Xero MCP Server

Xero MCP Server

What is Xero MCP Server about?

This server implements the Model Context Protocol for Xero, allowing MCP‑compatible clients to interact with Xero’s accounting, payroll, and reporting APIs through a unified command interface.

How to use Xero MCP Server?

1. Install dependencies

   npm install   # or pnpm install
   

2. Run a build (optional for development)

   npm run build   # or pnpm build
   

3. Start the server via npx (recommended) by adding it to your Claude Desktop (or any MCP client) configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "xero": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "@xeroapi/xero-mcp-server"],
         "env": {
           "XERO_CLIENT_ID": "<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
           "XERO_CLIENT_SECRET": "<YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

   Use the XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN env variable instead of client ID/secret if you prefer token‑based authentication.
4. Execute MCP commands such as list-accounts, create-invoice, update-contact, etc., from your MCP client.

Key features of Xero MCP Server

• OAuth2 authentication with support for custom connections and bearer‑token mode
• Comprehensive Xero resource coverage: contacts, invoices, credit notes, items, payments, quotes, payroll, reports, and more
• Full MCP protocol compliance with clearly defined commands for listing, creating, updating, and deleting resources
• Easy integration with Claude Desktop and other MCP‑compatible tools
• MIT licensed and built with Node.js (v18+)

Use cases of Xero MCP Server

• Automated accounting workflows: Generate invoices or reconcile payments from an AI‑driven assistant.
• Payroll management: Create and approve timesheets, query employee leave balances.
• Financial reporting: Retrieve profit‑and‑loss, balance sheet, trial balance, or aged receivables/payables for dashboarding.
• CRM integration: Sync contacts and quotes between a CRM and Xero without writing custom API code.
• Developer prototyping: Spin up a local MCP server to test new AI agents that need accounting data.

FAQ from the Xero MCP Server

• What Node.js version is required? Node.js v18 or newer.
• Can I run the server without installing globally? Yes, use the npx command as shown in the configuration; it fetches the latest package at runtime.
• Which environment variables are mandatory? Either XERO_CLIENT_ID and XERO_CLIENT_SECRET for custom connections, or XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN for token mode.
• How do I handle multiple Xero organisations? Use the bearer‑token mode so each MCP client can perform its own auth flow (PKCE) and obtain separate tokens.
• Is the source code open‑source? Yes, it is licensed under the MIT License and hosted on GitHub.

Xero MCP Server

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for Xero. It provides a bridge between the MCP protocol and Xero's API, allowing for standardized access to Xero's accounting and business features.

Features

• Xero OAuth2 authentication with custom connections
• Contact management
• Chart of Accounts management
• Invoice creation and management
• MCP protocol compliance

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• npm or pnpm
• A Xero developer account with API credentials

Docs and Links

• Xero Public API Documentation
• Xero API Explorer
• Xero OpenAPI Specs
• Xero-Node Public API SDK Docs
• Developer Documentation

Setup

Create a Xero Account

If you don't already have a Xero account and organisation already, can create one by signing up here using the free trial.

We recommend using a Demo Company to start with because it comes with some pre-loaded sample data. Once you are logged in, switch to it by using the top left-hand dropdown and selecting "Demo Company". You can reset the data on a Demo Company, or change the country, at any time by using the top left-hand dropdown and navigating to My Xero.

NOTE: To use Payroll-specific queries, the region should be either NZ or UK.

Authentication

There are 2 modes of authentication supported in the Xero MCP server:

1. Custom Connections

This is a better choice for testing and development which allows you to specify client id and secrets for a specific organisation. It is also the recommended approach if you are integrating this into 3rd party MCP clients such as Claude Desktop.

Configuring your Xero Developer account

Set up a Custom Connection following these instructions: https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/custom-connections/

Currently the following scopes are required for all sessions: scopes

Integrating the MCP server with Claude Desktop

To add the MCP server to Claude go to Settings > Developer > Edit config and add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@xeroapi/xero-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id_here",
        "XERO_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

NOTE: If you are using Node Version Manager "command": "npx" section change it to be the full path to the executable, ie: your_home_directory/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/npx on Mac / Linux or "your_home_directory\\.nvm\\versions\\node\\v22.14.0\\bin\\npx" on Windows

2. Bearer Token

This is a better choice if you are to support multiple Xero accounts at runtime and allow the MCP client to execute an auth flow (such as PKCE) as required. In this case, use the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@xeroapi/xero-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN": "your_bearer_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

NOTE: The XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN will take precedence over the XERO_CLIENT_ID if defined.

Available MCP Commands

• list-accounts: Retrieve a list of accounts
• list-contacts: Retrieve a list of contacts from Xero
• list-credit-notes: Retrieve a list of credit notes
• list-invoices: Retrieve a list of invoices
• list-items: Retrieve a list of items
• list-organisation-details: Retrieve details about an organisation
• list-profit-and-loss: Retrieve a profit and loss report
• list-quotes: Retrieve a list of quotes
• list-tax-rates: Retrieve a list of tax rates
• list-payments: Retrieve a list of payments
• list-trial-balance: Retrieve a trial balance report
• list-profit-and-loss: Retrieve a profit and loss report
• list-bank-transactions: Retrieve a list of bank account transactions
• list-payroll-employees: Retrieve a list of Payroll Employees
• list-report-balance-sheet: Retrieve a balance sheet report
• list-payroll-employee-leave: Retrieve a Payroll Employee's leave records
• list-payroll-employee-leave-balances: Retrieve a Payroll Employee's leave balances
• list-payroll-employee-leave-types: Retrieve a list of Payroll leave types
• list-payroll-leave-periods: Retrieve a list of a Payroll Employee's leave periods
• list-payroll-leave-types: Retrieve a list of all avaliable leave types in Xero Payroll
• list-aged-receivables-by-contact: Retrieves aged receivables for a contact
• list-aged-payables-by-contact: Retrieves aged payables for a contact
• list-contact-groups: Retrieve a list of contact groups
• create-contact: Create a new contact
• create-credit-note: Create a new credit note
• create-invoice: Create a new invoice
• create-payment: Create a new payment
• create-quote: Create a new quote
• create-credit-note: Create a new credit note
• create-payroll-timesheet: Create a new Payroll Timesheet
• update-contact: Update an existing contact
• update-invoice: Update an existing draft invoice
• update-quote: Update an existing draft quote
• update-credit-note: Update an existing draft credit note
• update-payroll-timesheet-line: Update a line on an existing Payroll Timesheet
• approve-payroll-timesheet: Approve a Payroll Timesheet
• revert-payroll-timesheet: Revert an approved Payroll Timesheet
• add-payroll-timesheet-line: Add new line on an existing Payroll Timesheet
• delete-payroll-timesheet: Delete an existing Payroll Timesheet
• get-payroll-timesheet: Retrieve an existing Payroll Timesheet

For detailed API documentation, please refer to the MCP Protocol Specification.

For Developers

Installation

# Using npm
npm install

# Using pnpm
pnpm install

Run a build

# Using npm
npm run build

# Using pnpm
pnpm build

Integrating with Claude Desktop

To link your Xero MCP server in development to Claude Desktop go to Settings > Developer > Edit config and add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

NOTE: For Windows ensure the args path escapes the \ between folders ie. "C:\\projects\xero-mcp-server\\dist\\index.js"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["insert-your-file-path-here/xero-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id_here",
        "XERO_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

License

MIT

Security

Please do not commit your .env file or any sensitive credentials to version control (it is included in .gitignore as a safe default.)