Babson Engage MCP Server

MCP server that gives AI agents access to Babson's campus events and student organizations via Babson Engage (powered by CampusGroups/Anthology). Merges live RSS feeds with historical iCal data into one unified, searchable timeline of 150+ events.

Built for the Babson AI Fellowship (Spring 2026) as infrastructure for the May 4 deliverable: demonstrating how internal Babson data sources can be turned into MCP-compatible data layers for AI agents like NavAI.

Live Deployment

Both currently deploy via manual deploy.zip upload. See "Migrating to GitHub Actions" below for the IT-handoff guide on switching to push-to-deploy.

Data Sources

All three are public endpoints -- no authentication required.

Tools

search-events

Unified search across all Babson Engage events (past and upcoming). Merges RSS + iCal feeds, deduplicates, and returns a sorted timeline.

Parameters:

• query (optional) -- Keyword search across title, description, location, group
• category (optional) -- Filter by category (CAREER, INDUSTRY, SOCIAL, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, COMMUNITY, CULTURAL, ANNOUNCEMENT)
• from_date (optional) -- Start date (YYYY-MM-DD). Default: 90 days ago
• to_date (optional) -- End date (YYYY-MM-DD). Default: 30 days ahead
• food_only (optional) -- Only events with food provided
• limit (optional) -- Max results (default 20, max 100)

get-event-detail

Full details for a specific event by its Engage event ID. RSS events only (upcoming events have richer data than iCal historical records).

Parameters:

• event_id -- The Engage event ID

list-groups

List active student clubs and organizations. Filter by name/mission keyword or group type.

Parameters:

• search (optional) -- Keyword filter on name or mission
• group_type (optional) -- Filter by type (e.g., "Graduate Club", "Organization")
• limit (optional) -- Max results (default 30, max 100)

Resources

• engage://events -- Full JSON snapshot of all upcoming events
• engage://groups -- Full JSON snapshot of all active groups

Architecture

• Caching: In-memory cache with 5-minute TTL. Stale fallback if RSS/iCal is unreachable.
• Deduplication: Events appearing in both RSS and iCal are merged by title + date, preferring the richer RSS record.
• Category mapping: 18 CampusGroups event types mapped to 7 categories for consistent filtering.
• Transport: Stdio (standard MCP). Runs as a local process managed by Claude Code.

Setup

npm install
npm run build

Usage with Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "babson-engage": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/engage-mcp-server/dist/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Development

npm run dev  # runs with tsx

Example Queries

• "What career events are happening this week?" -- search-events(category: "CAREER", from_date: "2026-04-07", to_date: "2026-04-14")
• "Any events with free food?" -- search-events(food_only: true)
• "What happened at Babson in February?" -- search-events(from_date: "2026-02-01", to_date: "2026-02-28")
• "Find tech clubs" -- list-groups(search: "tech")

Tech Stack

• TypeScript + Node.js
• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk -- MCP server framework
• fast-xml-parser -- RSS/XML parsing
• zod -- Input validation

Migrating to GitHub Actions (IT Handoff Guide)

Today both the MCP server and the demo deploy via manual deploy.zip upload to Azure. The repo contains two ready-to-go GitHub Actions workflows in .github/workflows/, shipped with .example extensions so they're inert until activated.

Activate MCP server auto-deploy (Azure App Service)

1. Get the publish profile. Azure Portal → App Service babson-engage-mcp → Overview → "Get publish profile" (downloads .PublishSettings XML).
2. Add to GitHub. Repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret named AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE. Paste the entire XML contents.
3. Activate the workflow. Rename .github/workflows/azure-app-service-deploy.yml.example → .github/workflows/azure-app-service-deploy.yml and commit. Every push to main will now build and deploy the MCP server.

Activate demo auto-deploy (Azure Static Web Apps)

1. Get the deployment token. Azure Portal → Static Web App for the demo → "Manage deployment token" → copy.
2. Add to GitHub. Repo → Settings → Secrets → new repo secret named AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN. Paste the token.
3. Activate the workflow. Rename .github/workflows/azure-static-web-app-deploy.yml.example → .github/workflows/azure-static-web-app-deploy.yml and commit. Pushes that touch demo/** will redeploy the demo.

After activation: ~5 min per push for the MCP server, ~30 sec for the demo. The manual deploy.zip step retires.

Custom domain (optional, requires Babson IT)

The Azure URLs above are auto-generated. If Babson IT wants engage-mcp.babson.edu (or similar), it's a 5-min setup:

1. IT adds a CNAME record from engage-mcp.babson.edu to babson-engage-mcp.azurewebsites.net
2. In Azure Portal → App Service → Custom domains → "Add custom domain" → verify CNAME, attach a free Azure-managed cert. Same pattern for the Static Web App demo.