basecamp-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives Claude read access to your Basecamp account. Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and any MCP-compatible client.

V1 is read-only — search, browse, and read your Basecamp projects, messages, todos, documents, files, and schedules. No write operations.

Setup

1. Register a Basecamp OAuth App (once per team)

Someone on your team registers an OAuth app with Basecamp. Everyone else can reuse the same Client ID and Secret — each person authorizes their own account separately.

1. Go to launchpad.37signals.com/integrations and log in with your Basecamp account
2. Click "Register another application"
3. Fill in the form:
   • Name: Basecamp MCP (or whatever you like)
   • Company: Your company name
   • Website URL: https://github.com/jacobfiler/basecamp-mcp
   • Redirect URI: http://localhost:8000/callback — must be exact
4. Click "Register this app"
5. You'll see your Client ID and Client Secret — share these with your team

2. Install

pip install basecamp-mcp

Windows:

py -m pip install basecamp-mcp

3. Authorize

basecamp-mcp auth

Windows (if basecamp-mcp isn't on PATH):

py -m basecamp_mcp.server auth

This will:

1. Ask for the Client ID and Client Secret from step 1
2. Open your browser to authorize with Basecamp — click "Yes, I'll allow access"
3. Save your tokens locally (~/.config/basecamp-mcp/ on Mac/Linux, %APPDATA%\basecamp-mcp\ on Windows)
4. Automatically configure Claude Desktop (if installed)

That's it! Restart Claude Desktop and your Basecamp tools are ready.

Manual Claude Desktop Setup (if auto-config didn't work)

Open Claude Desktop's config file:

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add the basecamp server (merge with any existing mcpServers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "basecamp": {
      "command": "basecamp-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

4. Use It

Ask Claude things like:

• "List my Basecamp projects"
• "Find the style guide in our Basecamp"
• "Show me the messages in the Marketing project"
• "Search all projects for the onboarding checklist"
• "What todos are assigned in the Q2 Planning project?"
• "Read the latest message in HQ"
• "Browse the docs and files in the Marketing project"

Available Tools

Optional: Document Search

If you have a document ingestion service that indexes .docx files from Basecamp, you can connect it for full-text search:

basecamp-mcp connect-docs

This adds two additional tools: search_document_content and document_stats.

How It Works

Config file  (your credentials, never shared)
     |
basecamp-mcp (MCP stdio server, runs locally)
     |
Basecamp API (https://3.basecampapi.com)

• Each user runs their own instance with their own OAuth tokens
• The Client ID/Secret identify the app, not the user — safe to share across a team
• No shared server — credentials never leave your machine
• Tokens auto-refresh when they expire (access tokens last 2 weeks, refresh tokens last 10 years)
• Config stored at ~/.config/basecamp-mcp/ (Mac/Linux) or %APPDATA%\basecamp-mcp\ (Windows)

Development

git clone https://github.com/jacobfiler/basecamp-mcp.git
cd basecamp-mcp
pip install -e .

# Run auth flow
basecamp-mcp auth

# Run server directly
basecamp-mcp

License

MIT