Getting started issue

[botox-100]

Dear all,
first thanks for your effort for building this MCP integration!!

I followed the installation procedure for the docker fast setup. The only difference is that i bound it to an external IP on a cloud server, so that I can access it from remote.

• I tested the connection and it is ok. Seems that the MCP Server also can connect to the nextcloud server which is hosted on a provider system.
• I configured the environment variables to my nextcloud instance using a key that i configured in nextcloud "devices & sesssions"

After that i got stucked:

• I am using the url http://Ip.ad.dr.ess:8000/ and entered it to a universal MCP Client (Witsy) and would expect that i get a list of tools as I get it for other remote MCP Servers. Instead I got a connection error.
• I tried another MCP Client as well to makes sure it is not the client. Same story.

I am not sure if this is a technical issue. May I just missed some important step due to my limited experience in the MCP area.

Would be great if someone could give me some advice how to manage the next steps or what to test. My goal ist to use my personal file repository as a dynamic knowledge base for LLM work.

Thanks, Thomas

[cbcoutinho]

Hi @botox-100, the docker quick start is primarily meant for running the docker container locally within a private network because your NC credentials are baked into the MCP server, allowing your MCP Client 'anonymous' access to your Nextcloud account. I would advise against running the MCP server in single-user mode on a publicly available IP address because this ends up giving anyone anonymous access to your NC account. If you're using a VPN you may not have to worry about this, but it's not clear from OP if that's the case.

In terms of connecting to the MCP server, it defaults to using the Server-Side Events (SSE) protocol which is available at http://your.ip.add.ress:8000/see and you need to use SSE-mode from your MCP client. Many clients are moving to the newer "Streamable HTTP" interface, which will also be the default in a future version of the spec.

To enable Streamable HTTP, append the --transport http to your docker args, and connect to the MCP server using the following URL: http://your.ip.add.ress:8000/mcp.

Let me know more about your setup and I can try to help you out

[botox-100]

Hi cbcoutinho,

thanks for your fast reply and for your offer to help.
I used the docker approach just for getting started and making some first tests.
Unfortunately I am currently busy with other things but I will try out your hints next week and let you know.

Have a good weekend, Thomas

[botox-100]

Hi cbcoutinho,

The --transport http did the trick. I am now able to see all the tools!
Unfortunately I know face an access rights problem executing the tools. So I have to address to the provider of our nextcloud instance to clarify what has to be done.

Thanks for your help!

[cbcoutinho]

The --transport http did the trick. I am now able to see all the tools!

Great! That's one step closer.

Unfortunately I know face an access rights problem executing the tools.

This is unexpected when running in single-user mode, which is the case if you're setting NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME and NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD.

Which version of the are you running? This is a quickly moving project, and although I try to keep things stable, there is a chance a breaking change makes it's way through. Feel free to share the logs and I can help interpret them for you

[botox-100]

Sorry took some time to go into this topic again, but here are some details.

• I am still in early testing so I just use the docker container for the short test periods only
• I removed all docker images and started the server again to make sure I have the latest sources
• I double checked that username/Password are correct (Connection works)
• Please keep in mind that I am normal user in the nextcloud instance. No enhanced privileges!
• I tried to access a file on the nextcloud in my personal directory via the mcp-client

Thats what i got in the logfile. Please let me know if you need something else or if you have an idea what has to be done.

Many Thx!

Logfile:
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.app - Starting MCP server in BasicAuth mode
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.app - Creating Nextcloud client with BasicAuth
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.client - Creating NC Client using env vars
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.app - Client initialization complete
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.auth.storage - TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY not set - token storage operations will be unavailable, but webhook tracking will still work
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] uvicorn.access - 4.185.103.44:52452 - "POST /mcp HTTP/1.1" 200
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.auth.storage - Initialized refresh token storage at /app/data/tokens.db
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.app - Persistent storage initialized (webhook tracking enabled)
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] nextcloud_mcp_server.app - Document processing disabled
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] uvicorn.access - 4.185.103.44:5319 - "POST /mcp HTTP/1.1" 202
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] uvicorn.access - 4.185.103.44:52452 - "GET /mcp HTTP/1.1" 200
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] mcp.server.lowlevel.server - Processing request of type CallToolRequest
INFO [2025-11-20 12:02:54] uvicorn.access - 4.185.103.44:56015 - "POST /mcp HTTP/1.1" 200
WARNING [2025-11-20 12:02:55] nextcloud_mcp_server.client.base - HTTPStatusError 401: Client error '401 Unauthorized' for url 'https://nextcloud.xxxxx.de/remote.php/dav/'
For more information check: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/401, Number of attempts: 1
ERROR [2025-11-20 12:02:55] nextcloud_mcp_server.client.webdav - HTTP error during search: Client error '401 Unauthorized' for url 'https://nextcloud.xxxxxx.de/remote.php/dav/'
For more information check: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/401

[cbcoutinho]

Howdy @botox-100, this confirms that you're running in single-user mode which is good. It looks like the username/password are not correct. Can you check if they are valid credentials? You can use curl as follows to confirm:

curl -u <username>:<password> 'http://<your nextcloud url>/ocs/v1.php/cloud/users/<username>' -H 'OCS-APIRequest: true'

[cbcoutinho]

Hi @botox-100, I've recently published this mcp server to smithery.ai, so you can now connect to your nextcloud instance much more easily now that you don't need to host it yourself. Let me know how it goes 👍

https://smithery.ai/server/@cbcoutinho/nextcloud-mcp-server