Help Scout
Connects Claude and other AI assistants to Help Scout customer support data with advanced search capabilities, conversation analysis, and enterprise-grade security features including PII redaction.
What is Help Scout?
Help Scout is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to connects claude and other ai assistants to help scout customer support data with advanced search capabilities, conversation analysis, and enterprise-grade security features including pii redaction.
Connects Claude and other AI assistants to Help Scout customer support data with advanced search capabilities, conversation analysis, and enterprise-grade security features including PII redaction.
This server falls under the Communication category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Connects Claude and other AI assistants to Help Scout custom
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
NPM
npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverManual Installation
npx -y help-scout-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Help Scout
The Help Scout MCP Server connects Claude and other AI assistants directly to your Help Scout customer support data, enabling them to search conversations, look up customers, browse organizations, and summarize ticket threads through natural language. It supports advanced filtering, cross-inbox search, and optional PII redaction via REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT — making it safe to use with sensitive customer data. Support teams and analysts use it to dramatically speed up ticket triage, root-cause analysis, and customer health reviews.
Prerequisites
- A Help Scout account with API credentials — obtain HELPSCOUT_APP_ID and HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET from your Help Scout developer settings
- Node.js 18+ installed (required to run the npx command)
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, or Claude Code
- Optional: a specific inbox ID (HELPSCOUT_DEFAULT_INBOX_ID) if you want to scope searches to one mailbox
Create a Help Scout OAuth application
Log in to Help Scout, go to Your Profile > My Apps > Create My App, and note the App ID and App Secret. These become HELPSCOUT_APP_ID and HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET.
Add the server to your MCP client configuration
Edit your claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) to register help-scout-mcp-server with your credentials.
{
"mcpServers": {
"helpscout": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "help-scout-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"HELPSCOUT_APP_ID": "your-app-id",
"HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET": "your-app-secret"
}
}
}
}Optionally enable PII redaction
If you need to protect customer message bodies from being visible to the AI, set REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT to true in the env block. Metadata such as subject and timestamps remain available.
"env": {
"HELPSCOUT_APP_ID": "your-app-id",
"HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET": "your-app-secret",
"REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT": "true"
}Restart Claude Desktop and verify the tools load
Restart your MCP client. The Help Scout tools — including searchConversations, listCustomers, and getConversationSummary — should appear in the tool list.
Run your first conversation search
Ask Claude to find recent support tickets. The server authenticates via OAuth2 client credentials automatically using your APP_ID and APP_SECRET.
Help Scout Examples
Client configuration
Complete claude_desktop_config.json entry with required credentials and optional PII redaction.
{
"mcpServers": {
"helpscout": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "help-scout-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"HELPSCOUT_APP_ID": "abc123",
"HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET": "supersecretvalue",
"HELPSCOUT_DEFAULT_INBOX_ID": "123456",
"REDACT_MESSAGE_CONTENT": "false",
"LOG_LEVEL": "warn"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts demonstrating the key Help Scout MCP tools.
- "Show me all active support tickets opened this week"
- "Find conversations about billing errors from the last 30 days"
- "Look up the customer profile for [email protected] and show her recent tickets"
- "Summarize conversation #42839 and identify the main issue"
- "List all organizations tagged as 'enterprise' and show their open ticket counts"Troubleshooting Help Scout
Authentication fails with 401 Unauthorized
Double-check that HELPSCOUT_APP_ID and HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET match the values shown in Help Scout's My Apps page. Note that legacy HELPSCOUT_CLIENT_ID/CLIENT_SECRET env names also work if migrating from an older setup.
Search returns no results even though tickets exist
Check whether HELPSCOUT_DEFAULT_INBOX_ID is set to a specific inbox — this scopes all searches to that mailbox only. Remove it to search across all inboxes.
Rate limit errors (429) when running many searches
The server implements automatic retry with exponential backoff for 429 responses. If errors persist, reduce the number of parallel queries or increase CACHE_TTL_SECONDS to reduce duplicate API calls.
Frequently Asked Questions about Help Scout
What is Help Scout?
Help Scout is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects claude and other ai assistants to help scout customer support data with advanced search capabilities, conversation analysis, and enterprise-grade security features including pii redaction. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Help Scout?
Install via npm with the command: npx -y help-scout-mcp-server. Then add the server configuration to your AI client's JSON config file (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json).
Which AI clients work with Help Scout?
Help Scout works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Help Scout free to use?
Yes, Help Scout is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
Help Scout Alternatives — Similar Communication Servers
Looking for alternatives to Help Scout? Here are other popular communication servers you can use with Claude, Cursor, and VS Code.
Slack
★ 86.1kEnables interaction with Slack workspaces through comprehensive channel management, messaging, user management, file uploads, and Block Kit formatting. Features secure credential storage via macOS Keychain and supports all major Slack operations incl
LibreChat
★ 37.3kEnhanced ChatGPT Clone: Features Agents, MCP, DeepSeek, Anthropic, AWS, OpenAI, Responses API, Azure, Groq, o1, GPT-5, Mistral, OpenRouter, Vertex AI, Gemini, Artifacts, AI model switching, message search, Code Interpreter, langchain, DALL-E-3, OpenA
Note Gen
★ 11.9kA cross-platform Markdown AI note-taking software.
DeepChat
★ 5.8k🐬DeepChat - A smart assistant that connects powerful AI to your personal world
WhatsApp MCP
★ 5.7kConnects AI assistants to the official Meta WhatsApp Cloud API for managing conversations and sending various message types through natural language. It provides tools for media management, template messages, and real-time webhook processing without
Apple
★ 3.1kEnables interaction with Apple apps like Messages, Notes, and Contacts through the MCP protocol to send messages, search, and open app content using natural language.
Browse More Communication MCP Servers
Explore all communication servers available in the MCPgee directory. Each server includes setup guides for Claude, Cursor, and VS Code.
Set Up Help Scout in Your Editor
Choose your AI client for step-by-step setup instructions.
Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
Ready to use Help Scout?
Browse our complete directory of 33,000+ MCP servers, read setup guides for your editor, and start building with the Model Context Protocol.