Transport Reference

The Autotask MCP Server supports two transport mechanisms for communicating with MCP clients.

stdio (Default)

The standard transport for local MCP clients. Communication happens over stdin/stdout using JSON-RPC messages.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "autotask-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "autotask-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AUTOTASK_USERNAME": "...",
        "AUTOTASK_SECRET": "...",
        "AUTOTASK_INTEGRATION_CODE": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

When to use

• Claude Desktop or other local MCP clients
• Single-user setups
• Development and testing

HTTP (Streamable)

An HTTP-based transport that serves the MCP protocol over a web server. Supports multiple concurrent clients.

Configuration

Set environment variables:

MCP_TRANSPORT=http
MCP_HTTP_PORT=8080      # Default: 8080
MCP_HTTP_HOST=0.0.0.0   # Default: 0.0.0.0

Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/mcp	POST	MCP protocol endpoint (JSON-RPC)
/health	GET	Health check

Health Check Response

{
  "status": "ok",
  "transport": "http",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

When to use

• Remote or shared deployments
• Multi-client access
• Container/Docker deployments
• Load-balanced environments

Example: Docker deployment

docker run -d \
  -e AUTOTASK_USERNAME=user@example.com \
  -e AUTOTASK_SECRET=secret \
  -e AUTOTASK_INTEGRATION_CODE=code \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT=http \
  -e MCP_HTTP_PORT=8080 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  autotask-mcp

Session Management

The HTTP transport uses session IDs to track client connections. Each client receives a unique session ID on first connection, which is included in subsequent requests for continuity.