operaton-mcp

MCP server exposing the full Operaton BPMN/DMN REST API to AI assistants

Operaton is an open-source BPMN and DMN workflow engine. operaton-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes 300+ Operaton REST API operations as MCP tools, enabling AI assistants like Claude to interact directly with your workflow engine — deploying processes, managing instances, handling tasks, and querying history.

Features

• Full REST API coverage — 300+ operations across process definitions, instances, tasks, jobs, incidents, users, history, and decisions
• Multi-engine support — connect to multiple Operaton instances from a single server
• Basic Auth & OIDC — supports both HTTP Basic authentication and OAuth2 client credentials (OIDC)
• Zero-setup with npx — run without installation via npx operaton-mcp
• Type-safe — written in TypeScript with strict type checking

Quick Start

Prerequisites: Node.js ≥ 22, a running Operaton instance.

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "operaton": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "operaton-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPERATON_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8080/engine-rest",
        "OPERATON_USERNAME": "demo",
        "OPERATON_PASSWORD": "demo"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop — you're ready to use natural-language commands against your Operaton instance.

Authentication

Basic Auth

Variable	Required	Description
OPERATON_BASE_URL	Yes	Operaton REST API URL, e.g. http://localhost:8080/engine-rest
OPERATON_USERNAME	Yes	Basic Auth username
OPERATON_PASSWORD	Yes	Basic Auth password
OPERATON_ENGINE	No	Operaton engine name (default: default)
OPERATON_SKIP_HEALTH_CHECK	No	Set true to skip startup connectivity check

OIDC / Client Credentials

Variable	Required	Description
OPERATON_BASE_URL	Yes	Operaton REST API URL
OPERATON_CLIENT_ID	Yes	OAuth2 client ID
OPERATON_CLIENT_SECRET	Yes	OAuth2 client secret
OPERATON_TOKEN_URL	Yes	Token endpoint URL

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "operaton": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "operaton-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPERATON_BASE_URL": "https://operaton.example.com/engine-rest",
        "OPERATON_CLIENT_ID": "mcp-client",
        "OPERATON_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-secret",
        "OPERATON_TOKEN_URL": "https://keycloak.example.com/realms/myapp/protocol/openid-connect/token"
      }
    }
  }
}

For multi-engine deployments, see the Configuration Guide.

Available Tools

processDefinition

Manage deployed process definitions — browse, inspect, suspend, and delete BPMN definitions.

• list — query definitions with optional filters (key, name, version, tenant); count total matches
• get by ID / key — retrieve definition metadata for a specific ID or latest by key
• get XML — fetch BPMN 2.0 XML for a definition by ID or key
• statistics — process-level and activity-level statistics across all running instances
• suspend by key — suspend or resume all instances belonging to a definition
• delete by ID / key — remove a definition (and optionally its instances and history)
• restart instances — restart historic process instances synchronously or asynchronously
• set history TTL — update the history time-to-live for a definition
• get called processes — list static called process definitions for a given definition

deployment

Deploy, inspect, and manage Operaton deployments (BPMN, DMN, CMMN, and form files).

• create — upload a BPMN/DMN/CMMN resource to create a new deployment
• list — query deployments with optional filters; count total matches
• get by ID — retrieve metadata for a specific deployment
• list resources — list all resources included in a deployment
• redeploy — create a new deployment from the resources of an existing one
• delete — remove a deployment by ID

processInstance

Start and manage the lifecycle of running process instances.

• start — start a new instance by definition ID or key, with optional business key and variables
• list — query active instances with filters; count total matches
• get — retrieve metadata for a specific instance
• get activity tree — inspect the current activity instance hierarchy
• suspend / resume — suspend or resume execution of an instance or a group of instances
• delete — terminate and remove a process instance
• get / set variables — read or write individual or multiple process variables
• set suspension — bulk suspend/resume by definition ID, key, or tenant

task

Query and manage the full lifecycle of user tasks.

• list — query tasks with rich filter criteria; count total matches
• get — retrieve a task by ID
• claim / unclaim — assign or release a task
• complete — complete a task with optional output variables
• delegate — delegate a task to another user
• resolve — resolve a delegated task back to the owner
• set assignee — directly set or change task assignee
• create / update — create a standalone task or update task properties
• get / set variables — read or write task-local variables
• throw BPMN error — trigger a BPMN error boundary event from a task

job

Inspect and control asynchronous jobs (timers, async continuations, retries).

• list — query jobs with filters; count total matches
• get — retrieve a job by ID
• trigger execution — execute a job immediately (bypass timer)
• suspend / resume — suspend or resume a job
• set retries — update the retry count on a failed job
• get stack trace — retrieve the exception stack trace for a failed job

jobDefinition

Manage job definitions — the templates from which individual jobs are created.

• list — query job definitions with filters
• get — retrieve a job definition by ID
• set suspension — suspend or activate job definitions by process definition

incident

Query and resolve process incidents (failed jobs, failed external tasks, etc.).

• list — query open incidents with filters; count total matches
• get — retrieve an incident by ID
• resolve — resolve an open incident

user

Manage Operaton users and their credentials.

• list — query users with filters
• get profile — retrieve a user's profile information
• create — create a new user with profile and credentials
• update profile — update a user's display name and email
• update password — change a user's password
• delete — remove a user
• unlock — unlock a user account after too many failed logins

group

Manage Operaton groups and their memberships.

• list — query groups with filters
• create / delete — create or remove a group
• add / remove member — manage group membership

history

Query the audit trail of completed and historic process data.

• list process instances — query finished or active process instances in history
• list activity instances — query historic activity executions
• list task instances — query historic task completions and assignments
• list variable instances — query historic variable values
• list incidents — query historic incidents (including resolved)
• list job logs — query historic job execution log entries
• list user operations — query the audit log of user operations (claims, completions, etc.)

decision

Deploy and evaluate DMN decision tables.

• list — query deployed decision definitions
• get by key — retrieve a decision definition by key
• get XML by key — fetch DMN XML for a decision
• evaluate — evaluate a decision table with input variables
• list requirements — list decision requirement diagrams (DRDs)

migration

Discover, plan, execute, monitor, and audit process instance migrations between definition versions.

• listMigratable (processInstance_listMigratable) — list active instances eligible for migration with per-instance eligibility and call-activity blocking conditions
• getMigrationCandidates (processDefinition_getMigrationCandidates) — compare source and target definition activities; returns auto-mappable pairs, unmapped source activities, and new target activities
• generatePlan (migration_generatePlan) — generate a migration plan with auto-mapped instructions and a list of unmapped activities requiring explicit mapping
• validatePlan (migration_validatePlan) — validate a migration plan against a set of instances; returns typed errors, sampled-validation flag, and consequence disclosure
• executeBatch (migration_executeBatch) — execute a migration plan asynchronously with auto-chunking; supports dry-run mode
• suspendBatch (migration_suspendBatch) — suspend one or more active migration batches
• resumeBatch (migration_resumeBatch) — resume one or more suspended migration batches
• deleteBatch (migration_deleteBatch) — cancel (delete) one or more migration batches
• listBatches (migration_listBatches) — list active migration batches, optionally filtered by suspended state
• awaitBatch (migration_awaitBatch) — poll migration batches until completion or timeout; returns aggregated progress
• getBatchStatus (migration_getBatchStatus) — get current job counts and suspension state for a single batch
• getBatchFailures (migration_getBatchFailures) — retrieve per-instance failure details including error messages and stack traces
• retryFailedJobs (migration_retryFailedJobs) — reset retries on all failed migration jobs in one or more batches
• getBatchSummary (migration_getBatchSummary) — aggregate post-migration summary across batch IDs: submitted, succeeded, failed, duration
• listAuditEntries (migration_listAuditEntries) — query the user operation log for migration audit entries with operator, timestamp, and definition filters
• listHistoricBatches (migration_listHistoricBatches) — query the history log for completed migration batches with date-range and completion-state filters

Example Prompts

Deployments & Definitions

"Deploy this BPMN file to Operaton and name it loan-approval-v3." "List all deployed versions of the invoice-approval process." "Show me the BPMN XML for the latest version of the onboarding process."

Process Instances

"Start a new invoice-approval process with business key INV-2024-001 and set the amount variable to 15000." "List all active instances of the loan-approval process." "What variables are currently set on process instance abc-123?"

User Tasks

"Show me all unassigned tasks for the approvers group." "Claim task task-456 for user john.doe." "Complete the approval task for invoice INV-2024-001 and set approved = true."

Operations & Incidents

"Are there any failed jobs with no retries left?" "Reset the retry count to 3 for job job-789 and trigger immediate execution." "List all open incidents for the payment-processing process."

History & Audit

"Show me all completed invoice-approval instances from last week." "Who completed the approval task for business key INV-2024-001, and when?"

Decisions

"Deploy this DMN decision table for loan eligibility checking." "Evaluate the credit-check decision with income = 50000 and creditScore = 720."

Development

# Install dependencies (triggers code generation automatically)
npm install

# Run code generation manually
npm run generate

# Build (generate + compile + alias rewrite)
npm run build

# Watch mode for local development
npm run dev

# Run all tests (unit + smoke)
npm test

# Run integration tests (requires live Operaton instance)
OPERATON_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/engine-rest \
OPERATON_USERNAME=demo \
OPERATON_PASSWORD=demo \
npm run test:integration

Project Structure

src/
  index.ts          — MCP server entry point
  config.ts         — Configuration loading (env vars + config file)
  auth/
    token-manager.ts — OIDC client credentials token manager
  http/
    client.ts       — Operaton HTTP client (Basic + OIDC auth)
    errors.ts       — Error normalization with BPM-domain hints
  generated/        — Build artifact (gitignored); produced by npm run generate
  tools/            — Curated tool wrappers (hand-written)
config/
  tool-manifest.json         — Full curation manifest (name, description, frMapping per operationId)
  tool-manifest.fixture.json — Fixture for development/testing
resources/
  operaton-rest-api.json     — Authoritative OpenAPI 3.0.2 spec (never modify)
scripts/
  generate.ts       — Code generation pipeline
docs/
  configuration.md  — Full configuration reference

Out of Scope

The following capabilities are not available in the current release:

• Autonomous monitoring — AI-initiated process health watching and alerting (planned: Vision phase)
• BPMN generation — natural language → BPMN authoring and AI-assisted process design (planned: Growth phase)
• Prompt templates — guided scenario workflows for common operational tasks (planned: Growth phase)
• UI or dashboard — no web interface; operaton-mcp is a pure MCP server

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on how to contribute, commit conventions, and the PR process.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.