MCP Tools
MCP Tools
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI models to external tools and services. QUI's MCP Gateway provides access to over 165 tools across 9 categories — from GitHub and Docker to Telegram, Notion, and database management.
What MCP Tools Enable
When you enable MCP tools on a character, that character can:
- Send and receive Telegram messages
- Create GitHub issues and pull requests
- Query databases (PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, SQLite)
- Manage Docker containers
- Send emails and Slack messages
- Create Trello cards and Notion pages
- Search the web (DuckDuckGo, Brave)
- Interact with web pages via Playwright
- And much more
The character uses these tools through trigger patterns in its responses. You configure which tools each character has access to, and provide the necessary API credentials.
Tool Categories
| Category | Services | Tool Count |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | GitHub, Git, Playwright, Filesystem, Fetch, Sentry, Datadog | 70+ |
| Cloud | Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Azure | 10 |
| Data | Redis, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Google Drive | 17 |
| Comms | Telegram, WhatsApp, Email, Slack, Discord, Calendar | 55+ |
| Productivity | Trello, Notion, Jira, Linear | 21 |
| Security | 1Password, Vault | 9 |
| Cognition | Sequential Thinking, Memory Knowledge Graph | 3 |
| Search | DuckDuckGo, Brave | 2 |
| Utility | Time | 1 |
Enabling MCP Tools
In the Visual Builder
- Open the Cognitive Design tab in the palette
- Find the MCP section with category flyouts
- Click a category to see available services
- Click a service to add it as a node on the canvas
- Click the node to configure credentials (API keys, tokens, etc.)
Each service node stores its own credentials. For example, the GitHub node needs a personal access token, the Telegram node needs a bot token, and the Slack node needs a signing secret.
[Screenshot: MCP tool category flyout showing available services]
Credentials
Each MCP service has specific credential requirements. The node configuration panel shows what's needed:
- GitHub — Personal access token
- Telegram — Bot token (from @BotFather)
- Slack — Bot token + signing secret
- Discord — Bot token + public key
- Email — SMTP/IMAP credentials
- AWS — Access key ID + secret
- Database services — Connection string or host/port/credentials
Credentials are stored securely in the character's configuration.
How Tools Execute
When a character decides to use an MCP tool, it emits a trigger in its response:
[TRIGGER:mcp:github:create_issue:{"title":"Bug report","body":"Details...","repo":"org/repo"}]
The trigger system:
- Detects the pattern in the LLM response
- Strips it from the displayed text (the user sees clean output)
- Resolves the service credentials from the character's MCP configuration
- Sends the request to the MCP Gateway
- Returns the result to the character for follow-up
In agentic mode, the character can chain multiple tool calls — create a GitHub issue, then send a Slack notification about it, then update a Trello card.
MCP in ThinkThing
ThinkThing has 37 dedicated MCP nodes — one per service. Each node is pre-configured with the service's available tools. Add the node to a graph, connect it to an Anima character with the corresponding MCP service enabled, and configure the specific tool and parameters.
Tool Access Control
MCP access is controlled at multiple levels:
- Character level — only tools whose nodes are on the canvas are available
- Service level — each service can be individually enabled/disabled
- Tool level — within a service, individual tools can be toggled
- Credential level — tools without valid credentials won't execute
This layered approach ensures characters only access the specific tools they need.
