Needle MCP Server

The Needle MCP server bridges Claude’s conversational interface with the Needle document management platform, enabling developers to treat collections of PDFs, webpages, or other files as first‑class semantic search resources. Instead of manually querying Needle’s API from within a chatbot, the server exposes MCP commands that let Claude users create collections, ingest documents, and perform vector‑based searches—all through natural language prompts. This removes the need for custom integration code, making it trivial to add powerful knowledge‑base search into existing AI workflows.

At its core, the server offers a set of declarative commands: create_collection, add_document, search_collection, and list_collections. When a user types “Create a new collection called ‘Technical Docs’,” the MCP server translates that into an API call to Needle, storing the collection metadata. Subsequent commands such as “Add this document to the collection” or “Search the collection for information about AI” trigger ingestion of new content and semantic queries that return the most relevant passages. These actions are exposed to Claude as tool calls, so developers can chain them with other conversational logic or embed them in higher‑level workflows.

Key capabilities include:

• Semantic search: Needle’s vector embeddings enable context‑aware retrieval, so answers are grounded in the most relevant documents rather than keyword matches.
• Dynamic collection management: Collections can be created, updated, and listed on the fly, allowing conversational agents to evolve their knowledge base during interaction.
• API‑key based authentication: The server reads the Needle API key from an environment variable, keeping credentials secure while still being easily configurable through Claude Desktop’s .

Real‑world scenarios that benefit from this integration are plentiful. A technical support chatbot can instantly pull up the latest product manuals or internal SOPs; a research assistant can query a library of academic papers stored in Needle without leaving the chat; or a compliance officer can verify policy documents on demand. Because all interactions happen through natural language, non‑technical stakeholders can leverage sophisticated document search without learning new commands or SDKs.

Integrating the Needle MCP server into an AI workflow is straightforward: configure Claude Desktop to launch the server, then invoke the available commands from any conversation. The server’s responses are returned as tool outputs, which Claude can embed directly into replies or use to trigger further actions. This tight coupling means developers can build complex, stateful applications—such as knowledge‑base‑driven decision support systems—while keeping the user experience seamless and conversational.

In summary, the Needle MCP server transforms a static document repository into an interactive, AI‑powered knowledge engine. By exposing semantic search and collection management as MCP tools, it empowers developers to add deep document understanding to their assistants with minimal effort and maximum flexibility.