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MCP for Administration

This lab demonstrates how administrators can leverage Retool MCP Server to perform organization and user management actions.

Lab Requirements​

This lab demonstrates the MCP Server available in v4.X+ of Retool using different tools. This feature is for Retool Administrators who have permissions provided via the mcp:admin scope.

Claude Code Setup​

To install Claude Code, review the following Anthropic documentation.

MCP Host Setup​

With Claude Code configured, open up a Terminal (MacOS) and perform the following actions:

  • Create a working directory
  • Change directory into the working directory
  • Enter the following command:
$ claude code
  • This will start a Claude Code session and the terminal will appear like the following:
Claude Code terminal
Claude Code terminal

Next, we want to configure the MCP Server.

  • To do this, enter the following command in the terminal. Replace the <your-retool-instance> with your organization.
> claude mcp add --transport http retool https://<your-retool-instance>/mcp
/mcp command
/mcp command
  • Exit the terminal and then start a new terminal, change directory back to the working directory created in the previous step, and then run Claude Code again.

Check out our documentation for configurations for other CodeGen tools.

  • Authenticate into Retool.
Authenticate into Retool
Authenticate into Retool
  • Select Authorize to allow Claude to perform actions in Retool via OAuth form.

The Admin access scope will only be available for a user if they are identified as an administrator within Retool.

Authorize
Authorize
  • See if the MCP server is now configured.
> /mcp
Review MCP connections
Review MCP connections
  • A list of configured MCP Servers will be displayed. In this example, Retool Cloud is what has been configured and we can now start to use the MCP connection.

Available Tools​

Only organization administrators have mcp:admin scope access to leverage tools to perform different tasks across users, workflows, organizations, groups, audit logs, and more. Let's try a couple of tools to confirm it is functioning.

List Users​

Use the following prompt to access users.

Can you get a Retool user with the email address <sample email address>?

The following image shows the result in Claude Code.

Get User
Get User

Get Group(s) User is in​

Use the following prompt to access details of a specific user.

Can you provide all Retool permission groups this user is a part of?

The following image shows the result in Claude Code.

Get Groups
Get Groups

Summary​

Retool MCP provides one way to help reduce the burden for Retool administrators. In addition to Retool MCP, there are other automation features, including: