Ramandeep Singh

Posted on May 14

Created an MCP Server for Trello (100% Open Source) 🚀

#webdev #python #mcp #ai

Overview 📝

I've built a local MCP Server for Trello that's completely open source! This innovative server leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to create a seamless bridge between your applications and Trello. Get ready to supercharge your workflow with these amazing capabilities:

📋 Managing boards and viewing their details
🗂️ Working with lists and cards
🆕 Creating and updating cards
🔄 Moving cards between lists
💬 Adding comments to cards
👥 Managing board members

To get started, you'll need:

Setup ⚙️

🧑‍💻 Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/r123singh/trello-mcp-server.git

📂 cd trello-mcp-server
🏗️ Create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv

▶️ Activate the virtual environment:

source venv/bin/activate

📦 Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

🔐 Configure your environment variables: Create a .env file with:

TRELLO_API_KEY=your_trello_api_key
TRELLO_API_TOKEN=your_trello_token

🛠️ Configure MCP JSON: Create a mcp.json file with:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trello": {
      "command": "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe", 
      "args": [
        "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRELLO_API_KEY": "your_trello_api_key",
        "TRELLO_API_TOKEN": "your_trello_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace:

🗂️ {{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}} with the absolute path to this directory (use pwd command)
🔑 Add your API keys and tokens

To get Trello credentials:

🌐 Go to https://trello.com/app-key
📋 Copy the API Key
🔗 Generate a token by visiting: https://trello.com/1/authorize?expiration=never&scope=read,write,account&response_type=token&name=Server%20Token&key=YOUR_API_KEY
(replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key)
📝 Replace your_trello_api_key and your_trello_token in the config with these value

Available Tools 🛠️

The server provides the following tools for interacting with Trello:

📋 Get all boards
📑 Get board details
🗂️ Get lists in a board
🃏 Get cards in a list
🔍 Get card details
🆕 Create new cards
✏️ Update existing cards
🔄 Move cards between lists
💬 Add comments to cards
👥 Get board members

Usage 🚦

Now that you have the MCP server configured, you can use it in your applications. The server provides a natural language interface to interact with Trello through the available tools such as Cursor, Claude Desktop

Cursor AI 💻

Open MCP settings in Cursor AI - File -> Settings -> MCP -> Enable MCP
Add the following to your Cursor AI settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trello": {
      "command": "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe", 
      "args": [
        "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRELLO_API_KEY": "your_trello_api_key",
        "TRELLO_API_TOKEN": "your_trello_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

🔄 Restart Cursor AI
Use the following prompt to use the trello mcp server:

I need to create a new card named "Project planning" in Trello. 🃏

Claude Desktop 🖥️

Open Claude Desktop. Go to File -> Settings -> Select developer tab -> Click on "Edit config"
It will open location of config file in your default editor. It is named 'claude_desktop_config.json'. Open it.
Add the following to the config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trello": {
      "command": "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe", 
      "args": [
        "{PATH_TO_DIRECTORY}\\trello-mcp-server\\server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRELLO_API_KEY": "your_trello_api_key",
        "TRELLO_API_TOKEN": "your_trello_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

The new mcp server should appear in the settings page with status "Running" or "Connected" ✅
Close the settings page and go back to the chat. Select the 3 line icon just below the chat input box. It should display now "trello" in the list of available servers, clicking it will list all the tools available.

Use the following prompt to create a new card:

I need to create a new card named "Sprint planning" in Trello. 🃏

It will prompt initially to run the tool. Click on "Always run". It will create the card in Trello and return the link to the new card. 🔗

You can now use the card id to update the card or move it to a different list.

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