Businessmap MCP Support – Overview & Setup Guide

Introduction

Businessmap now provides native MCP (Model Context Protocol) support, enabling seamless integrations with AI tools such as Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code CLI and others.

This new capability gives teams a unified and structured way to interact with Businessmap through AI agents, automations, and external systems that rely on MCP.

Customers have been increasingly requesting AI interoperability, and the new MCP server lays the groundwork for deeper native integrations—both customer-driven and internally built.

What Is the Businessmap MCP Server?

The Businessmap MCP Server exposes a standardized interface for external AI tools, enabling them to read, search, create, and update work items (cards) in a safe and structured way.

Important: For security and privacy, Businessmap does not share or transfer any data to third-party AI services (such as Azure OpenAI by Microsoft) when clients use the MCP Server.

It allows AI systems to:

• Retrieve card information

• Manage cards (create, update, move)

• Work with subtasks

• Manage comments

• Interpret complex prompts that combine multiple steps (e.g., “Create a card, add a comment, then move it to In Progress.”)

Note: As of V12.04, Businessmap supports a second MCP Server which covers the Docs functionality.

Supported Functional Areas (businessmap-cards)

The MCP server organizes functionality into four major categories:

1. Card Information

2. Card Management

3. Subtasks

4. Comments

Card Search Criteria

The search_cards method supports advanced filtering across multiple categories:

Location & Structure

• board_names

• workflow_names

• column_names

• lane_names

Text Search

• title

• description

• custom_id

People

• owner_usernames

Time Filters

• created_at_from / to

• deadline_from / to

Card Characteristics

• priority_names (Critical, High, Average, Low)

• size_min / size_max

• is_blocked

• type_names

Metadata

• tag_names

• sticker_names

Examples:

• “Show all critical cards in Board X.”

• “Find cards with deadlines this month.”

• “Show all blocked cards assigned to John.”

• “Search for cards tagged Urgent in In Progress.”

• “Find all cards sized 5–10 in the Development workflow.”

Supported Functional Areas (businessmap-docs)

The MCP server supports the following methods:

1. Search & navigation:

3. Create & edit – shared documents:

4. Personal documents:

Installing and Configuring the Businessmap MCP Server

1. MCP Setup in Cursor

Important: Running MCP in Cursor requires Node.js with npm installed on your machine.

Cursor automatically loads MCP configurations from:

.cursor/mcp.json

To configure Businessmap MCP in Cursor:

1. Open the file above.

2. Include the MCP configuration, which should look like this (depending on whether you need both servers or just one of them):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "businessmap-cards": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@bmapio/mcp-client-cards"
      ],
      "env": {
        "COMPANY_NAME": "XXX",
        "API_KEY": "XXX"
      }
    },
    "businessmap-docs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@bmapio/mcp-client-docs"
      ],
      "env": {
        "COMPANY_NAME": "XXX",
        "API_KEY": "XXX"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor will automatically install or refresh the MCP server when this file changes. If the configuration is successful, you should see Cursor connected to the MCP:

2. MCP Setup in Claude Desktop

Important: Running MCP in Claude Desktop requires Node.js with npm installed on your machine.

1. Open Settings → Developer.
   

2. Add a new MCP server by editing the Config file (click Edit Config to locate the file on your file system)

3. Include the MCP configuration, which should look like this  (depending on whether you need both servers or just one of them):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "businessmap-cards": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@bmapio/mcp-client-cards"
      ],
      "env": {
        "COMPANY_NAME": "XXX",
        "API_KEY": "XXX"
      }
    },
    "businessmap-docs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@bmapio/mcp-client-docs"
      ],
      "env": {
        "COMPANY_NAME": "XXX",
        "API_KEY": "XXX"
      }
    }
  }
}

After steps 1, 2 and 3 above, restart Claude Desktop (quit/kill the process and start it again). If the installation is successful, you should see the server listed and connected.

3. MCP Setup via Claude Code CLI

Important: Running MCP in Claude Code CLI requires Node.js with npm installed on your machine. MCP is not currently supported in the VisualStudio mode of Claude Code.

Setup steps:

1. Navigate to the project folder where you want the MCP server available.

2. Run the following command, replacing the subdomain/apikey placeholders:
   
   For Cards:

claude mcp add --transport stdio businessmap-cards \
  --env COMPANY_NAME=YOUR_SUBDOMAIN \
  --env API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -- npx @bmapio/mcp-client-cards

      For Docs:

claude mcp add --transport stdio businessmap-docs \
 --env COMPANY_NAME=YOUR_SUBDOMAIN \
 --env API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY \
 -- npx @bmapio/mcp-client-docs

This registers the Businessmap MCP server for use inside Claude Code. To verify the installation, run claude and start the commend /mcp. If the installation is correct, you will see the server connected as shown below:

Good to Know

• Each AI tool (Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code) can introspect the MCP server itself, meaning the full list of tools and their parameters can be discovered directly from within the AI assistant—no need to manually browse an API reference.

• MCP enables complex AI workflows, such as multi-step card operations, performed in a single prompt.

• The configuration is lightweight: only a subdomain and API key are required.

• To use the MCP server, you need to have the Security control "Enable AI" on: