Connect to Xero Accounting Data

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/

Required Scopes

Custom connections require different scopes depending on when they were created. All scopes in the relevant list must be added to your custom connection:

Note: The MCP server automatically tries V1 scopes first and falls back to V2 if needed.

You can override these by setting the XERO_SCOPES environment variable to a space-separated list of 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",
        "XERO_SCOPES": "accounting.invoices accounting.contacts accounting.settings"
      }
    }
  }
}

The XERO_SCOPES variable is optional. If omitted, the default scopes listed above will be used.

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.

Required Scopes for Bearer Token

When obtaining a bearer token, you must request the appropriate scopes. The scopes you request should be:

Note: Some scopes are being deprecated in favour of more granular scopes. See the Xero OAuth 2.0 Scopes documentation for details on deprecation timelines.

accounting.transactions (Deprecated)
accounting.transactions.read (Deprecated)
accounting.invoices
accounting.invoices.read
accounting.payments
accounting.payments.read
accounting.banktransactions
accounting.banktransactions.read
accounting.manualjournals
accounting.manualjournals.read
accounting.reports.read (Deprecated)
accounting.reports.aged.read
accounting.reports.balancesheet.read
accounting.reports.profitandloss.read
accounting.reports.trialbalance.read
accounting.contacts 
accounting.settings 
payroll.settings 
payroll.employees 
payroll.timesheets

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-manual-journals: Retrieve a list of manual journals
• 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-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 available leave types in Xero Payroll
• list-timesheets: Retrieve a list of Payroll Timesheets
• 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
• list-tracking-categories: Retrieve a list of tracking categories
• create-bank-transaction: Create a new bank transaction
• create-contact: Create a new contact
• create-credit-note: Create a new credit note
• create-invoice: Create a new invoice
• create-item: Create a new item
• create-manual-journal: Create a new manual journal
• create-payment: Create a new payment
• create-quote: Create a new quote
• create-payroll-timesheet: Create a new Payroll Timesheet
• create-tracking-category: Create a new tracking category
• create-tracking-option: Create a new tracking option
• update-bank-transaction: Update an existing bank transaction
• update-contact: Update an existing contact
• update-invoice: Update an existing draft invoice
• update-item: Update an existing item
• update-manual-journal: Update an existing manual journal
• update-quote: Update an existing draft quote
• update-credit-note: Update an existing draft credit note
• update-tracking-category: Update an existing tracking category
• update-tracking-options: Update tracking options
• 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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Security

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