ZennoPoster: browsers of running tasks

English | Русский

Connecting the ZennoPoster and ZennoDroid MCP servers to your own LLM client

The MCP servers are published as self-contained win-x64 binaries via GitHub Releases in the shared repository https://github.com/ZennoLab/zennoposter-mcp/releases. Each server has its own release line (its own tag prefix):

• ProjectMaker (editor) — tags mcp-projectmaker-v*, archive MCP.ProjectMaker-v*-win-x64.zip
• Instance (browser control, dual-mount) — tags mcp-instance-v*, archive MCP.Instance-v*-win-x64.zip
• ZennoPoster (task runner) — tags mcp-zennoposter-v*, archive MCP.ZennoPoster-v*-win-x64.zip
• Android (ZennoDroid device) — tags mcp-android-v*, archive MCP.Android-v*-win-x64.zip

PublicApi documentation (the OpenAPI contract rendered with Redoc, the integrator guide, error codes, versioning policy) lives at https://zennolab.github.io/zennoposter-mcp/ (the pages are published from the docs/ folder of this repository).

These servers talk to ZennoPoster 7.9.3 and newer and to ZennoDroid 2.6.1 and newer. MCP.Instance applies to ZennoPoster only and MCP.Android to ZennoDroid only; MCP.ProjectMaker and MCP.ZennoPoster apply to both. Which server version goes with which product and contract version: https://zennolab.github.io/zennoposter-mcp/compatibility.html.

Install buttons for Cursor and VS Code and the Claude Code commands for every server: https://zennolab.github.io/zennoposter-mcp/install.html.

The model: your own MCP instance with your own key

The product itself starts internal MCP servers for its built-in AI chat — they live on the internal port band 6107–6113 (on ZennoDroid everything is shifted by +10), receive a least-privilege service key from the host, and ignore the Authorization header of incoming requests. This is internal infrastructure: connecting to it from outside is not supported (permissions there are defined by the service key, not yours), and its ports must not be occupied — a foreign process on a port from this band prevents the built-in server from starting (the product logs an error, but its AI stack is left without that server).

Those internal servers have no console of their own, so the product copies everything they write to their output into its own log, each line prefixed with the process name (MCP.ProjectMaker, Orchestrator, …). Ordinary start-up chatter is tagged Debug and never reaches the log at all; only what the server itself reports as a warning or a failure, and the exit code of a server that dies unprompted, actually get written. That is the place to look when the built-in chat loses one of its servers.

Those internal servers also expect a per-machine secret that the product hands only to its own AI processes, so being able to reach the port is no longer enough to use one: a call without it is refused with `401`, and the refusal is written to the product's log as ingress refused. The same goes for the built-in chat's own API on 6113. If you were calling those ports from your own client, run your own copy on the public band instead, as described below.

For your own LLM client you run a separate copy of the MCP server from the public package: it listens on a public port (the tables below) and talks to the same product PublicApi, but with your ApiKey — with the scopes/tier you chose when issuing the key. Both copies run side by side without interfering with each other.

On ZennoDroid the two servers that serve both products listen +10 higher — MCP.ProjectMaker on 6217, MCP.ZennoPoster on 6220 — the same shift the product applies to its internal band. That way a machine with both products installed can run both sets at once. MCP.Android exists only on ZennoDroid and keeps 6211: nothing on ZennoPoster occupies it.

Default ports, one table per product. A server takes its listen port and BaseUrl from the appsettings.json next to its exe; the ports marked ¹ have no such defaults and are passed on the command line together with the matching BaseUrl (and Target), as in the examples of step 3.

ZennoPoster

ZennoDroid

¹ Not a built-in default: set it explicitly (--urls plus the matching BaseUrl; the commands are in step 3).

Everything can be overridden through standard ASP.NET Core configuration: the appsettings.json next to the exe, environment variables (ASPNETCORE_URLS, ProjectMaker__ApiKey, …) or command-line arguments (--urls, --ProjectMaker:ApiKey=…, …) — arguments override environment variables, environment variables override appsettings.json.

1. Download the server you need

On the releases page find the latest release of the server you need (by tag prefix), download its *-win-x64.zip and unpack it into any folder. Each archive is a single self-contained .exe + appsettings.json; no additional .NET runtime is required. For Claude Desktop take the .mcpb bundle of the same release instead, see Claude Desktop: install from an .mcpb bundle.

2. Issue an ApiKey

In ProjectMaker: Settings → Api-Keys → Add new API key — a dialog of the same name opens:

1. Set a Label (an arbitrary key name, to tell keys apart in the list).
2. Choose the Max tier (the minimum sufficient for your tasks — T0 for read-only, higher for mutating operations).
3. Tick the Scopes you need (only *:read are ticked by default; add others as needed).
4. Press Generate API Key — the raw key is shown once; copy it to a safe place immediately.

More on scopes/tiers — security-model.md.

3. Run the server with your key

The key is set in the MCP server's own configuration (not in the MCP client's headers — the server accepts connections from loopback only and does not read the Authorization header of incoming requests). A server whose port in the tables above has no ¹ can take the key from ApiKey in the appsettings.json next to its exe and start with no arguments; the ports marked ¹ are always set on the command line, together with the matching BaseUrl (and Target). The key can also be passed as an environment variable or an argument, as below. Run only the servers you need, from the block of your product.

ZennoPoster

# ProjectMaker (editor): 6207 -> :5299

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.ProjectMaker.exe --ProjectMaker:ApiKey=zp_xxx

Instance for the editor (PM browser): 6208 -> :5299

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.Instance.exe --Instance:ApiKey=zp_xxx

Instance for the runner — a SECOND copy of the same exe: the port and the Target/BaseUrl pair are set explicitly

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.Instance.exe --urls http://localhost:6209 --Instance:Target=zennoposter --Instance:BaseUrl=http://localhost:5300/api/v1 --Instance:ApiKey=zp_xxx

ZennoPoster (runner tasks/sessions): 6210 -> :5300

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.ZennoPoster.exe --ZennoPoster:ApiKey=zp_xxx

ZennoDroid

# ProjectMaker (editor): 6217 -> :5309

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.ProjectMaker.exe --urls http://localhost:6217 ` --ProjectMaker:BaseUrl=http://localhost:5309/api/v1 --ProjectMaker:ApiKey=zp_xxx

ZennoDroid (runner tasks/sessions): 6220 -> :5310

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.ZennoPoster.exe --urls http://localhost:6220 ` --ZennoPoster:BaseUrl=http://localhost:5310/api/v1 --ZennoPoster:ApiKey=zp_xxx

Android (the device attached to ProjectMaker): 6211 -> :5309

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.Android.exe --Android:ApiKey=zp_xxx

Android for the runner — a SECOND copy of the same exe, for the devices of running tasks:

the port and the Target/BaseUrl pair are set explicitly

.\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.Android.exe --urls http://localhost:6212 --Android:Target=zennoposter --Android:BaseUrl=http://localhost:5310/api/v1 --Android:ApiKey=zp_xxx

MCP.Android mounts twice for the same reason MCP.Instance does on ZennoPoster: the Android domain is served both by ProjectMaker's PublicApi (the device you see in the editor) and by the runner's (the devices its tasks are driving). Like MCP.Instance it takes a Target — projectmaker for the editor's device, zennoposter for the runner's — which selects the instructions the server hands to the AI at initialize (one device whose id may be left at 0, versus one device per worker thread with the id taken from list_devices); the tool set is the same either way. Target and BaseUrl are set together as a pair, exactly as for MCP.Instance (see the note below). Target appeared in MCP.Android 0.4.0; earlier versions differ only by --urls and BaseUrl.

Important note on the two copies of `MCP.Instance` and of `MCP.Android`: for these servers, Target (which instructions they serve to the AI — about the ProjectMaker editor or about the runner) and BaseUrl (where HTTP requests actually go) are configured only together, as a pair, and are not linked in code (Target=projectmaker → BaseUrl at the PM PublicApi :5299, Target=zennoposter → BaseUrl at the ZP PublicApi :5300; on ZennoDroid :5309 and :5310). On startup the server makes a best-effort check via the target host's /capabilities and logs a warning on mismatch, but if the target host is unreachable at startup the check is silently skipped — a mismatch is then not detected, and the AI gets instructions about one host while requests go to another.

stdio: the server as a subprocess of your client

Besides listening on a port, every server can speak MCP over its own stdin and stdout. Start the exe with --stdio and the client that launched it owns the connection: there is no port to pick, nothing else on the machine can reach the server, and several clients can each run their own copy. This is the mode MCPB bundles and Claude Desktop use; Claude Code and MCP Inspector support it as well. The mode is available from server versions 0.5.0 (ProjectMaker, ZennoPoster, Android) and 0.3.0 (Instance).

Only JSON-RPC goes to stdout; every log line goes to stderr. The key is read from the configuration as usual, which for a subprocess means the environment variable __ApiKey (ProjectMaker__ApiKey, Instance__ApiKey, ZennoPoster__ApiKey, Android__ApiKey); the -- :ApiKey= argument and appsettings.json next to the exe work too. The Instance and Android copies take their Target and BaseUrl pair the same way (Instance__Target, Instance__BaseUrl, and so on).

# Claude Code: -e stores the value in the server's own config entry, not in the launch command

line - without it the key only reaches the server in this one session, from this one shell.

$env:ProjectMakerApiKey = " " claude mcp add projectmaker --transport stdio -e "ProjectMakerApiKey=$env:ProjectMaker__ApiKey" -- "C:\mcp\ZennoLab.AI.MCP.ProjectMaker.exe" --stdio

The same entries for a client that reads a mcpServers configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor