📣 Campaign Monitor MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that exposes the full Campaign Monitor (createsend) v3.3 API — 117 tools across 9 resource categories — to MCP-compatible clients like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and the MCP Inspector.

Authenticates with a Campaign Monitor API key (simplest, recommended) or via OAuth 2.0 with an auto-refreshing access token. Runs locally over stdio.

Features

• Complete API coverage — account, clients, campaigns, lists, segments, subscribers, templates, transactional email, and journeys. Includes destructive/sending operations (send campaign, send transactional email, delete) — these are flagged with ⚠️ in their descriptions and tagged with the MCP destructiveHint annotation.
• Simple auth — drop in an API key and go. OAuth 2.0 is available as an optional alternative (with automatic refresh-token rotation persisted to a local store).
• Category filtering — expose only the categories you need via CM_ENABLED_CATEGORIES to keep the tool surface small.

Install from npm

You don't need to clone or build — run it straight from npm with npx, which is also how you point an MCP client at it (-y auto-confirms the one-time download):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "campaign-monitor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp"],
      "env": { "CM_API_KEY": "your-api-key" }
    }
  }
}

Or install the CLI globally: npm install -g @kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp, then the campaign-monitor-mcp command is available on your PATH.

See Registering the MCP server for per-client setup. To run from source instead (for development), see Running from source.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• A Campaign Monitor account and an API key (Account settings → API keys). OAuth credentials are an optional alternative — see Using OAuth instead.

Install & build

npm install      # also builds via the prepare hook
npm run build    # or build manually

Configure

Copy the example env file and fill it in:

cp .env.example .env

API key (recommended)

1. In Campaign Monitor, click your account name (top-right) → Account settings → API keys, and copy the API key.

   • The account-level key (top-level account settings) can access every client, so the account and clients tools work. A client-level key (inside a specific client's settings) is scoped to just that client.

2. Set it in .env — this is the only credential you need:

   CM_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
   

   Leave the OAuth variables blank. The server uses the API key automatically whenever no OAuth refresh token is present.

Using OAuth instead (optional)

OAuth lets the server use short-lived, scoped, revocable tokens instead of a static key. It takes more setup. Skip this entirely if you're using an API key.

1. Register an OAuth application. Log in, open Integrations in the top nav (select a client first if prompted), then OAuth Registration in the right sidebar. Fill in an application name, a description, and set the Redirect / Callback URI to http://127.0.0.1:53682/callback (it must match CM_REDIRECT_URI exactly). Submit to get a Client ID and Client Secret.

2. Put CM_CLIENT_ID and CM_CLIENT_SECRET in .env.

3. Run the one-time bootstrap — it opens your browser, you approve the scopes, and a refresh token is stored (and printed so you can paste CM_REFRESH_TOKEN into .env as a backup):

   npm run auth
   

When all three OAuth variables are present they take precedence over CM_API_KEY.

Verify

npm run smoke        # auth + GET /clients + GET /billingdetails (no writes)
npm run inspector    # build + open the MCP Inspector against the server

Registering the MCP server

The server is a local stdio process: an MCP client launches it with npx and talks to it over stdin/stdout. You register it once per client by pointing the client at the package and supplying credentials as environment variables.

The only prerequisite is Node.js 20+. npx -y @kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp downloads and runs the package on first use (and caches it) — no clone, no build, no paths to manage.

The credentials block is the same for every client — just your API key:

"env": {
  "CM_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
}

Tip: you can omit env entirely if you keep CM_API_KEY in the project's .env file — the server loads it on startup. (Using OAuth instead? Put CM_CLIENT_ID, CM_CLIENT_SECRET, and CM_REFRESH_TOKEN in the env block instead of CM_API_KEY.)

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json (create it if missing):

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "campaign-monitor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CM_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save and fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop. The tools appear under the 🔌 (MCP) icon in the chat input.

Claude Code (CLI)

Register with one command (no manual JSON editing):

claude mcp add campaign-monitor \
  --env CM_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -- npx -y @kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp

Add --scope user to make it available in every project (default is the current project only). Verify with claude mcp list, and inside a session run /mcp to see the tools. Remove with claude mcp remove campaign-monitor.

Cursor / Windsurf / other MCP clients

Any client that supports local stdio MCP servers uses the same shape. Add to the client's MCP config (e.g. Cursor's ~/.cursor/mcp.json or a project .cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "campaign-monitor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CM_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Limiting the exposed tools

117 tools is a lot to load at once. To register only the categories you need, add CM_ENABLED_CATEGORIES to the env block, e.g.:

"env": { "CM_ENABLED_CATEGORIES": "campaigns,lists,subscribers", "...": "..." }

Test the registration first

Before wiring into a client, confirm the server boots and lists tools with the Inspector:

npm run inspector   # opens the MCP Inspector against node dist/index.js

Running from source

For development (or to run a local build instead of the published package), clone the repo, install, and point the client at the built entry file with node:

git clone https://github.com/kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp.git
cd campaign-monitor-mcp
npm install        # builds via the prepare hook

Then use this config shape instead of the npx one above (use the absolute path):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "campaign-monitor": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/campaign-monitor-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": { "CM_API_KEY": "your-api-key" }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

• "No Campaign Monitor credentials found" — the env block is missing/misspelled, or (from source) .env isn't being read. Provide credentials in the client config's env.
• Server doesn't appear / "failed to start" — ensure node (v20+) is on the client's PATH; some GUI clients don't inherit your shell PATH, so use an absolute path to npx (run which npx) or to node. From source, also confirm you ran npm install/npm run build and used an absolute path to dist/index.js.
• npx can't find the package — confirm the scoped name @kanopi/campaign-monitor-mcp is spelled correctly and published; clear a stale cache with npx clear-npx-cache.
• 401 / authentication errors at runtime — using an API key: confirm it's correct and not revoked (and that an account-level key is used for account/clients tools). Using OAuth: the refresh token expired or was revoked — re-run npm run auth.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
CM_API_KEY	API key (recommended). Used unless OAuth credentials are present.
CM_ENABLED_CATEGORIES	Comma-separated list to limit exposed tool categories
CM_CLIENT_ID / CM_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth application credentials (optional)
CM_REFRESH_TOKEN	OAuth seed refresh token, from npm run auth (optional)
CM_REDIRECT_URI	OAuth redirect URI (default http://127.0.0.1:53682/callback)
CM_SCOPES	Scopes requested during npm run auth
CM_TOKEN_STORE	Path to the OAuth token store file

Tool catalog

Tools follow a cm_<verb>_<resource> naming convention. Counts by category:

Category	Tools	Examples
account	13	cm_list_clients, cm_get_billing_details, cm_add_admin
clients	30	cm_create_client, cm_get_client_lists, cm_suppress_emails
campaigns	15	cm_create_campaign, cm_send_campaign ⚠️, cm_get_campaign_summary
lists	22	cm_create_list, cm_create_custom_field, cm_create_webhook
segments	7	cm_create_segment, cm_get_segment_subscribers
subscribers	7	cm_add_subscriber, cm_import_subscribers, cm_unsubscribe_subscriber
templates	5	cm_create_template, cm_copy_template
transactional	9	cm_send_smart_email ⚠️, cm_send_classic_email ⚠️, cm_get_transactional_statistics
journeys	9	cm_get_journey, cm_copy_journey, cm_publish_event

Notes & limits

• Destructive tools are enabled by default (per the build spec). Your MCP client's permission prompts are the safety gate. To hard-disable a category, omit it from CM_ENABLED_CATEGORIES.
• Responses are returned as JSON. XML responses are not supported.
• Rate limiting (HTTP 429) is honored with a single bounded retry using Retry-After.
• Custom field keys are passed including their brackets, e.g. [MyField].

License

MIT