formulize-mcp by jegelstaff - MCP Server

formulize-mcp

A local MCP server for connecting to Formulize systems on the web. Use your AI assistant to get information from Formulize, and send information to it. Use AI to create forms, create entries, examine the configuration, summarize data... The sky's the limit!

Release 1.3.2
Author: Claude (mostly Sonnet 4, and a little Opus 4)
Architect: Julian Egelstaff
July 22 2025

You probably already have a Formulize system, otherwise why are you here? But in case you didn't know...

Formulize is an open source data management platform. With Formulize, you can create web-based forms, connect them together to make unique apps, and publish the data with interactive reports.

Formulize is quickly configured, and reconfigured, so it adapts as your needs change and your data grows. It's also completely free and open source.

Step 1 - Node.js

You don't need to use npm, or download anything from Github (but you could, see below). You just need to have node.js installed on your system.

Once you do, all that's left is for you to configure your AI assistant(s).

Step 2 - Configuration

First, get a key for your Formulize system

Once you have node.js installed, you need to get an API key from your Formulize system, which will allow the MCP server to access Formulize.

If you are the webmaster, this is easy. Go to the Manage API Keys page on the admin side, and issue yourself a key.
If you are not the webmaster, ask the webmaster to issue you a key.

Once you have the key, configure your AI assistant:

Second, configure your AI assistant

Things are changing fast in the world of MCP. In the future, this local MCP server may not even be necessary. We hope it becomes easy to connect AI assistants directly to remote Formulize instances. Microsoft wants to own the configuration of all this on Windows by building it all into the OS. We'll see how that goes. Everyone is trying to stake their claim.

In the meantime, you have to configure each AI assistant individually. Here's some examples of .json files that will allow different AI assistants to use this local MCP server, with no installation required:

Claude Desktop

You need to modify the claude_desktop_config.json file. Where is it?

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "My Formulize MCP Server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "formulize-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FORMULIZE_URL": "https://<your.formulize.site.url>",
        "FORMULIZE_API_KEY": "<your api key from your formulize site>",
        "FORMULIZE_SERVER_NAME": "My Formulize MCP Server"
      }
    }
  }
}

VSCode (with Copilot)

There are a few ways, but the easiest is probably to just make a .vscode folder inside whatever project you're working in. Or make a new project if you just want to use the AI and Formulize. Inside the .vscode folder, make a mcp.json file, that looks a lot like the Claude version:

{
  "servers": {
    "My Formulize MCP Server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "formulize-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FORMULIZE_URL": "https://<your.formulize.site.url>",
        "FORMULIZE_API_KEY": "<your api key from your formulize site>",
        "FORMULIZE_SERVER_NAME": "My Formulize MCP Server"
      }
    }
  }
}

The only difference is one calls it servers and the other calls it mpcServers! Guys, get your acts together!

Other AI assistants are similar, if they support MCP at all. If they do support it, they probably only support tools. Claude Desktop and Copilot in VSCode support tools, resources and prompts, abeit in rather different ways.

Your mileage may vary!

Environment Variables

FORMULIZE_URL - Required - The URL for your Formulize system, ie: https://myformulize.com
FORMULIZE_API_KEY - Required - Your API key for your Formulize system.
FORMULIZE_SERVER_NAME - Recommended - The name of your server. Although the name may be stated already higher up in the .json file, including the name as an environment variable will help the AI understand your system.
FORMULIZE_DEBUG - Optional - Either true or false. Defaults to false.
FORMULIZE_TIMEOUT - Optional - Timeout in milliseconds. Defaults to 30000.

All values must be enclosed in double quotes.

(Optional) Installation

There is no installation step required, but you might prefer to install the server permanently, and not have npx running it all the time.

If you do, the installation is super simple of course:

npm install -g formulize-mcp

If you do this, then you need to change the .json config file for your AI assistant:

npx becomes formulize-mcp
args becomes [] (ie: empty, no args)

(Very optional) Compiling it yourself

Maybe you don't want to to rely on mysterious precompiled code from an NPM registry. But this is open source after all, and for a reason, so you do you.

1. Get the code

Download, use git, whatever you prefer.

2. Go to the folder with the code

cd folder/with/the/files

On Windows, make sure you're doing this in a Command Prompt or other window that as Administrator privileges!

3. Install the MCP SDK first

npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

If you get import errors, try installing the latest MCP SDK:

npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk@latest

4. Install remaining dependencies and build the project

npm install
npm run build

If you do all this, then you need to change the .json config file for your AI assistant:

npx becomes node
-y argument is removed
formulize-mcp becomes the full path to the compiled .js file (ie: C:\\yourdir\\dist\\formulize-mcp.js).

On Windows, don't forget to use double slashes ( \\ ) for directory separators in the path. :(