beacon mcp connect

Command overview

beacon mcp connect adds the Beacon Managed MCP server to the MCP configuration of each harness it finds, so an agent can search the session history this endpoint forwards to Beacon Managed. beacon mcp disconnect removes exactly what connect added, and beacon mcp status shows what is configured where.

Command syntax

beacon mcp connect [--harness a,b] [--url URL] [--token-env NAME] [--dry-run] [--yes] [--force]
beacon mcp disconnect [--harness a,b]
beacon mcp status [--harness a,b] [--url URL] [--check] [--json]

The server is registered as beacon-managed. The local server that beacon mcp serve runs is called beacon. The two are different servers with different names, so neither entry ever overwrites the other:

Server name	What it reads	Where it runs	Set up with
`beacon`	This machine’s `runtime.jsonl` and approved local memory	Locally, over stdio or loopback HTTP	`beacon mcp doctor` prints the config
`beacon-managed`	Session history this endpoint forwarded to Beacon Managed	Beacon Managed, over HTTPS	`beacon mcp connect`

Beacon Managed MCP is read-only. Its tools are beacon_search_sessions, beacon_grep, beacon_read_session, beacon_get_event, beacon_lookup and beacon_usage.

beacon mcp connect is an explicit, opt-in command. beacon endpoint install and the onboarding wizard never run it; after you choose Beacon Managed in the wizard, the install only suggests it. It refuses to run as root, and in CI or without a terminal it runs only with --yes.

`beacon mcp connect`

beacon mcp connect

Example output

Beacon Managed MCP: https://mcp.beacon.sh (checked)
Server name: beacon-managed
Auth: OAuth; Beacon writes only the URL, and each harness signs in on first use

HARNESS      FILE                               ACTION   AUTH   NOTE
Claude Code  ~/.claude.json                     add      oauth  via claude CLI
Codex CLI    ~/.codex/config.toml               add      oauth
Cursor       ~/.cursor/mcp.json                 present  oauth  already configured by Beacon
OpenCode     ~/.config/opencode/opencode.jsonc  add      oauth

Write 3 change(s)? Each changed file is backed up first. [y/N] y

✓ Claude Code: added to ~/.claude.json
✓ Codex CLI: added to ~/.codex/config.toml
✓ OpenCode: added to ~/.config/opencode/opencode.jsonc

Next steps:
  Claude Code: In Claude Code, run /mcp, choose beacon-managed, and sign in.
  Codex CLI: Run `codex mcp login beacon-managed`.
  Cursor: In Cursor Settings → MCP, find beacon-managed (marked "Needs login") and sign in.
  OpenCode: Run `opencode mcp auth beacon-managed`.
  Restart any harness that is already running so it loads the new server.

Connect works in these steps:

Harnesses. Without --harness, connect acts on every harness beacon endpoint discover detects. --harness accepts the same names as beacon endpoint install --harness, such as claude, codex, cursor, vscode, gemini and opencode.
URL. The URL is --url, or the Beacon Managed URL recorded by beacon endpoint connect with /mcp added. The Beacon Managed backend may name its own canonical MCP URL, https://mcp.beacon.sh in production. When it does, connect uses that URL. Without either, connect stops and asks you to run beacon endpoint connect or pass --url.
URL check. Before writing anything, connect fetches <origin>/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and requires its resource to be the URL. The URL must be https:// (plain http is allowed only for a loopback development server). This is the command’s only network request. It sends no token or cookie, and it does not follow redirects.

Plan. For each harness connect shows the file, the action and the auth mode:

Action	Meaning
`add`	No `beacon-managed` entry yet; connect adds one.
`update`	Beacon’s own entry, with a different URL or auth mode; connect updates it.
`present`	Already configured as asked. Nothing changes.
`conflict`	A `beacon-managed` entry that Beacon did not write, or one that points at another URL. It is left alone unless you pass `--force`.
`skip`	The config cannot be read or edited safely, for example because it does not parse. The reason is shown.

Confirm and write. Connect asks before writing, unless you pass --yes. Each changed file is first backed up next to itself as <file>.beacon.<UTC time>.bak, then replaced atomically. The file keeps its permissions, and a file Beacon creates is 0600.

Running connect again changes nothing. Every file stays byte for byte the same, and no new backup is made.

How files are edited

Harness configs are your files, and several of them hold other servers’ credentials. Connect never decodes and re-encodes a whole config. It adds or removes its one entry as text, keeping every other byte, including comments, trailing commas, indentation and line endings. It then parses the result and checks that the only difference from the original is the beacon-managed entry. If anything else would change, nothing is written. A symlinked config, such as one managed by a dotfiles tool, is written through the link. What connect wrote is recorded in ~/.beacon/mcp/connections.json (0600): the harness, file, URL, auth mode, variable name and backup, and never a token. disconnect uses this record rather than a comment in the config, because some harnesses rewrite their config files and drop comments.

Flags

Flag	Description
`--harness a,b`	Harnesses to connect. Defaults to every detected harness
`--url URL`	Beacon Managed MCP URL. Defaults to the URL recorded by `beacon endpoint connect`
`--token-env NAME`	Use a personal MCP token read from environment variable `NAME` instead of OAuth
`--dry-run`	Show the plan without checking the URL or writing anything
`--yes`	Write without asking
`--force`	Replace a `beacon-managed` entry that Beacon did not write

Authentication: OAuth or a token

OAuth is the default and the recommended mode. Connect writes only the URL. The first time the harness connects, Beacon Managed answers 401 with a pointer to its OAuth metadata. The harness then registers itself, opens a browser, and you approve access on beacon.sh. No secret is written by Beacon, and access is revoked from the dashboard. A personal token is for harnesses or setups where browser sign-in does not work. Create one with beacon mcp token create (or at beacon.sh → Dashboard → MCP Access), export it, and connect with --token-env:

export BEACON_MCP_TOKEN="$(beacon mcp token create --name laptop)"
beacon mcp connect --token-env BEACON_MCP_TOKEN

Each config then references the variable in its harness’s own syntax. The token itself is never written, and connect refuses a --token-env value that looks like a token rather than a variable name. The harness must be started from an environment where the variable is set.

beacon mcp connect never creates or writes a token. The Beacon account token from beacon login is never copied into a harness config, an environment, a log or any command’s output.

Create a token from the CLI

beacon mcp token create [--name NAME] [--expires-in-days N] [--json]

beacon mcp token create uses your beacon login session to create a personal MCP token. The token is printed to stdout once and cannot be shown again; its name, prefix, expiry and the MCP URL go to stderr, so $(...) captures only the token. --json prints the token and its details as JSON on stdout instead. Beacon never writes the token to a file.

Flag	Meaning
`--name NAME`	Name shown in the dashboard (default `beacon-cli on <hostname>`)
`--expires-in-days N`	Days until the token expires, 1 to 366, or 0 for never (default 90)
`--json`	Print the token and its details as JSON

The token reads your Beacon Managed data, counts toward the limit of 25 active tokens, and is revoked at beacon.sh → Dashboard → MCP Access. It needs the mcp:token:create permission, which beacon login requests and the sign-in page lists; a session from an older beacon login is refused with a prompt to sign in again.

Per-harness notes

Connect writes these entries (OAuth mode shown, then what --token-env NAME adds):

Harness	File	Entry	Token mode	Sign in
Claude Code	`~/.claude.json` (`$CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/.claude.json`), user scope. Written with `claude mcp add --scope user` when `claude` is on `PATH`	`{"type": "http", "url": …}`	`headers.Authorization: "Bearer ${NAME}"`	Run `/mcp` and choose `beacon-managed`
Codex CLI	`~/.codex/config.toml` (`$CODEX_HOME`)	`[mcp_servers.beacon-managed]` `url = …`	`bearer_token_env_var = "NAME"`	`codex mcp login beacon-managed`
Cursor	`~/.cursor/mcp.json`	`mcpServers.beacon-managed = {"url": …}`	`"Bearer ${env:NAME}"`	Cursor Settings → MCP, then sign in where it says “Needs login”
VS Code	User-profile `mcp.json` (next to the user `settings.json`)	`servers.beacon-managed = {"type": "http", "url": …}`	`"Bearer ${input:beacon-managed-token}"` and a password prompt input	”MCP: List Servers”, then start `beacon-managed`
Gemini CLI	`~/.gemini/settings.json`	`mcpServers.beacon-managed = {"url": …, "type": "http"}`	`"Bearer ${NAME}"`	`/mcp auth beacon-managed`
OpenCode	`~/.config/opencode/opencode.json`, or `opencode.jsonc`	`mcp.beacon-managed = {"type": "remote", "url": …, "enabled": true}`	`"oauth": false`, `"Bearer {env:NAME}"`	`opencode mcp auth beacon-managed`

VS Code asks for the token the first time the server starts and keeps it in its own secret storage, so in token mode it does not read NAME.
Gemini CLI loads MCP servers only in trusted folders. In an untrusted folder, beacon-managed shows as disabled.
OpenCode reads opencode.json when both it and opencode.jsonc exist. Connect edits the same file OpenCode’s own opencode mcp add would.

Harnesses you add by hand

These harnesses have no MCP OAuth support Beacon has confirmed, so connect writes nothing for them. It prints the command or snippet instead, with a <token> placeholder for a token from beacon.sh → Dashboard → MCP Access:

GitHub Copilot CLI: copilot mcp add --transport http beacon-managed <url> --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"
Cline: a streamableHttp entry in cline_mcp_settings.json
Kiro: ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json
Devin Desktop: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json (serverUrl)
Qwen Code: ~/.qwen/settings.json (httpUrl)
Factory Droid: droid mcp add beacon-managed <url> --type http --header …
Hermes Agent: mcp_servers in ~/.hermes/config.yaml
Kimi Code: kimi mcp add --transport http beacon-managed <url> --header …
Antigravity CLI: ~/.gemini/antigravity/mcp_config.json (serverUrl)

Other detected runtimes are listed as not connected.

`beacon mcp disconnect`

beacon mcp disconnect
beacon mcp disconnect --harness codex

Disconnect removes only entries that the record says Beacon wrote and that still point at the URL Beacon wrote. An entry you added yourself, or one you have since pointed somewhere else, is left alone.

When a file has not changed since connect wrote it, disconnect restores the exact original bytes from the backup.
Otherwise, disconnect removes only the beacon-managed entry. It also removes any mcpServers-style container Beacon created, if nothing else is in it.
A config file that connect created is deleted once nothing else is in it.

Backups are kept.

`beacon mcp status`

beacon mcp status
beacon mcp status --check
beacon mcp status --json

Example output

Server name: beacon-managed
Beacon Managed MCP URL: https://mcp.beacon.sh
URL check: ok

HARNESS             CONFIGURED  URL                    AUTH     BY BEACON  FILE
Codex CLI           yes         https://mcp.beacon.sh  oauth    yes        ~/.codex/config.toml
Cursor              yes         https://mcp.beacon.sh  oauth    yes        ~/.cursor/mcp.json
OpenCode            no          -                      -        -          ~/.config/opencode/opencode.jsonc
GitHub Copilot CLI  unknown     -                      manual   -          configured by hand; Beacon does not read this runtime's MCP config

Status reads configs and never changes them. AUTH is oauth, token-env (the entry references a variable), or token (the entry has a header written outside Beacon, whose value is never shown). Status makes no network request unless you pass --check, which runs the same URL check as connect and exits non-zero if it fails.

What Beacon Managed MCP can find

Beacon Managed MCP searches what this endpoint forwarded, which limits what it can find:

Each retained string is capped at 4 KB before it is written locally. Text past that point in a long tool output or diff is never forwarded, so it cannot be grepped.
An endpoint connected in Metadata-only mode forwards no prompts, responses, tool arguments or output. For such an endpoint, grep and read return little beyond identifiers, counts and token usage.

See Downstream consumers.

beacon mcp

The local Beacon MCP server and its tools.

beacon mcp doctor

Validate the local server and print its client config.

beacon endpoint connect

Connect this endpoint to Beacon Managed.

Redaction and size limits

What is retained, truncated and forwarded.

Install and Upgrade

CLI Resources

Command Manual

beacon mcp connect

Command overview

`beacon mcp connect`

How files are edited

Flags

Authentication: OAuth or a token

Create a token from the CLI

Per-harness notes

Harnesses you add by hand

`beacon mcp disconnect`

`beacon mcp status`

What Beacon Managed MCP can find

beacon mcp

beacon mcp doctor

beacon endpoint connect

Redaction and size limits

​Command overview

​beacon mcp connect

​How files are edited

​Flags

​Authentication: OAuth or a token

​Create a token from the CLI

​Per-harness notes

​Harnesses you add by hand

​beacon mcp disconnect

​beacon mcp status

​What Beacon Managed MCP can find

​Related

beacon mcp

beacon mcp doctor

beacon endpoint connect

Redaction and size limits

Command overview

`beacon mcp connect`

How files are edited

Flags

Authentication: OAuth or a token

Create a token from the CLI

Per-harness notes

Harnesses you add by hand

`beacon mcp disconnect`

`beacon mcp status`

What Beacon Managed MCP can find

Related