Ruflo MCP Server: Transports, Tool Groups, and Auth

Ruflo ships a full MCP 2025-11-25 compliant server that exposes 313 tools across five groups: coordination, memory, monitoring, GitHub, and system. It’s the primary integration point for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any other MCP-compatible client. The server starts in under 400ms and supports stdio (default), HTTP, and WebSocket transports — pick the one that fits your editor.

Starting the Server

# Standard start — stdio transport, used by Claude Code and Codex
npx ruflo@latest mcp start

Transports

Transport	Use Case	Command
`stdio`	Claude Code, Codex (default)	`mcp start`
`http`	Windsurf, Cursor, REST clients	`mcp start --transport http`
`websocket`	Real-time streaming apps	`mcp start --transport websocket`

The stdio transport is the canonical form for Claude Code. The server reads JSON-RPC messages from stdin and writes responses to stdout — no network port is opened. Use http or websocket for editors that connect over a network socket or for remote deployments.

Registering with Editors

Claude Code
Cursor
Windsurf
OpenAI Codex CLI

Add Ruflo as a named MCP server with a single command:

claude mcp add ruflo -- npx ruflo@latest mcp start

Verify the registration:

claude mcp list

Once added, all 313 Ruflo MCP tools are available directly in your Claude Code sessions — swarm_init, agent_spawn, memory_search, hooks_route, and the rest.

Create .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or the global Cursor config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ruflo": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ruflo@latest", "mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor must be in Agent Mode (not Ask Mode) to access MCP tools. Cursor supports up to 40 active MCP tools per session — use CLAUDE_FLOW_TOOL_GROUPS to stay within that limit.

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ruflo": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ruflo@latest", "mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Click Refresh in Windsurf Settings → Cascade → MCP Servers to connect. Windsurf supports up to 100 MCP tools per session.

Ruflo detects Codex via npx ruflo@latest init --codex, which creates AGENTS.md and registers the MCP server automatically. If the server is not present after init, add it manually:

codex mcp add ruflo -- npx ruflo mcp start

Verify:

codex mcp list

MCP Tool Groups

The 313 tools are organized into five groups. Load only what your workflow needs.

Group	Key Tools	Approx. Count
`coordination`	`swarm_init`, `agent_spawn`, `task_orchestrate`	~50
`monitoring`	`swarm_status`, `agent_list`, `agent_metrics`	~40
`memory`	`memory_store`, `memory_search`, `memory_usage`, `neural_train`	~60
`github`	`github_swarm`, `repo_analyze`, `pr_enhance`, `code_review`	~80
`system`	benchmark and utility tools	~83

Set groups at startup:

# Development — coordination + memory only
CLAUDE_FLOW_TOOL_GROUPS=coordination,memory npx ruflo@latest mcp start

# All groups
npx ruflo@latest mcp start

Or set them permanently in claude-flow.config.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "port": 3000,
    "toolGroups": ["coordination", "memory", "monitoring"]
  }
}

HTTP Transport Configuration

For Windsurf, Cursor (HTTP mode), REST clients, or any scenario where you need a network-accessible MCP endpoint, configure the server programmatically using @claude-flow/mcp:

import { createMCPServer } from '@claude-flow/mcp';

const server = createMCPServer({
  transport: 'http',
  host: 'localhost',
  port: 3000,
  corsEnabled: true,
  corsOrigins: ['http://localhost:8080'],
  auth: {
    enabled: true,
    method: 'token',
    tokens: ['secret-token'],
  },
}, logger);

await server.start();
// HTTP endpoint: http://localhost:3000
// WebSocket endpoint: ws://localhost:3000/ws

The same options are available via the CLI:

npx ruflo@latest mcp start \
  --transport http \
  --port 3000 \
  --cors-origins http://localhost:8080

Set CLAUDE_FLOW_AUTH_TOKEN in your environment to enable token authentication without modifying code:

CLAUDE_FLOW_AUTH_TOKEN=your-secret-token npx ruflo@latest mcp start --transport http

Server Management Commands

Check server status

npx ruflo@latest mcp status

Stop the server

npx ruflo@latest mcp stop

List tools by category

# List all coordination tools
npx ruflo@latest mcp tools --category coordination

# List all tools across all categories
npx ruflo@latest mcp tools

View server logs

npx ruflo@latest mcp logs

Restart the server

npx ruflo@latest mcp restart

Performance Targets

The @claude-flow/mcp package is built to these targets:

Metric	Target
Server startup	<400ms
Tool registration	<10ms per tool
Tool execution overhead	<50ms
Connection acquire	<5ms

Startup time: The full Ruflo CLI cold-start is ~35s on a fresh npx pull due to the ML/embedding dependencies. For plugin scripts that invoke memory commands in hooks, set CLI_CORE=1 to use @claude-flow/cli-core instead — this drops cold-cache wall time from ~35s to ~1.5s (22.9× speedup). The full MCP server always uses the complete CLI regardless of CLI_CORE.After the first invocation, npx caches the package and subsequent starts take ~3s.

MCP Methods Supported

Ruflo’s MCP server is fully MCP 2025-11-25 compliant and implements the complete protocol surface:

Method	Description
`initialize`	Initialize connection and negotiate capabilities
`tools/list`	List available tools (with optional pagination)
`tools/call`	Execute a tool by name
`resources/list`	List resources with cursor-based pagination
`resources/read`	Read resource content
`resources/subscribe`	Subscribe to resource updates
`prompts/list`	List prompt templates
`prompts/get`	Get a prompt with arguments
`tasks/status`	Get async task status
`tasks/cancel`	Cancel a running task
`logging/setLevel`	Set server log level
`ping`	Keep-alive

Next Steps

Full MCP Tool Reference

Browse all 313 MCP tools organized by group, with parameter schemas and usage examples.

Environment Variables

Configure CLAUDE_FLOW_TOOL_GROUPS, CLAUDE_FLOW_MCP_PORT, CLAUDE_FLOW_AUTH_TOKEN, and more.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Configuration

Ruflo MCP Server: Transports, Tool Groups, and Auth

Starting the Server

Transports

Registering with Editors

MCP Tool Groups

HTTP Transport Configuration

Server Management Commands

Performance Targets

MCP Methods Supported

Next Steps

Full MCP Tool Reference

Environment Variables

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Configuration

Documentation Index

​Starting the Server

​Transports

​Registering with Editors

​MCP Tool Groups

​HTTP Transport Configuration

​Server Management Commands

​Performance Targets

​MCP Methods Supported

​Next Steps

Full MCP Tool Reference

Environment Variables

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Starting the Server

Transports

Registering with Editors

MCP Tool Groups

HTTP Transport Configuration

Server Management Commands

Performance Targets

MCP Methods Supported

Next Steps