Introducing MCP Servers in Tines — My Hands-On Guide

You know me — when a new capability drops that connects automation with AI, I have to play with it. And the launch of MCP servers inside Tines is one of those features that made me sit up and think, “This changes the game.”

Let’s walk through what this means, why it matters, and exactly how to set one up — step by step — with plenty of code, screenshots, and my own tips from tinkering.

Why MCP Servers Matter

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol — a standard that lets AI assistants talk to “servers” that provide context and tools. Think of it as a way to give your AI agent superpowers — live data, actions, workflows — anything you can orchestrate.

By letting you build MCP servers inside Tines, your Storyboards now become AI-accessible toolkits. That means your Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP‑aware client can:

• Trigger Tines workflows on demand
• Access structured data you curate
• Use Tines as a gateway to otherwise protected APIs

In other words: your automations just became first-class citizens in your AI stack.

What You Can Build

Here are a few ideas, based on what Tines suggests — and what I’d build myself:

• Send-to-Story Access: Expose a simple trigger for your agent to kick off Tines workflows.
• Custom Tools: Wrap third‑party API calls (think Infoblox, Meraki, NetBox) with auth + error handling.
• Context Providers: Feed live business or security data into an AI session.

My own experiments? I’d build:

• A security posture server: agent can ask “who has local admin rights?” and get a real‑time answer.
• A workflow recommender: agent suggests next steps based on pending incidents.
• A data enrichment tool: look up IPs/domains, pull threat intel, and return structured results.

Step-by-Step: Setting Up an MCP Server in Tines

Let’s get practical. Here’s exactly how you can do this today.

1. Add the MCP Server Action

• Open your Storyboard.
• Drag in the MCP Server Action from the palette.
• Select it and open the Summary pane.
• Copy the client configuration snippet you see.

2. Configure Your Client (Claude Desktop Example)

Claude Desktop doesn’t yet support remote MCP servers directly — so you’ll use mcp-remote as a proxy.

Here’s the JSON config you’ll paste into Claude’s Developer settings:

{ "mcpServers": { "tines": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "mcp-remote", "https://<tenant>.tines.com/mcp/<mcp-path>", "--header", "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}", "--transport", "http-only" ], "env": { "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <webhook-secret-or-api-key>" } } }
} 

Replace:

• <tenant> → your Tines tenant name
• <mcp-path> → the path from your MCP Server Action
• <webhook-secret-or-api-key> → your secret for authentication

3. For Clients with Remote Support (Cursor, VS Code)

If your client supports remote MCP servers natively, you can use this simpler config:

{ "mcpServers": { "tines": { "url": "https://<tenant>.tines.com/mcp/<mcp-path>", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <webhook-secret-or-api-key>" } } }
} 

4. Test It!

• Launch your client.
• Ask it to call one of your tools.
• Watch the Storyboard run in real‑time.

If it doesn’t work, check:

• Path + auth header values
• Tines logs for incoming requests
• That your Storyboard is published

Tips and Best Practices

Here’s what I learned while experimenting:

Final Thoughts

This is a huge unlock for AI + automation builders. Your Storyboards are no longer siloed — they’re now callable microservices that can power entire AI workflows.

So here’s my challenge to you:

1. Build your first MCP Server in Tines.
2. Hook it up to Claude or Cursor.
3. Share what you built — I’d love to feature the most creative setups in a future post.

And if you run into trouble, drop me a message. Let’s build some seriously cool AI‑powered automations together.

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