Learn how to use the Xano MCP Server with an MCP client to build your entire backend with AI
The Metadata API and MCP Server are experimental and under active development. Using them with AI or automation tools may result in data loss, corruption, or deletion. Do not use in production without full safeguards and backups.
The Xano MCP Server is a collection of tools that you can connect to using your favorite MCP client of choice, to chat with your Xano backend. The MCP server has a great number of tools available to help you build and manage your workspace with AI. Here are just a few examples:
Create database tables and update table schema
Generate sample data
Build APIs, custom functions, background tasks, AI agents, and any other type of logic or workflow
Gather the OpenAPI spec for your workspace to assist with frontend development
Xano MCP Tools
A list of all the tools available in the Xano MCP Server
Access Tokens are used for authentication when connecting to the Xano MCP server. Head to your instance selection screen and click the⚙️ icon next to your instance.Choose Metadata API & MCP Server, and click Manage Access Tokens.Click New Access Token.Give your access token a name, and select the scopes you need. Click Create at the bottom of the panel. You can read more about the scopes in our Token Scopes Reference.You’ll only be shown your token once, so make sure to copy it and store it in a safe place.
2
Connect with your client of choice
Right now, we recommend using VS Code over other clients. We’re working to improve the experience across the board, but in our testing, VS Code has performed the best while using the Xano MCP Server with the ChatGPT 4o model.
VS Code
Cursor
Windsurf
You can add an MCP server to a specific project, or to your user configuration to make it available across all projects.MCP Servers in VS Code require access to Copilot.
You’ll be asked for the URL to connect to your server, which you can find in the MCP Server panel in your instance settings. Use the streaming URL.
Getting the URL
Then, give VS Code a name for your server.
5
Add authentication information
You’ll need to manually add the authentication information for the MCP server. You’ll need the access token you generated earlier.Add a comma after type, and then on a new line, add "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer token_here"}.
Adding authentication information
Save the file.
6
You're ready to use the Xano MCP Server in VS Code