TonisOrmisson/limesurvey-mcp

LimeSurvey MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes LimeSurvey Remote API functionality as MCP tools. This server provides a standardized way to interact with LimeSurvey's powerful survey management capabilities through MCP clients.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• API Reference
  • Survey Management
  • Question Management
  • Response Management
  • Participant Management
  • Statistics Management
• Development
• License

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/TonisOrmisson/limesurvey-mcp.git
cd limesurvey-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Start the server
npm start

Configuration

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

# LimeSurvey Remote API Settings
LIMESURVEY_API_URL=https://your-limesurvey-instance.com/admin/remotecontrol
LIMESURVEY_USERNAME=your_username
LIMESURVEY_PASSWORD=your_password

# Server settings
PORT=3000

# Optional: run in read‑only mode
# When true, all write tools short‑circuit and return an error message
# instead of calling LimeSurvey.
READONLY_MODE=false

Usage

Once the server is running, you can use any MCP client to connect to it and access LimeSurvey functionality.

Example MCP client snippet (pseudo‑YAML) to list surveys:

tool: listSurveys
args: {}

API Reference

RemoteControl2 Coverage

The table below shows how LimeSurvey RemoteControl2 methods are exposed as MCP tools in this server. Methods that are not implemented here are either not available in the target LimeSurvey instance or intentionally skipped (for example unstable or undocumented endpoints).

When READONLY_MODE=true is set in the environment, all tools marked as “write (guarded)” above will return a clear error message without calling LimeSurvey.

Survey Management

listSurveys

Lists all surveys that the authenticated user has permission to access.

Parameters: None

Returns:

• Array of survey objects with properties:
  • sid: Survey ID
  • surveyls_title: Survey title
  • active: Whether the survey is active ("Y" or "N")
  • expires: Expiration date (if set)
  • startdate: Start date (if set)
  • And other survey metadata

Example Response:

[
  {
    "sid": "123456",
    "surveyls_title": "Customer Satisfaction Survey",
    "active": "Y",
    "expires": null,
    "startdate": "2023-01-01 00:00:00"
  },
  {
    "sid": "789012",
    "surveyls_title": "Employee Feedback",
    "active": "N",
    "expires": "2023-12-31 23:59:59",
    "startdate": "2023-06-01 00:00:00"
  }
]

getSurveyProperties

Gets detailed properties of a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey to get properties for

Returns:

• Object containing survey properties including settings, configuration, and metadata

activateSurvey

Activates a survey that is currently inactive.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey to activate

Returns:

• Result of the activation process

getSurveyLanguageProperties

Gets language-specific properties for a survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• language: The language code

Returns:

• Object containing language-specific properties for the survey

getAvailableLanguages

Gets available languages in the LimeSurvey installation.

Parameters: None

Returns:

• List of available language codes and their names

getSurveyLanguages

Gets available languages for a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey

Returns:

• Array of language codes available for the survey

getQuotaProperties

Gets properties for a specific quota.

This tool wraps the get_quota_properties RemoteControl method: get_quota_properties($sessionKey, $iQuotaId, $aQuotaSettings = null, $sLanguage = null). Listing all quotas for a survey is not supported via this MCP server.

Parameters:

• quotaId: Specific quota ID (required)
• language (optional): Language for quota descriptions

Returns:

• Quota information for the given quota ID

addQuota

Adds a new quota to a survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• name: Quota name
• limit: Maximum number of responses for the quota

Returns:

• Result object from LimeSurvey containing the created quota data

setQuotaProperties

Updates properties of an existing quota.

Parameters:

• quotaId: The ID of the quota to update
• properties: Object with quota fields to update (for example name, limit, active, action, message, url)

Returns:

• Result object describing the updated quota

deleteQuota

Deletes an existing quota.

Parameters:

• quotaId: The ID of the quota to delete

Returns:

• Result object indicating whether the quota was deleted successfully

addSurveyLanguage

Adds a new language to a survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• language: Language code to add (for example "de", "fr")

Returns:

• Result object from LimeSurvey for the language addition

deleteSurveyLanguage

Deletes a language from a survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• language: Language code to remove

Returns:

• Result object indicating whether the language was deleted

setSurveyLanguageProperties

Sets language‑specific properties for a survey language.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• language (optional): Language code; omit to target the base language
• localeData: Object with locale fields to update (for example surveyls_title, surveyls_description, surveyls_welcometext)

Returns:

• Result object describing the updated language properties

setSurveyProperties

Sets properties for a survey.

This tool wraps the set_survey_properties RemoteControl method: set_survey_properties($sessionKey, $iSurveyID, $aSurveyData). Some fields (for example sid, active, language, additional_languages, and several fields on active surveys) cannot be changed and will be ignored by LimeSurvey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• properties: Object of survey fields to update

Returns:

• Result object describing which fields were updated successfully

Question Management

listQuestions

Lists all questions for a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• groupId (optional): Get only questions from this group
• language (optional): Language for question texts

Returns:

• Array of question objects with properties including ID, text, type, and other settings

listQuestionGroups

Lists all question groups for a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• language (optional): Language for group texts

Returns:

• Array of question group objects with properties including ID, title, description, and order

getQuestionProperties

Gets properties for a specific question.

Parameters:

• questionId: The ID of the question
• language (optional): Language for question texts
• properties (optional): Array of property names to retrieve

Returns:

• Object containing the requested properties for the question

Response Management

getResponseSummary

Gets summary information about a survey's collected responses.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey

Returns:

• Summary object containing information about response counts and status

exportResponses

Exports responses from a survey in the specified format.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• documentType: Format of the export (csv, xls, pdf, html, json) - default: "csv"
• language (optional): Language for response export
• completionStatus: Filter by completion status ('complete', 'incomplete', 'all') - default: "all"
• headingType: Type of headings ('code', 'full', 'abbreviated') - default: "code"
• responseType: Response type ('short' or 'long') - default: "short"
• fields (optional): Array of field names to export

Returns:

• Exported data in the requested format

listResponses

Lists IDs of responses for a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• start: Starting response index - default: 0
• limit: Number of responses to return - default: 10
• attributes (optional): Array of attribute names to include

Returns:

• Array of response IDs and requested attributes

Participant Management

addParticipant

Adds a participant to a survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• email: Participant email address
• firstName (optional): First name
• lastName (optional): Last name
• language (optional): Language code
• usesLeft: Number of times the participant can access the survey - default: 1
• validFrom (optional): Valid from date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss)
• validUntil (optional): Valid until date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss)

Returns:

• Participant data including the generated token

listParticipants

Lists participants for a specific survey.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• start: Starting participant index - default: 0
• limit: Number of participants to return - default: 10
• unused: Only show unused tokens - default: false
• attributes (optional): Array of attribute names to include

Returns:

• Array of participant objects with requested attributes

getParticipantProperties

Gets properties of a specific participant/token.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey
• tokenId: The token ID
• attributes (optional): Array of attribute names to include

Returns:

• Object containing properties for the specified participant

Statistics Management

exportStatistics

Exports survey statistics in PDF, Excel, or HTML format with optional graphs.

Parameters:

• surveyId: The ID of the survey to export statistics for
• documentType: Format of the export: 'pdf', 'xls', or 'html' - default: "pdf"
• language (optional): Language for statistics export (default: survey's default language)
• includeGraphs: Whether to include graphs in the export (only applicable for PDF) - default: false
• groupIds (optional): Specific question group ID(s) to include in statistics, can be a single ID or array of IDs

Returns:

• Base64 encoded string containing the statistics file in the requested format

Example Usage:

exportStatistics:
  surveyId: "123456"
  documentType: "pdf"
  includeGraphs: true

Development

This project is built using:

• Node.js
• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk - MCP server SDK
• TypeScript - For type safety and modern JavaScript features
• dotenv - For environment variable management
• Axios - For HTTP requests to LimeSurvey Remote API

Building

npm run build

Development Mode

npm run dev

License