What is Xero MCP Server

The Xero MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation that acts as a bridge between MCP protocol and Xero’s API, facilitating standardized access to Xero’s accounting features such as contact management, invoice handling, and chart of accounts management.

Use cases

It can be used for various applications such as managing financial transactions, generating invoices, handling payroll, and retrieving business reports. This server is especially beneficial for developers integrating MCP clients with Xero’s accounting functionalities.

How to use

To use the MCP server, set up a Xero developer account and configure OAuth2 authentication either with custom connections or bearer tokens. Start the server with the appropriate configurations for integrating with clients like Claude Desktop or testing locally using npm or pnpm commands.

Key features

Key features include Xero OAuth2 authentication, compliance with the MCP protocol, and support for various accounting operations such as invoice creation, contact management, and generating financial reports. It also supports multi-account management through bearer tokens.

Where to use

The Xero MCP Server is ideally used in environments where integration with Xero’s accounting services is required, such as third-party applications, financial software, and desktop clients that leverage MCP. It is particularly useful for developers building custom accounting solutions.

Xero MCP Server

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for Xero. It provides a bridge between the MCP protocol and Xero’s API, allowing for standardized access to Xero’s accounting and business features.

Features

• Xero OAuth2 authentication with custom connections
• Contact management
• Chart of Accounts management
• Invoice creation and management
• MCP protocol compliance

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• npm or pnpm
• A Xero developer account with API credentials

Docs and Links

• Xero Public API Documentation
• Xero API Explorer
• Xero OpenAPI Specs
• Xero-Node Public API SDK Docs
• Developer Documentation

Setup

Create a Xero Account

If you don’t already have a Xero account and organisation already, can create one by signing up here using the free trial.

We recommend using a Demo Company to start with because it comes with some pre-loaded sample data. Once you are logged in, switch to it by using the top left-hand dropdown and selecting “Demo Company”. You can reset the data on a Demo Company, or change the country, at any time by using the top left-hand dropdown and navigating to My Xero.

NOTE: To use Payroll-specific queries, the region should be either NZ or UK.

Authentication

There are 2 modes of authentication supported in the Xero MCP server:

1. Custom Connections

This is a better choice for testing and development which allows you to specify client id and secrets for a specific organisation.
It is also the recommended approach if you are integrating this into 3rd party MCP clients such as Claude Desktop.

Configuring your Xero Developer account

Set up a Custom Connection following these instructions: https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/custom-connections/

Currently the following scopes are required for all sessions: scopes

Integrating the MCP server with Claude Desktop

To add the MCP server to Claude go to Settings > Developer > Edit config and add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@xeroapi/xero-mcp-server@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id_here",
        "XERO_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

NOTE: If you are using Node Version Manager "command": "npx" section change it to be the full path to the executable, ie: your_home_directory/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/npx on Mac / Linux or "your_home_directory\\.nvm\\versions\\node\\v22.14.0\\bin\\npx" on Windows

2. Bearer Token

This is a better choice if you are to support multiple Xero accounts at runtime and allow the MCP client to execute an auth flow (such as PKCE) as required.
In this case, use the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@xeroapi/xero-mcp-server@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN": "your_bearer_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

NOTE: The XERO_CLIENT_BEARER_TOKEN will take precedence over the XERO_CLIENT_ID if defined.

Available MCP Commands

• list-accounts: Retrieve a list of accounts
• list-contacts: Retrieve a list of contacts from Xero
• list-credit-notes: Retrieve a list of credit notes
• list-invoices: Retrieve a list of invoices
• list-items: Retrieve a list of items
• list-organisation-details: Retrieve details about an organisation
• list-profit-and-loss: Retrieve a profit and loss report
• list-quotes: Retrieve a list of quotes
• list-tax-rates: Retrieve a list of tax rates
• list-payments: Retrieve a list of payments
• list-trial-balance: Retrieve a trial balance report
• list-profit-and-loss: Retrieve a profit and loss report
• list-bank-transactions: Retrieve a list of bank account transactions
• list-payroll-employees: Retrieve a list of Payroll Employees
• list-report-balance-sheet: Retrieve a balance sheet report
• list-payroll-employee-leave: Retrieve a Payroll Employee’s leave records
• list-payroll-employee-leave-balances: Retrieve a Payroll Employee’s leave balances
• list-payroll-employee-leave-types: Retrieve a list of Payroll leave types
• list-payroll-leave-periods: Retrieve a list of a Payroll Employee’s leave periods
• list-payroll-leave-types: Retrieve a list of all avaliable leave types in Xero Payroll
• list-aged-receivables-by-contact: Retrieves aged receivables for a contact
• list-aged-payables-by-contact: Retrieves aged payables for a contact
• list-contact-groups: Retrieve a list of contact groups
• create-contact: Create a new contact
• create-credit-note: Create a new credit note
• create-invoice: Create a new invoice
• create-payment: Create a new payment
• create-quote: Create a new quote
• create-credit-note: Create a new credit note
• create-payroll-timesheet: Create a new Payroll Timesheet
• update-contact: Update an existing contact
• update-invoice: Update an existing draft invoice
• update-quote: Update an existing draft quote
• update-credit-note: Update an existing draft credit note
• update-payroll-timesheet-line: Update a line on an existing Payroll Timesheet
• approve-payroll-timesheet: Approve a Payroll Timesheet
• revert-payroll-timesheet: Revert an approved Payroll Timesheet
• add-payroll-timesheet-line: Add new line on an existing Payroll Timesheet
• delete-payroll-timesheet: Delete an existing Payroll Timesheet
• get-payroll-timesheet: Retrieve an existing Payroll Timesheet

For detailed API documentation, please refer to the MCP Protocol Specification.

For Developers

Installation

# Using npm
npm install

# Using pnpm
pnpm install

Run a build

# Using npm
npm run build

# Using pnpm
pnpm build

Integrating with Claude Desktop

To link your Xero MCP server in development to Claude Desktop go to Settings > Developer > Edit config and add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

NOTE: For Windows ensure the args path escapes the \ between folders ie. "C:\\projects\xero-mcp-server\\dist\\index.js"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xero": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "insert-your-file-path-here/xero-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "XERO_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id_here",
        "XERO_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

License

MIT

Security

Please do not commit your .env file or any sensitive credentials to version control (it is included in .gitignore as a safe default.)