Render Useful MCP

render-useful-mcp

A Model Context Protocol server for Render that exposes every endpoint of the official Render Public API, plus a handful of higher-level tools for the workflows the raw API makes tedious.

Written in TypeScript. Every API tool is generated from Render's own OpenAPI document, so coverage is complete by construction and stays that way.

213 tools: all 208 operations of the Render Public API (spec version 1.0.0), plus 5 workflow tools for the sequences the raw API makes tedious.

📖 [Documentation site](https://lusrodri.github.io/render-useful-mcp/) · tool catalogue · llms.txt

Why this one

Most API wrappers stop at a curated subset of endpoints, which drifts out of date and leaves you stuck the moment you need something the author skipped.

• Complete, by construction. Every operation in Render's own OpenAPI document becomes a tool. Everything the API allows your key to do is reachable out of the box — no opt-in required.
• Usable by a model. Names resolve to ids fuzzily, your workspace id is filled in automatically, deploys can be waited on in one call, and failures come back with a hint instead of a bare status code.
• Narrowable when you want it. Every toolset is on by default; RENDER_MCP_TOOLSETS and RENDER_MCP_READ_ONLY exist to restrict the surface deliberately, not to gate it.
• Honest about risk. MCP destructive/read-only/idempotent annotations are derived from real HTTP semantics, so clients can make sensible auto-approval decisions — including the PUTs that replace a whole collection, where everything the caller omits is deleted. Secrets are redacted from logs.

Install

Both buttons prefill the config with a placeholder API key — replace it after install.

Claude Code — install it globally, so it is there in every project:

claude mcp add render --scope user -e RENDER_API_KEY=rnd_your_key -- npx -y render-useful-mcp

--scope user is the part that matters. Claude Code defaults to local scope, which registers the server for the current directory only — so it works where you installed it and is missing everywhere else, which is the usual reason a freshly added server seems to disappear. The three scopes are:

Confirm with claude mcp list, and re-run the command with --scope user if render is not listed from an unrelated directory.

Claude Code, as a plugin — this wires up the server and its docs in one step, and plugins are installed globally by nature:

/plugin marketplace add LuSrodri/render-useful-mcp

/plugin install render-useful-mcp@lusrodri-render

Export RENDER_API_KEY in the shell that launches Claude Code; the plugin reads it from the environment rather than storing it. See plugin/README.md.

Claude for macOS and Windows, as a desktop extension — download the .mcpb bundle from the latest release and open it. Claude installs it and asks for the API key in a form, so nothing is configured by hand. The bundle ships its own dependencies; it does not need npm or a global Node install.

Desktop installs default to the services, logs and env-groups toolsets rather than the whole catalogue, because every tool definition costs context in every conversation. Set the Toolsets field to all, or to any comma-separated list, to change that.

Requires Node.js ≥ 20.11 for every install route except the desktop extension.

npm install -g render-useful-mcp

Or run it without installing, which is what most MCP client configs do:

npx -y render-useful-mcp

It is also listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.LuSrodri/render-useful-mcp, so clients that browse the registry can find and configure it without being pointed at the npm package by hand.

Configure your MCP client

Get an API key from Render Dashboard → Account Settings → API Keys.

Claude Code — globally, as above:

claude mcp add render --scope user -e RENDER_API_KEY=rnd_your_key -- npx -y render-useful-mcp

Add RENDER_WORKSPACE_ID the same way if you know it:

claude mcp add render --scope user \

-e RENDER_API_KEY=rnd_your_key \ -e RENDER_WORKSPACE_ID=tea_your_workspace_id \ -- npx -y render-useful-mcp

Claude Desktop / any client using `mcpServers` — add to the config file:

{

"mcpServers": { "render": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "render-useful-mcp"], "env": { "RENDER_API_KEY": "rnd_your_key_here", "RENDER_WORKSPACE_ID": "tea_your_workspace_id" } } } }

RENDER_WORKSPACE_ID is optional but recommended: many Render endpoints require an ownerId that the model has no way to guess, and setting it removes a lookup from nearly every session. Find it with the render_list_owners tool, or read it from your dashboard URL.

Configuration

Toolsets

All 17 toolsets are enabled by default — the server exposes everything your API key is allowed to reach. Toolsets are a way to _narrow_ the surface on purpose, not a gate you have to unlock.

Reasons you might narrow it anyway:

// A client that struggles with the full catalogue, or a session scoped to one job.

"env": { "RENDER_MCP_TOOLSETS": "services,logs,metrics" }

// An agent that should be able to look but not touch. "env": { "RENDER_MCP_READ_ONLY": "true" }

If you do narrow it, the model can still call render_toolsets to see everything that exists and which groups are switched off, so it can tell you exactly what to change. Widening the surface means editing RENDER_MCP_TOOLSETS and restarting the server: protocol revision 2026-07-28 requires the result of tools/list not to vary per connection or as a side effect of another call, so the enabled set is fixed at startup.

Tools

Workflow tools

These are always available, in any toolset configuration. They exist because the equivalent raw sequence is several calls the model usually gets wrong on the first try.

| render_recent_logs | Fetches recent log lines for a service, resolving the s