explainx / blog
X shipped hosted MCP at api.x.com/mcp and docs.x.com/mcp — search posts, trends, bookmarks, and publish Articles from Cursor, Claude, Grok, or VS Code via xurl OAuth.
Jun 27, 2026
MCP is the open standard that gives AI agents live connectors to real systems. This guide covers the full architecture—host, client, server, transport mechanisms, security trust boundaries, and the three primitives—so you can evaluate, build, and deploy MCP integrations with confidence.
Apr 13, 2026
MCP servers join the explainx.ai hub: searchable directory pages, per-server profiles, and the same SEO/GEO-friendly patterns we use for skills — with links to the official spec, Anthropic’s introduction, and registry skills like mcp-builder.
Apr 13, 2026
Skills are reusable instruction packages for AI coding agents—not one-off prompts. Here is the full picture: anatomy, ecosystem map, token trade-offs, and backlinks to explainx.ai, the MCP directory, and official docs.
June 30, 2026: @XDevelopers announced hosted MCP servers — agents can call the X API without building a custom integration. Elon Musk quoted the thread: "Try it out." The same week Cursor shipped its iOS app, X closed the loop on real-time social data inside agent workflows.
If you already use MCP in Cursor or Claude Code, this is the first first-party hosted MCP from a major platform at production scale — search posts, pull trends, manage bookmarks, even draft and publish Articles, all with your account's OAuth permissions.
Official docs: docs.x.com/tools/mcp. Full doc index for LLMs: docs.x.com/llms.txt.
| Server | URL | What it does | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| X MCP | https://api.x.com/mcp | Live X API — search, users, bookmarks, trends, news, Articles | xurl local bridge + OAuth 2.0 PKCE |
| Docs MCP | https://docs.x.com/mcp | Search/read X API documentation | None — connect by URL |
| Client | Config location |
|---|---|
| Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json |
| Claude Desktop | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json |
| Grok Build | ~/.grok/config.toml via grok mcp add |
| VS Code (Copilot Agent) | .vscode/mcp.json |
Browse more MCP servers: explainx.ai/mcp-servers — our searchable directory with categories from devtools to CRM.
Until now, giving an agent live X data meant: register a developer app, wire REST endpoints, handle rate limits, refresh tokens, and wrap everything in a custom MCP server you maintain. That is exactly the N×M problem Model Context Protocol was designed to collapse.
X's move is different from a random npm package:
api.x.com/mcp (protocol 2025-06-18, serverInfo: xmcp)For teams building agentic research loops, social listening, or content pipelines — the agent can query the same real-time graph humans scroll, with structured tools instead of scraped HTML.
xurl mcpX's OAuth requires your own developer app. There is no dynamic client registration, and api.x.com/mcp does not advertise native MCP OAuth discovery. So X ships a local bridge:
MCP client (Cursor, Grok, …)
→ stdio JSON-RPC
xurl mcp (local bridge)
→ HTTPS + Bearer token
api.x.com/mcp
↔ OAuth2 PKCE login + auto-refresh
The bridge:
npx — no separate install step required~/.xurlDocs MCP skips the bridge — it is read-only documentation search over HTTPS.
| Category | What the model can do |
|---|---|
| Posts | Fetch posts, likers, reposters, quoters, recent counts |
| Search | Full-archive post search, user search, news search |
| Users | Current user, lookup by id/handle, posts, timeline, mentions |
| Bookmarks | List, add, remove, manage bookmark folders |
| News & Trends | News stories, location trends (WOEID) |
| Articles | Create draft Articles and publish |
Writes (bookmarks, article_publish) hit stricter rate limits than reads — expect occasional 429s and backoff.
http://localhost:8080/callback (or set REDIRECT_URI env and register that)CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRETnpx)brew install --cask xdevplatform/tap/xurl
# or
npm install -g @xdevplatform/xurl
Headless servers: authenticate out-of-band first:
xurl auth oauth2 --headless
Then start your MCP client — the bridge reuses the cached token.
Create ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (single repo):
{
"mcpServers": {
"xapi": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@xdevplatform/xurl", "mcp", "https://api.x.com/mcp"],
"env": {
"CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_ID",
"CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_SECRET"
}
},
"x-docs": {
"url": "https://docs.x.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Then:
Pair with Cursor for iOS and you can monitor agent runs on your phone while the desktop session calls X tools.
Startup timeout: if the client times out waiting for browser login, set startup timeout ≥ 300 seconds in clients that support it (Grok Build documents this explicitly).
Edit claude_desktop_config.json:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json%APPDATA%\Claude\{
"mcpServers": {
"xapi": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@xdevplatform/xurl", "mcp", "https://api.x.com/mcp"],
"env": {
"CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_ID",
"CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_SECRET"
}
},
"x-docs": {
"url": "https://docs.x.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Restart Claude Desktop. X tools appear in the tools menu. See our full Claude Code MCP servers guide for project-level configs and /mcp troubleshooting.
One command:
grok mcp add xapi npx \
-e CLIENT_ID=YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_ID \
-e CLIENT_SECRET=YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_SECRET \
-- -y @xdevplatform/xurl mcp https://api.x.com/mcp
Verify:
grok mcp doctor xapi
grok mcp list
Add Docs MCP in ~/.grok/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.x-docs]
url = "https://docs.x.com/mcp"
enabled = true
Same week as Grok 4.5 private beta, xAI and X are tightening the Musk-stack agent loop — model + social graph + dev docs in one config file.
Add to .vscode/mcp.json:
{
"servers": {
"xapi": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@xdevplatform/xurl", "mcp", "https://api.x.com/mcp"],
"env": {
"CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_ID",
"CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_X_APP_CLIENT_SECRET"
}
},
"x-docs": {
"url": "https://docs.x.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Hosted at https://docs.x.com/mcp. Tools:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
search_x | Search X documentation — endpoints, auth guides, examples |
get_page_x | Fetch full content of a doc page by path |
Minimal config (works in any URL-capable MCP client):
{
"mcpServers": {
"x-docs": {
"url": "https://docs.x.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Use both servers together: docs MCP when the agent needs parameter shapes; xapi when it needs live data.
For read endpoints only, advanced users can point a client directly at the URL with a static App-only Bearer token — no auto-refresh, no user context:
# Grok example
[mcp_servers.xapi_direct]
url = "https://api.x.com/mcp"
enabled = true
[mcp_servers.xapi_direct.headers]
Authorization = "Bearer YOUR_APP_ONLY_BEARER_TOKEN"
The xurl bridge is recommended for bookmarks, Articles, and anything acting as you.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Client times out on startup | Raise startup timeout to 300+ s — bridge waits for browser login |
| Browser never opens | Headless box → run xurl auth oauth2 --headless first |
401 / token refresh failed | Wrong credentials or revoked refresh → re-run xurl auth oauth2 |
| Redirect/callback error | Register http://localhost:8080/callback on your app |
client-not-enrolled | Move app to Pay-per-use + Production in developer portal |
| Empty tool output | Do not run bridge with --verbose — stdout must stay JSON-RPC clean |
Test the bridge manually:
npx -y @xdevplatform/xurl mcp https://api.x.com/mcp
Grok users: grok mcp doctor xapi for end-to-end check.
~/.xurl and tokens as secrets — never paste into chats or commit to git.cursor/mcp.json in .gitignoreapi.x.comIf you are new to the protocol, start with What is MCP? before adding production API access.
Machine-readable spec: https://api.x.com/2/openapi.json
curl https://api.x.com/2/openapi.json -o openapi.json
Use it for Postman import, client generation, or feeding a custom MCP server if you outgrow the hosted tools.
Three launches in one week:
| Date | Launch | Agent angle |
|---|---|---|
| June 29 | Cursor for iOS | Mobile control plane for cloud agents |
| June 30 | X hosted MCP | Real-time social API inside any MCP client |
| June 28 | Grok 4.5 beta | Frontier model + Cursor training signal |
X MCP is the data layer — Cursor iOS is the control layer — Grok is the model layer. Together they sketch the SpaceX-adjacent agent stack without waiting for Composer 3.
X is one server. The ecosystem has thousands. On explainx.ai/mcp-servers you can:
Building your own? Our MCP Bootcamp and top MCP directories roundup cover discovery beyond a single vendor.
X MCP server URLs, xurl bridge behavior, and OAuth requirements accurate as of June 30, 2026 per docs.x.com/tools/mcp. Verify current setup steps before production use.