MCP Servers Across Timebase

One shape, seven servers#

Every Timebase component runs an MCP server at /mcp on its own HTTPS port, built the same way from the same parts. An AI client that has connected to one of them connects to the others identically: the Streamable HTTP transport, the component's address and port, and a Pulse bearer token in the Authorization header. Historian MCP Server walks through that once, in detail, and everything there applies to each server below.

The ports are the defaults; a component whose Kestrel endpoints were changed listens where they say. See Component Settings.

What every server has in common#

The shared discovery tools. Each server publishes ListSkills and GetSkill, which list the skills defined on that host and return one skill's instructions, and ListAgents, GetAgent and ListToolProviders, which do the same for its agents and tell you which tool providers exist. A skill is a set of instructions the connecting model reads and then follows with whatever tools it holds; the server never runs one for you.

The log reader. Each server publishes GetLogs, which returns recent log lines from that component. On the components that know who is calling, Atlas and Pulse among them, it answers only an administrator. On the others it follows the same bearer rule as the rest of the server.

The bearer rule. Each /mcp is protected exactly as that component's API is: with Pulse authentication on, which is how every component ships, a request needs a Pulse bearer token whose audience includes the component, and gets 401 without one. A component token, obtained with a client id and secret, is enough for every tool on every server except the Atlas write tools and the Pulse self-service tools, which need a token for a signed-in person because they act as that person.

Reads over MCP, writes through the assistant. Explorer, Collector, Connect, Bridge, Historian and Pulse each also have write tools, and each requires the administrator role for them. Those tools are available to the component's own AI assistant when an administrator is signed in to it, and they are never published at /mcp. Atlas is the one exception, and the reason is in its own article: its model is what an outside agent most often needs to change, so it publishes the write tools to a client whose signed-in user holds the administrator role.

Tools per component#

The read tools each server publishes, beside the shared ones above. Names are as the client lists them.

Explorer#

ListSources, GetSource, GetSourceStatus, GetSourceReferences, ListPlugins, GetSourceTypeSchema, GetSourceTypeDefaults, BrowseNodes, BrowseChildren, SearchNodes, SearchTags, QueryData, ListTrends, GetTrend, GetTrendSchema, ListTrendItemTypes, GetActivity.

A model connected here can find a tag by name across every source, read its data, and read the trends people have saved, which makes Explorer the natural server to point an analysis assistant at.

Collector#

ListCollectors, GetCollector, GetCollectorSettings, GetCollectorSettingsSchema, ListPlugins, GetPluginExampleSettings, GetPluginDocumentation, GetPreviewSnapshot, GetTagBuffer, GetThroughput, ListHistorians.

The preview, buffer and throughput tools are the ones a diagnosing assistant uses: what a collector is seeing right now, what it is holding, and how fast data is moving.

Connect#

ListConnectors, GetConnector, GetConnectorSettings, GetConnectorSettingsSchema, ListPlugins, GetPluginDocumentation, ListAtlases, GetHostStatus.

Bridge#

ListInstances, GetInstance, GetInstanceStatus, GetInstanceSettings, GetInstanceSettingsSchema, ListPlugins, GetPluginDocumentation, GetHostStatus, ListBackfillJobs.

Pulse#

GetMyUserRecord, GetMyGageUsage, GetMyGagePolicy.

These are self-service tools: they answer about the person whose token is presented, so the client has to sign in as a user rather than send a component token. Pulse's administrative tools, which manage users, clients and providers, are not published over MCP; an administrator uses the Pulse interface or the administration API described in Registering Timebase apps as OAuth clients in Pulse.

Historian and Atlas#

Listed in full on their own pages: Historian MCP Server and Atlas MCP Server.

Tool names that changed#

The skill discovery tools were renamed in September so that every list-and-get pair in the product reads the same way. A client configured against the old names finds no such tools and should be updated:

ListAgents, GetAgent, ListToolProviders and GetLogs were added at the same time or since, so a client connected before September sees more tools than it did, not fewer.

After that, every tool still published in snake_case was renamed to the PascalCase the rest already used, so every tool name in the product is written the same way. get_logs is now GetLogs on every server, and the Explorer, Collector, Connect and Bridge tools listed above were published as list_sources, get_collector and so on until then. A client configured against the old names finds no such tools and should be updated.

Troubleshooting#