Agent Server and MCP Access

Table of Contents

Issuenator provides an optional Agent Server you can enable to let your favorite agent perform actions in Issuenator through MCP. This setting is disabled by default; when you enable it, Issuenator runs a local server that enables MCP access.

What your agent can do #

The Agent Server is designed to let your agent help you manage issues, including:

Summarize new activity for you
Plan work based on tags related to issue priority or other details that only exist locally in Issuenator, not in GitHub
Triage incoming requests on your behalf by applying tags, proposing filters, and clearing notifications
Manage the repositories and issues you watch through Issuenator

The agent works through MCP tools that enable it to access things you can also do in the UI, such as:

List issues, including seeing custom tags you’ve applied or whether you’ve seen updates
Add and remove repositories
Create filters
Mark inbox items and updates as viewed
Create and apply tags
Archive and delete issues

Everything an agent does gets a UI indicator so you can keep an eye on what agents are doing, and decide whether to accept or revert agent changes. For example:

Agent-proposed filters get an Agent label next to the name in the Manage Filters UI
Issues where agents have taken some action get a new Agent Activity section that summarizes the actions an agent has done
You can access an Agent Actions UI that aggregates all pending, approved, and reverted actions an agent has taken in the app, so you can bulk accept or revert or see a history of what the agent has done
Agent activities appear in the app log as a filterable drop-down, and there is a separate agent actions log you can view and export if you need it for compliance activities

Performing destructive actions #

The Agent Server holds destructive actions for your approval.

In the Issuenator UI, you can view pending destructive actions in Agent Actions and approve or decline them.

If your agent harness supports it, Issuenator also uses an MCP protocol feature called elicitation to have the harness client ask for human approval when taking destructive actions. This shows up as a dialog in your terminal or GUI asking you to approve or deny the action the agent has proposed.

Most destructive actions can be reverted, but a few of them can’t, including:

Removing a repository from Issuenator; once a repository is removed, all of its watched issues and Issuenator history is also removed
Ignoring an issue in a repository you’re not watching; once you ignore it, it is removed from Issuenator
Clearing archived issues; once archived issues are deleted, no history is retained in Issuenator

The Agent Server takes extra care around these activities, which is why we request human approval when an agent attempts to perform them. However, this extra approval step is only available in harnesses that support MCP elicitation.

The full list of destructive actions that Issuenator holds pending approval includes:

Issues
- Mark viewed
- Ignore
- Archive
- Delete
Repositories
- Remove repositories

Approve or Revert Agent Actions #

Issuenator provides several ways to approve or revert agent writes:

Issues #

In any issue where an agent has taken actions, you’ll see an Agent Activity section. Use the buttons to Accept or Revert the actions listed there.

Filters #

In the Filters -> Manage Filters view, you can see a list of all filters. Any filter proposed by an agent gets an Agent label, and is paused by default. Review the proposed filters, and press the Play icon to apply a proposed filter. Alternately, you can edit the filter before applying it, or delete the filter.

Review Agent Actions #

There are two ways to access the Agent Actions UI where you can see details about all agent activity:

Expand More in the app’s main sidebar and select Agent Actions.
Go to the Logs menu, and select Agent Actions.

The Agent Actions UI provides three lists:

Pending destructive actions that are waiting your approval
A summary of applied changes for your review, which you can choose to accept or revert
A history of activity and your choices about reviewed and pending activity

Enable the Agent Server #

To enable the Agent Server:

Go to the Issuenator menu, select Settings, and go to the Agent Server tab.
Optional: you can change the proposed port, if the default port is busy on your machine.
Toggle the “Enable agent server” to on.
Optional: toggle “Allow agent writes” to let an agent perform actions on your behalf. Without this toggle enabled, the agent can still list issues and get incoming details through read-only Issuenator tools, but cannot make any changes to your local data.

The Agent Server only runs when the Issuenator app is open.

Connect your agent #

The first time you enable the Agent Server, you must register the MCP tools with your preferred agent.

Whenever you close the Issuenator app, the MCP tools disconnect and you may need to reconnect them when you open the app again.

Add the MCP server #

When you enable the Agent Server, the Issuenator app writes the authentication token to your macOS Keychain.

You can use the supplied command to register the Issuenator Agent Server with Claude Code, or use your own agent’s MCP registration process to register with a different agent.

Install with Claude Code #

Run register commands from your terminal, not a running agent session. Pasting the command risks your agent deciding to run it, which can write the authentication token into the agent session and send it to your agent provider’s API. This exposes your authentication token; if you paste it into your agent session, you should use the Regenerate Token button to rotate the token.

After you register the server, use your preferred harness to connect to the MCP tools. In Claude Code, type /mcp into a Claude Code session and select issuenator from the MCP servers listed there.

Install globally #

If you want the Issuenator MCP tools to be available in a Claude Code session you start from anywhere on your filesystem, install the MCP at the user level.

Paste the following command. Replace the <PORT> in the command below with the port where your Agent Server is running:

claude mcp add --transport http issuenator http://127.0.0.1:<PORT>/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $(security find-generic-password -s Issuenator-agent-token -a mcp -w)" --scope user

The --scope user flag makes it available globally.

Install in a project #

If you only want to use the Issuenator MCP tools when you’re in a specific project:

Use cd to enter the project directory in your terminal.
Paste the following command. Replace the <PORT> in the command below with the port where your Agent Server is running:

claude mcp add --transport http issuenator http://127.0.0.1:<PORT>/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $(security find-generic-password -s Issuenator-agent-token -a mcp -w)"

Reconnect after closing the app #

The Agent Server only runs when the Issuenator app is running. Harnesses may see the MCP server tools as disconnected when you close the app, and you may need to reconnect again after you re-open the Issuenator app.

In Claude Code, type /mcp into the Claude session and select issuenator from the MCP servers listed there.

Rotate an Agent Server token #

If you have pasted your agent server token into your agent’s running session, or if you rotate tokens regularly, you can generate a new token for the Issuenator MCP server.

To rotate an Issuenator Agent Server token:

Go to the Issuenator menu, select Settings, and go to the Agent Server tab.
Press the Regenerate Token button.
Remove the MCP server from your preferred harness. In Claude Code, the command is claude mcp remove issuenator
Add the MCP server again using the supplied command. For example, claude mcp add with the full string provided above.
Reconnect the MCP tools from your running agent session. In Claude Code, type /mcp into the Claude session and select issuenator from the MCP servers listed there.