive_documents`, `batch_delete_documents`	`write`, `delete`
AI Search	Ask natural-language questions over docs in Outline	`ask_ai_about_documents`	`read`
Safe Concurrency	Prevent blind overwrite on concurrent edits	`safe_update_document`	`write`
Templates	Reuse template workflows	`list_templates`, `create_template_from_document`, `create_document_from_template`	`read`, `write`
Comments	Full comment lifecycle	`list_comments`, `get_comment`, `create_comment`, `update_comment`, `delete_comment`	`read`, `write`, `delete`
Memberships	Manage user/group access for docs and collections	`list__memberships`, `add_`, `remove_*`	`read`, `write`
Audit & Revisions	Track activity and revisions	`list_events`, `list_revisions`, `get_revision`	`read`
Export & File Ops	Run exports and fetch artifact status/URL	`export_collection`, `export_all_collections`, `list_file_operations`, `get_file_operation`, `download_file_operation`	`read`
MCP Resources	Read via URI templates without tool calls	`outline://collection/{id}`, `outline://collection/{id}/tree`, `outline://collection/{id}/documents`, `outline://document/{id}`, `outline://document/{id}/backlinks`	`read`
Lease Control	Acquire/renew/release document lease for agent coordination	`acquire_document_lease`, `renew_document_lease`, `release_document_lease`, `get_active_document_lease`	`write`

Supported Outline APIs (Mapped)

API Group	Outline endpoints used by outline-mcp
Collections	`collections.list`, `collections.info`, `collections.create`, `collections.update`, `collections.delete`, `collections.documents`
Collection Memberships	`collections.memberships`, `collections.group_memberships`, `collections.add_user`, `collections.remove_user`, `collections.add_group`, `collections.remove_group`
Documents	`documents.info`, `documents.search`, `documents.list`, `documents.create`, `documents.update`, `documents.move`, `documents.delete`, `documents.archive`, `documents.unarchive`, `documents.restore`, `documents.archived`, `documents.export`, `documents.answerQuestion`
Templates	`documents.templatize`, `documents.list` (`template=true`), `documents.create` (`templateId`)
Document Memberships	`documents.users`, `documents.memberships`, `documents.group_memberships`, `documents.add_user`, `documents.remove_user`, `documents.add_group`, `documents.remove_group`
Comments	`comments.list`, `comments.info`, `comments.create`, `comments.update`, `comments.delete`
Events/Revisions	`events.list`, `revisions.list`, `revisions.info`
Export/File Operations	`collections.export`, `collections.export_all`, `fileOperations.list`, `fileOperations.info`, `fileOperations.redirect`

Key Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`OUTLINE_API_KEY`	none (required)	Outline API token
`OUTLINE_BASE_URL`	`https://app.getoutline.com`	Cloud or self-hosted endpoint
`OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS`	`read,write,delete`	Allowed server actions
`OUTLINE_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS`	`15000`	API timeout in milliseconds
`OUTLINE_RETRY_COUNT`	`2`	Retry count for 429/5xx
`OUTLINE_ENABLE_CAPABILITY_PROBE`	`true`	Probe optional endpoints at startup
`OUTLINE_LEASE_STRATEGY`	`auto`	`auto` \| `memory` \| `data_attribute`
`OUTLINE_LEASE_ATTRIBUTE_ID`	none	Required for `data_attribute` lease strategy
`OUTLINE_LEASE_DEFAULT_TTL_SECONDS`	`600`	Default lease TTL
`OUTLINE_LEASE_MAX_TTL_SECONDS`	`7200`	Maximum lease TTL

Local Development (Monorepo)

git clone <repo-url>
cd outline-mcp
pnpm install
pnpm --filter @sigee-min/outline-mcp build
pnpm --filter @sigee-min/outline-mcp dev

Testing

pnpm test
pnpm typecheck
pnpm build
pnpm e2e:mcp

E2E notes:

Loads .env, .env.local, .env.e2e from root and apps/mcp
If OUTLINE_E2E_COLLECTION_ID is not set, it creates a temporary collection and cleans it up automatically

CI E2E notes:

.github/workflows/ci.yml runs MCP inspector E2E as a separate job when OUTLINE_API_KEY secret exists
Default CI mode is read-focused (OUTLINE_E2E_RUN_WRITE=false), configurable via GitHub Actions variable
Recommended GitHub settings:
- Secret: OUTLINE_API_KEY (required)
- Variables (optional): OUTLINE_BASE_URL, OUTLINE_E2E_RUN_WRITE, OUTLINE_E2E_COLLECTION_ID, OUTLINE_E2E_MEMBER_COLLECTION_ID, OUTLINE_E2E_MEMBER_USER_ID, OUTLINE_E2E_MEMBER_GROUP_ID

License

MIT