deAPI MCP Server

Production-ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the deAPI REST API. This server exposes all deAPI AI capabilities as MCP tools, enabling LLMs to perform audio transcription, image generation, OCR, video generation, text-to-speech, and more.

Features

• Complete API Coverage: 29 deAPI endpoints exposed as MCP tools
• Smart Adaptive Polling: Automatically polls async jobs with optimized intervals based on job type
• OAuth 2.0 Authentication: Secure token exchange via OAuth Authorization Code flow with PKCE
• Error Recovery: Automatic retry logic with exponential backoff
• Progress Reporting: Real-time progress updates to MCP clients
• Type Safety: Full Pydantic schema validation
• Production Ready: Built with FastMCP framework for reliability

Available Tools

Audio Tools

• audio_transcription - Transcribe audio files to text using Whisper models
• audio_transcription_price - Calculate transcription cost
• text_to_audio - Convert text to natural speech (TTS)
• text_to_audio_price - Calculate TTS cost
• audio_url_transcription - Transcribe audio from URLs of completed Twitter Spaces
• audio_url_transcription_price - Calculate Twitter Spaces transcription cost

Video Transcription Tools

• video_file_transcription - Transcribe video files to text
• video_file_transcription_price - Calculate video file transcription cost
• video_url_transcription - Transcribe videos from URLs (YouTube, Twitter/X, Twitch, Kick)
• video_url_transcription_price - Calculate video URL transcription cost

Image Tools

• text_to_image - Generate images from text prompts
• image_to_image - Transform images with text guidance
• image_to_text - Extract text from images (OCR)
• image_remove_background - Remove background from images
• image_upscale - Upscale images to higher resolution
• text_to_image_price - Calculate image generation cost
• image_to_image_price - Calculate image transformation cost
• image_to_text_price - Calculate OCR cost
• image_remove_background_price - Calculate background removal cost
• image_upscale_price - Calculate upscaling cost

Video Tools

• text_to_video - Generate videos from text prompts
• image_to_video - Animate static images into videos
• text_to_video_price - Calculate text-to-video cost
• image_to_video_price - Calculate image-to-video cost

Embedding Tools

• text_to_embedding - Generate text embeddings for semantic search
• text_to_embedding_price - Calculate embedding cost

Utility Tools

• get_balance - Check account balance
• get_available_models - List available AI models with specifications
• check_job_status - Query async job status by ID

Installation

Prerequisites

For running the MCP server:

• Python 3.10 or higher
• uv, pip, or conda for package management

For a deAPI account:

• Sign up at deapi.ai and get your API token

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/deapi-ai/mcp-server-deapi.git
cd mcp-server-deapi

2. Choose your Python environment setup:

Option A: Using uv (recommended - fastest)

uv pip install -e .

Option B: Using pip

pip install -e .

Option C: Using conda

# Create conda environment
conda create -n mcp-server-deapi python=3.11
conda activate mcp-server-deapi

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

3. (Optional) Create a .env file for configuration:

# Copy the example file
cp .env.example .env

# Edit with your preferences (optional - defaults work fine)
# DEAPI_API_BASE_URL=https://api.deapi.ai
# DEAPI_HTTP_TIMEOUT=30.0
# DEAPI_MAX_RETRIES=3

Usage

Running the Server

The server can run in two modes:

Local Mode (for use with Claude Desktop on the same machine):

python -m src.server_remote

The server will start on http://localhost:8000 by default.

Remote Mode (for deployment to a remote server):

# Set host to accept external connections
MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 MCP_PORT=8000 python -m src.server_remote

See the Remote Deployment section for production deployment options.

Connecting from Claude Desktop / Claude.ai

Option 1: Add Connector (Recommended)

Both Claude Desktop and Claude.ai support MCP connectors with built-in OAuth authentication.

1. Get your deAPI token from deapi.ai
2. In Claude Desktop or Claude.ai, go to Settings → Connectors → Add Connector
3. Fill in the connector details:

Name:              deAPI
Remote MCP server: https://your-server-domain:8000/mcp

▼ Advanced settings
OAuth Client ID:     deapi-mcp
OAuth Client Secret: YOUR_DEAPI_TOKEN

4. Click Add — Claude will automatically authenticate via OAuth and discover all tools.

For details on the OAuth flow, see AUTH.md.

Option 2: Config File with Bearer Token (Local Development)

Best for: Server running on the same machine, quick setup without OAuth.

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deapi": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_DEAPI_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_DEAPI_TOKEN with your actual deAPI token. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

Using the Tools

Authentication is handled at the connection level, not per-tool-call. Tools do NOT accept a deapi_api_token parameter.

Here's an example workflow:

1. Get available models:

Use get_available_models to see available models

2. Check your balance:

Use get_balance to check remaining credits

3. Generate an image:

Use text_to_image with:
- prompt: "A beautiful sunset over mountains"
- model: "Flux1schnell"

4. Transcribe audio:

Use audio_transcription with:
- audio: "base64-encoded-audio-or-url"
- include_ts: true

Note: When calling tools via Claude Desktop or MCP SDK, authentication is handled automatically through the server connection (OAuth or HTTP headers). See AUTH.md for detailed OAuth setup.

Architecture

Key Components

• DeapiClient (src/deapi_client.py): HTTP client with auth forwarding and retry logic
• PollingManager (src/polling_manager.py): Smart adaptive polling for async jobs
• Schemas (src/schemas.py): Pydantic models for type safety
• Tools (src/tools/): Organized tool implementations
  • audio.py - Audio transcription & TTS tools
  • image.py - Image generation, transformation, OCR, background removal & upscaling
  • video.py - Video generation tools
  • embedding.py - Text embedding tools
  • utility.py - Balance, models, status tools

Smart Adaptive Polling

The server uses job-type-specific polling strategies:

Polling uses exponential backoff with a configurable multiplier (default: 1.5x).

Error Handling

• HTTP Errors: Automatic retry (3 attempts) with exponential backoff
• Timeouts: Graceful handling with clear error messages
• Job Failures: Detected and reported to the client
• API Errors: Properly formatted error responses

Configuration

Configuration can be set via environment variables (prefixed with DEAPI_):

# API Configuration
DEAPI_API_BASE_URL=https://api.deapi.ai
DEAPI_API_VERSION=v1

# HTTP Client
DEAPI_HTTP_TIMEOUT=30.0
DEAPI_MAX_RETRIES=3
DEAPI_RETRY_BACKOFF_FACTOR=2.0

# Polling Configuration (override defaults)
DEAPI_POLLING_AUDIO__INITIAL_DELAY=1.0
DEAPI_POLLING_AUDIO__MAX_DELAY=5.0
DEAPI_POLLING_AUDIO__TIMEOUT=300.0

Development

Project Structure

mcp-server-deapi/
├── src/
│   ├── server_remote.py       # Streamable-HTTP MCP server
│   ├── deapi_client.py        # HTTP client with auth forwarding
│   ├── polling_manager.py     # Smart adaptive polling logic
│   ├── schemas.py             # Pydantic models
│   ├── config.py              # Configuration management
│   ├── auth.py                # Authentication middleware
│   ├── fastmcp_auth.py        # FastMCP OAuth provider
│   ├── oauth_endpoints.py     # OAuth 2.0 endpoints
│   └── tools/                 # Tool implementations
│       ├── audio.py           # Audio transcription & TTS
│       ├── image.py           # Image generation, OCR & processing
│       ├── video.py           # Video generation
│       ├── embedding.py       # Text embeddings
│       ├── utility.py         # Balance, models, status
│       └── _price_helpers.py  # Price calculation helpers
├── tests/                     # Test suite
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── conftest.py           # Pytest fixtures
├── pyproject.toml             # Dependencies
├── Dockerfile                 # Container build
├── docker-compose.yml         # Container orchestration
├── .env.example              # Environment config template
├── README.md                  # This file
├── DEPLOYMENT.md              # Deployment guide
├── AUTH.md                    # OAuth authentication setup
└── CLAUDE.md                  # Claude Code guidance

Running Tests

Install dev dependencies:

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run tests:

pytest

Run smoke tests (requires a running server):

python tests/smoke_test.py

Code Formatting

Format code with Black:

black src/

Lint with Ruff:

ruff check src/

API Token Security

Important: The MCP server does NOT store API tokens. Authentication works as follows:

1. For Remote HTTP Server: Authentication is handled via OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code with PKCE) or HTTP headers (Authorization: Bearer token)
2. Token forwarding: The server forwards authentication to the deAPI API for each request
3. No persistence: Tokens are used only for the specific request and never persisted or logged
4. Per-connection auth: Tools do NOT accept deapi_api_token parameters - authentication is managed at the connection level

Always keep your API tokens secure and never commit them to version control. See AUTH.md for detailed OAuth setup.

Remote Deployment

For production environments or when you want to host the MCP server on a remote machine, use the remote server mode.

Quick Start with Docker

1. Build and run with Docker:

docker build -t mcp-server-deapi .
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --name mcp-server-deapi mcp-server-deapi

2. Or use Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

3. Configure Claude Desktop to connect:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deapi": {
      "url": "http://your-server-ip:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Manual Remote Deployment

1. On your remote server:

git clone https://github.com/deapi-ai/mcp-server-deapi.git
cd mcp-server-deapi
pip install -e .
python -m src.server_remote

2. For production with systemd:

# Create /etc/systemd/system/mcp-server-deapi.service
sudo systemctl enable mcp-server-deapi
sudo systemctl start mcp-server-deapi

3. Behind a reverse proxy (nginx + SSL):

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name mcp.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_cache off;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }
}

Cloud Deployment Options

• Railway.app: Push to GitHub, connect repository, deploy automatically
• Fly.io: fly launch && fly deploy
• Heroku: heroku create && git push heroku main
• DigitalOcean: Use App Platform or Droplets with Docker
• AWS/GCP/Azure: Deploy with container services (ECS, Cloud Run, Container Instances)

For detailed deployment instructions, security considerations, monitoring, and troubleshooting, see DEPLOYMENT.md.

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

If the server fails to connect:

1. Check your API token is valid
2. Verify network connectivity to api.deapi.ai
3. Check the logs for specific error messages
4. For remote servers: verify firewall rules and that port 8000 is accessible

Job Timeouts

If jobs are timing out:

1. Check your balance with get_balance
2. Verify the job type timeout is appropriate
3. Use check_job_status to check if the job is still processing

Model Not Found

If you get model errors:

1. Use get_available_models to see available models
2. Ensure you're using the correct model name
3. Check if the model supports your requested operation

Remote Connection Issues

If remote MCP connection fails:

1. Test the endpoint: curl -N http://your-server:8000/mcp
2. Check server logs: docker logs mcp-server-deapi or journalctl -u mcp-server-deapi
3. Verify firewall rules and SSL certificates (if using HTTPS)
4. Ensure MCP endpoint is accessible from your client

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

For issues related to:

• This MCP Server: Open an issue
• deAPI Platform: Visit docs.deapi.ai
• MCP Protocol: Visit modelcontextprotocol.io