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Personal access tokens for the MCP server and the GraphQL API

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
25/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
graphql, typescript
Domain
authentication, backend-api-design, frontend, security

Research direction

Start by reading the referenced auth plugin, auth-context provider, MCP auth files, and upstream GraphQL client, then review the existing API-key helper and connector-gaps document. Trace how JWT identity, memberships, forwarding, rate limits, and audit logging currently work before deciding the PAT design. Done means the listed acceptance criteria pass, including creation and revocation through the client, scope and membership enforcement, 401 responses, and the required checks.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement

Part of #4611 (step M4, phase 4).

Context

Some MCP hosts, as well as headless and CI clients, cannot complete interactive OAuth.

The current workaround should not be recommended. It means copying the web app's access token from the browser into a client's Authorization header. This works, because both the MCP server and the GraphQL API accept any valid Auth0 access token for the shared audience. But the token:

  • is short-lived and never refreshes;
  • carries the user's full API power;
  • is taken from the SPA's localStorage.

The existing API keys are not a substitute:

  • They live in accounter_schema.api_keys, are sent as X-API-Key, and are managed with generateApiKey / listApiKeys / revokeApiKey.
  • They are restricted to the scraper and gmail_listener roles (packages/server/src/modules/auth/helpers/api-keys.helper.ts).
  • Each key is pinned to one business.
  • The MCP server only accepts JWTs (packages/mcp-server/src/auth/token.ts, verifier.ts), so it can't take an API key.

Scope

Token model. User-scoped personal access tokens (PATs) that are:

  • hashed at rest;
  • named;
  • required to expire;
  • revocable;
  • tracked by last use;
  • least privilege: read-only by default, with explicit opt-in for write scopes;
  • optionally restricted to a subset of the user's businesses.

Server. Add a PAT path to packages/server/src/plugins/auth-plugin.ts and auth-context.provider.ts. It resolves to the owning user's identity and memberships, intersected with the token's scopes and businesses.

MCP server.

  • Accept PATs alongside JWTs and forward them upstream. src/upstream/graphql-client.ts currently forwards Authorization.
  • Key rate limits and audit lines by user.

Client. Add create, list and revoke UI, either on the Account page from #4615 or under Access Management.

Audit. Write audit-log entries when a token is created, used and revoked.

Acceptance criteria

  • A user creates a read-only PAT, uses it in an MCP client's header config and against GraphQL, then revokes it.
  • Revoked and expired tokens get 401.
  • A PAT never grants more than its owner currently has. Removing a membership takes effect immediately.
  • yarn generate, yarn lint and yarn test pass.

Dependencies

Phase 4. Independent of #4616 and #4617. The UI may reuse the Account page from #4615.

References

  • packages/server/src/plugins/auth-plugin.ts
  • packages/server/src/modules/auth/providers/auth-context.provider.ts
  • packages/server/src/modules/auth/helpers/api-keys.helper.ts
  • packages/mcp-server/src/auth/, src/upstream/graphql-client.ts
  • packages/mcp-server/docs/connector-gaps-and-decisions.md (gap 3: shared audience)
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
30
Forks
8
Avg merge
2d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
176

Getting set up

This project ships no dev container, Dockerfile or contributing guide, so setting up is up to you: start from its README, and see our first-contribution guide for the general steps.

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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