MCP Setup for AI Agents

NoLag provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI agents manage your real-time infrastructure directly. Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client to create apps, rooms, actors, publish messages, and dispatch tasks - all through natural language.

Prerequisites: You need a NoLag account with a project-level API key. Create one in the Portal under Settings → API Keys.

Quick Start

Create a project in the NoLag Portal
Generate a project-level API key (format: nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret)
Add the NoLag MCP server to your AI client's configuration (see below)
Ask your AI agent to "list my NoLag apps" or "create an agent actor" to verify

Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nolag": {
      "url": "https://api.nolag.app/mcp/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret with your actual API key.

Cursor

Add this to your Cursor MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nolag": {
      "url": "https://api.nolag.app/mcp/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Custom MCP Clients (HTTP)

NoLag supports both SSE transport (GET /mcp/sse) and plain HTTP (POST /mcp) for MCP. Use SSE for streaming clients; use HTTP for simple request/response integrations.

# Initialize session
curl -X POST https://api.nolag.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": "1",
    "method": "initialize",
    "params": {}
  }'

# List available tools
curl -X POST https://api.nolag.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": "2",
    "method": "tools/list",
    "params": {}
  }'

# Create an agent actor
curl -X POST https://api.nolag.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": "3",
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "nolag_create_agent",
      "arguments": {
        "name": "my-first-agent",
        "capabilities": ["drafting", "research"]
      }
    }
  }'

Transports

Transport	Endpoint	Use Case
SSE (recommended)	`GET /mcp/sse`	Claude Desktop, Cursor, streaming MCP clients
HTTP	`POST /mcp`	Simple integrations, scripts, testing

Available Tools

The NoLag MCP server exposes 28 tools for managing your real-time infrastructure:

App Management

Tool	Description
`nolag_list_apps`	List all apps in your project
`nolag_create_app`	Create a new app (optionally from a blueprint)
`nolag_get_app`	Get details about a specific app
`nolag_update_app`	Update an app's name or description
`nolag_delete_app`	Soft-delete an app

Room Management

Tool	Description
`nolag_list_rooms`	List all rooms in an app
`nolag_create_room`	Create a new dynamic room
`nolag_get_room`	Get room details
`nolag_update_room`	Update a room
`nolag_delete_room`	Delete a dynamic room

Actor Management

Tool	Description
`nolag_list_actors`	List all actors in your project
`nolag_create_actor`	Create a new actor (device, user, service, agent, etc.)
`nolag_get_actor`	Get actor details
`nolag_update_actor`	Update an actor
`nolag_delete_actor`	Delete an actor

Agent-Specific

Tool	Description
`nolag_create_agent`	Create an AI agent actor with persistent sessions and capability tags
`nolag_create_orchestrator`	Create an orchestrator actor for coordinating agents
`nolag_create_agents_app`	Create an app from the Agents blueprint
`nolag_dispatch_task`	Publish a task envelope to a room's tasks topic
`nolag_list_agent_events`	Query the agent event stream with severity/category filters
`nolag_get_blackboard_state`	Read the current shared state for a room

Messaging

Tool	Description
`nolag_publish`	Publish a message to a room/topic
`nolag_get_messages`	Get recent messages from a room/topic

Webhooks

Tool	Description
`nolag_configure_webhooks`	Configure hydration and trigger webhooks for an app
`nolag_get_webhook_config`	Get current webhook configuration
`nolag_list_webhook_dlq`	List failed webhook requests
`nolag_retry_webhook_dlq`	Retry a failed webhook

Code Generation

Tool	Description
`nolag_generate_code`	Generate SDK client code for a specific use case

Authentication

All MCP requests require a project-level API key in the Authorization header. Organization-level and system keys are not supported for MCP.

Authorization: Bearer nl_live_yourKeyId.yourSecret

Security: Your API key grants full project access. Never expose it in client-side code or public repositories.

Agent Workflow Example

Here's a typical workflow using MCP to set up a multi-agent system:

Create an agents app: nolag_create_agents_app with name "my-workflow"
Create an orchestrator: nolag_create_orchestrator with name "dispatcher"
Create worker agents: nolag_create_agent with capabilities like "drafting", "research"
Dispatch tasks: nolag_dispatch_task to send work to connected agents
Monitor: nolag_list_agent_events to see what agents are doing
Check state: nolag_get_blackboard_state to see shared agent state

Each agent connects using the @nolag/agents SDK with its access token (returned by the create tools above). The MCP service manages infrastructure; agents use the SDK for real-time coordination.