rotacloud-mcp-node

An MCP server exposing the RotaCloud API to Claude and other MCP clients. It covers all 129 documented v1 operations across 36 resources — shifts, attendance, leave, users, locations, roles, timesheets and the rest.

Tools are generated from RotaCloud's published OpenAPI specification (vendor/openapi.json), so parameter names, types and descriptions come straight from the documentation.

Installation

As a Claude Desktop extension

Download rotacloud-mcp-node.mcpb and open it with Claude Desktop. You will be prompted for your RotaCloud API key, which you can generate from within your RotaCloud account.

Manual / development

npm install
export ROTACLOUD_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
node server/index.js

Add it to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rotacloud": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/rotacloud-mcp-node/server/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "ROTACLOUD_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Variable	Required	Purpose
ROTACLOUD_API_KEY	yes	API key generated from your RotaCloud account
ROTACLOUD_USER_ID	no	Act on behalf of this user by default (sends the User header)

By default requests are made as an anonymous user with administrative permissions. Setting ROTACLOUD_USER_ID makes every request act as that user instead. Tools whose behaviour depends on the acting user — me_*, messages_*, leave_requests_*, swap_requests_* and unavailability_requests_* — also accept an as_user argument to override it per call.

Tools

Tools are named {resource}_{action}, e.g. shifts_list, shifts_create, users_retrieve, leave_requests_approve.

Names are derived from each operation's summary in the API documentation rather than from its HTTP method, because in this API the two often disagree — DELETE /users_clocked_in/{id} clocks a user out, and POST /swap_requests/{id} denies a swap. The tool names reflect what the operation actually does: users_clocked_in_clock_out, swap_requests_deny_shift_admin.

Dates and times

RotaCloud mixes three formats, and the tools follow the API exactly:

• Unix epoch seconds for shift and attendance times (start_time, in_time, and the start/end range filters on /shifts, /attendance, /availability, /pay_periods …). These tools also accept an ISO 8601 string and convert it for you.
• YYYY-MM-DD strings for leave, day notes, TOIL and user dates (start_date, end_date, dob …).
• HH:MM strings for logbook event times and availability windows.

Pagination

List endpoints accept limit and offset. Responses that are paginated are returned as:

{
  "meta": { "total_count": 137, "links": { "next": "…", "last": "…" } },
  "data": [ … ]
}

Results are not auto-paginated — each call returns one page, so a wide date range cannot flood the context. Follow meta.links.next or increment offset to page through.

Request bodies

Write tools list every field documented for that endpoint, but accept unknown fields too. RotaCloud's published body schemas are derived from example payloads and under-describe reality (for instance role_rates is documented with the example's literal role IDs as keys), so rejecting undocumented fields would block valid writes. Each write tool's description includes the documented example payload.

Resources

• accounts (1)
• attendance (5)
• attendance_approved (2)
• availability (2)
• day_notes (5)
• days_off (3)
• days_off_patterns (5)
• documents (6)
• groups (5)
• holiday_allowances (2)
• holiday_allowances_custom (3)
• leave (5)
• leave_embargoes (5)
• leave_requests (6)
• leave_types (1)
• locations (5)
• logbook_categories (5)
• logbook_events (5)
• me (2)
• messages (2)
• pay_periods (3)
• pins (1)
• roles (5)
• settings (1)
• shifts (5)
• shifts_acknowledged (1)
• shifts_published (2)
• swap_requests (5)
• terminals (5)
• terminals_active (3)
• timezones (2)
• toil_accruals (4)
• toil_allowance (1)
• unavailability_requests (6)
• users (5)
• users_clocked_in (5)

Scope

This server covers the v1 API as published at https://rotacloud-api-docs.netlify.app/. RotaCloud's official Node SDK exposes some additional v2 endpoints (invoices, v2 logbook, user onboarding) which are not part of the public documentation and are not included here.

Regenerating

server/tools.js is generated and committed. To pick up a newer version of the API:

curl -o vendor/openapi.json https://rotacloud-api-docs.netlify.app/openapi.json
npm run generate

The generator fails loudly if two operations would produce the same tool name.

Building

npm run build   # mcpb pack

Check the contents of the resulting .mcpb before distributing it — mcpb pack sweeps local dotfiles into the bundle.

License

MIT