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MCP

Overview​

MCP lets Lightflare connect to external tool servers that speak the Model Context Protocol. This is how you can add tools without building them directly into Lightflare.

An MCP server can provide tools for systems such as files, source control, browsers, databases, SaaS APIs, or internal services. Once connected, those tools become available to the agent alongside built-in tools.

Lightflare supports three MCP connection styles:

  • stdio for local command-based MCP servers.
  • streamable-http for HTTP MCP servers.
  • sse for SSE-based servers.

At a high level, MCP works like this:

  1. You configure one or more named MCP servers.
  2. Lightflare connects to the enabled servers.
  3. Available MCP tools are discovered.
  4. The agent sees those tools as part of its available tool catalog.
  5. When a user request needs one of those capabilities, the agent can call the matching MCP tool.

The server name matters because it identifies where a tool came from. If two integrations expose similar tool names, the integration identity helps keep them understandable.

If an MCP server is disabled, misconfigured, or unavailable, its tools are not available to the agent. The agent can only plan with tools that are present in the current run.

Properties​

Required Properties​

Required properties depend on the transport:

TransportRequired properties
stdioLIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_COMMAND
streamable-httpLIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_URL
sseLIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_URL

Use the normalized server name in the environment variable. For example, a server named github-tools maps to LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_TOOLS_*.

Optional Properties​

VariableDefaultDescription
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_ENABLEDtrueEnable or disable a configured server.
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_TRANSPORTstdioMCP transport: stdio, streamable-http, or sse.
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_ARGS[]Stdio command arguments.
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_ENV_<KEY>{}Stdio process environment variables.
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_ENDPOINT/mcpStreamable HTTP endpoint.
LIGHTFLARE_MCP_SERVERS_<SERVER_NAME>_SSE_ENDPOINT/sseSSE endpoint.