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emcee is a tool that provides aModel Context Protocol (MCP) serverfor any web application with anOpenAPI specification.You can use emcee to connectClaude Desktop andother appsto external tools and data services,similar toChatGPT plugins.
If you're on macOS and haveHomebrew installed,you can get up-and-running quickly.
# Install emceebrew install loopwork-ai/tap/emcee
Make sure you haveClaude Desktop installed.
To configure Claude Desktop for use with emcee:
- Open Claude Desktop Settings (⌘,)
- Select the "Developer" section in the sidebar
- Click "Edit Config" to open the configuration file
The configuration file should be located in the Application Support directory.You can also open it directly in VSCode using:
code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Add the following configuration to add the weather.gov MCP server:
{"mcpServers": {"weather": {"command":"emcee","args": ["https://api.weather.gov/openapi.json" ] } }}
After saving the file, quit and re-open Claude.You should now see🔨57 in the bottom right corner of your chat box.Click on that to see a list of all the tools made available to Claude through MCP.
Start a new chat and ask it about the weather where you are.
What's the weather in Portland, OR?
Claude will consult the tools made available to it through MCPand request to use one if deemed to be suitable for answering your question.You can review this request and either approve or deny it.

If you allow, Claude will communicate with the MCPand use the result to inform its response.
Tip
Building agents? Want to deploy remote MCP servers?Reach out to us atemcee@loopwork.com
MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to tools and data sources.It's still early days, but there are already a variety ofavailable serversfor connecting to browsers, developer tools, and other systems.
We think emcee is a convenient way to connect to servicesthat don't have an existing MCP server implementation —especially for services you're building yourself.Got a web app with an OpenAPI spec?You might be surprised how far you can getwithout a dashboard or client library.
Use theinstaller script to download and install apre-built release of emcee for your platform(Linux x86-64/i386/arm64 and macOS Intel/Apple Silicon).
#fishsh (curl -fsSL https://get.emcee.sh | psub)#bash, zshsh <(curl -fsSL https://get.emcee.sh)
Install emcee usingHomebrew fromLoopwork's tap.
brew install loopwork-ai/tap/emcee
PrebuiltDocker images with emcee are available.
docker run -it ghcr.io/loopwork-ai/emcee
Requiresgo 1.24 or later.
git clone https://github.com/loopwork-ai/emcee.gitcd emceego build -o emcee cmd/emcee/main.go
Once built, you can run in place (./emcee
)or move it somewhere in yourPATH
, like/usr/local/bin
.
Usage: emcee [spec-path-or-url] [flags]Flags: --basic-auth string Basic auth value (either user:pass or base64 encoded, will be prefixed with 'Basic ') --bearer-auth string Bearer token value (will be prefixed with 'Bearer ') -h, --help help for emcee --raw-auth string Raw value for Authorization header --retries int Maximum number of retries for failed requests (default 3) -r, --rps int Maximum requests per second (0 for no limit) -s, --silent Disable all logging --timeout duration HTTP request timeout (default 1m0s) -v, --verbose Enable debug level logging to stderr --version version for emcee
emcee implementsStandard Input/Output (stdio) transport for MCP,which usesJSON-RPC 2.0 as its wire format.
When you run emcee from the command-line,it starts a program that listens on stdin,outputs to stdout,and logs to stderr.
For APIs that require authentication,emcee supports several authentication methods:
Authentication Type | Example Usage | Resulting Header |
---|---|---|
Bearer Token | --bearer-auth="abc123" | Authorization: Bearer abc123 |
Basic Auth | --basic-auth="user:pass" | Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz |
Raw Value | --raw-auth="Custom xyz789" | Authorization: Custom xyz789 |
These authentication values can be provided directlyor as1Password secret references.
When using 1Password references:
- Use the format
op://vault/item/field
(e.g.--bearer-auth="op://Shared/X/credential"
) - Ensure the 1Password CLI (op) is installed and available in your
PATH
- Sign in to 1Password before running emcee or launching Claude Desktop
#Install opbrew install 1password-cli#Signin 1Password CLIop signin
{"mcpServers": {"twitter": {"command":"emcee","args": ["--bearer-auth=op://shared/x/credential","https://api.twitter.com/2/openapi.json" ] } }}

Important
emcee doesn't use auth credentials when downloadingOpenAPI specifications from URLs provided as command arguments.If your OpenAPI specification requires authentication to access,first download it to a local file using your preferred HTTP client,then provide the local file path to emcee.
You can transform OpenAPI specifications before passing them to emcee using standard Unix utilities. This is useful for:
- Selecting specific endpoints to expose as toolswithjq oryq
- Modifying descriptions or parameterswithOpenAPI Overlays
- Combining multiple specificationswithRedocly
For example,you can usejq
to include only thepoint
tool fromweather.gov
.
cat path/to/openapi.json | \ jq 'if .paths then .paths |= with_entries(select(.key == "/points/{point}")) else . end' | \ emcee
You can interact directly with the provided MCP serverby sending JSON-RPC requests.
Note
emcee provides only MCP tool capabilities.Other features like resources, prompts, and sampling aren't yet supported.
Request
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list","params": {},"id":1}
Response
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"tools":[// ...{"name":"tafs","description":"Returns Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts for the specified airport station.","inputSchema":{"type":"object","properties":{"stationId":{"description":"Observation station ID","type":"string"}},"required":["stationId"]}},// ...]},"id":1}
Request
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params": {"name":"taf","arguments": {"stationId":"KPDX" }},"id":1}
Response
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","content":[{"type":"text","text":/* Weather forecast in GeoJSON format */,"annotations":{"audience":["assistant"]}}] "id":1}
TheMCP Inspector is a tool for testing and debugging MCP servers.If Claude and/or emcee aren't working as expected,the inspector can help you understand what's happening.
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector emcee https://api.weather.gov/openapi.json#🔍 MCP Inspector is up and running at http://localhost:5173 🚀
open http://localhost:5173
emcee is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
About
Connect agents to APIs 🫳🎤💥