Cheldrop Docs

Cheldrop MCP Server — Plan & Build Brief

Status: shipped 14 August 2026 (build plan Phase 7). The transport, auth, guardrails, upgrade nudges, error format and Settings UI below are what was built. The tool list is superseded by the build plan's Phase 7 list: get_settings, list_sites, create_site, adopt_folder, publish_now, set_password, delete_site. publish_files and publish_folder were deliberately not built — with Live site folders, writing files into the folder is the publish interface, and a second path to it would be a second set of rules about what a publish means. The docs page shipped with the feature; the landing-page section is still pending, per "What to add when this ships".

What this is

A local MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that Cheldrop exposes, allowing Claude Desktop to publish files and folders on behalf of the user. The user configures it once, and can then prompt Claude naturally — "publish ~/Projects/mockup to preview.myclient.com" — and Claude does the work through Cheldrop's existing publish pipeline.

This is a free feature, shipping in the version after the current one.

Files to create / modify

File Action Notes
main/mcp-server.js Create The MCP server — tools, safety guards, upgrade nudges
main/ipc.js Modify Start/stop the MCP server with the app
Settings UI Modify Add MCP secret display + copy button

Do not touch landing/ or docs/ until the MCP feature is built and working.

Architecture

Tools exposed

list_sites

Returns all published sites from the local DB. Read-only, no guards needed.

Response fields: id, subdomain, domain, backend, publishMode, liveUrl, publishedAt, fileCount

get_settings

Returns whether the app is configured and ready. Read-only.

Response fields: configured (bool), available_domains (string[]), license_status (free | active)

Note: never expose the raw API token.

publish_files

Publishes a list of file paths to a subdomain/domain.

Parameters:

Safety logic:

  1. Validate domain is in stored zones — error if not, list available domains
  2. Validate all file paths exist on disk
  3. Check if site already exists in DB
  4. If site exists and confirm_overwrite is not true → return status: "site_exists" with site details and requires_confirmation: true. Do NOT publish.
  5. If confirm_overwrite: true → publish
  6. Check license for R2 or site limit — return upgrade nudge if blocked

publish_folder

Publishes a folder path to a subdomain/domain.

Parameters:

Safety logic: same as publish_files above. Also validates the folder path exists and is a directory.

delete_site

Deletes a site from Cloudflare and the local DB.

Parameters:

Safety logic:

Upgrade nudges

The server checks license status before publish operations. When a free-tier limit is hit, the response includes an upgrade field alongside the error:

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": "Free tier is limited to 1 site.",
  "upgrade": {
    "reason": "Unlimited sites",
    "cta": "Upgrade to Business Class — $49 one-time, no subscription.",
    "url": "https://cheldrop.com/#pricing"
  }
}

Triggers:

Never show upgrade nudge on: list_sites, get_settings, or any successful operation.

Error response format

All errors should be human-readable and actionable — Claude will relay them verbatim to the user.

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": "Domain example.com is not in your Cloudflare account. Available domains: mydomain.com, otherdomain.com"
}

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": "No API token configured. Open Cheldrop → Settings to add your Cloudflare token."
}

{
  "status": "site_exists",
  "requires_confirmation": true,
  "site": {
    "id": "preview.myclient.com",
    "live_url": "https://preview.myclient.com",
    "last_published": "2025-03-20T14:32:00Z",
    "file_count": 6,
    "backend": "workers"
  },
  "message": "This will replace everything currently live on the site. Call again with confirm_overwrite: true to proceed."
}

Settings UI addition

In the Settings page, add a new section (below API token, above license):

What to add when this ships (not before)

Docs page

A new page in the app's docs (or at cheldrop.com/docs/mcp):

Landing page section

New section between Features and Pricing:

Prompt for a new Claude conversation

Paste this at the start of a new conversation, with this file and the brand skill attached:

I'm building a local MCP server for Cheldrop — a Mac/Windows Electron desktop app (React, Vite, electron-store, lowdb) that publishes files to Cloudflare Workers static assets and R2 via a custom API pipeline.

Read the attached plan document (mcp-plan.md) in full before writing any code.

Key files in the project (read these first):

Project folder: /Users/christian/Developer/Cheldrop/app Brand skill: /Users/christian/Documents/Prosjekter/Cheldrop/docs/cheldrop-brand-skill.md

Build in this order:

  1. main/mcp-server.js — the full MCP server per the plan
  2. Wire it into app startup in main/ipc.js (or wherever the app initialises)
  3. Add the Settings UI section (secret display + copy button)

Start by reading main/ipc.js and main/cloudflare.js.

August 19, 2026 Raw file Download