Google Tasks MCP Server

A self-hosted MCP server that connects any MCP-compatible client to Google Tasks. Tools return only what the model needs — compact task objects, no Google API envelope fields.

Quickstart

git clone https://github.com/ebmurha/google-tasks-mcp.git
cd google-tasks-mcp
python3.11 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
cp .env.example .env   # set GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET, MCP_BEARER_TOKEN

Generate MCP_BEARER_TOKEN with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(48))". Use it on HTTP MCP requests as Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Bootstrap OAuth (once):

google-tasks-mcp-bootstrap
# Open the printed URL, approve, paste back the code.

Start the server:

python -m google_tasks_mcp

Health check: curl http://127.0.0.1:8787/healthz → {"ok":true}

Connect your MCP client

Remote HTTP (server on a VPS or local machine):

URL:  http://127.0.0.1:8787/mcp
Auth: Bearer <MCP_BEARER_TOKEN>

Local stdio (MCP client spawns the process directly):

command: /path/to/.venv/bin/python
args:    ["-m", "google_tasks_mcp", "--transport", "stdio"]

MCP_BEARER_TOKEN is not required for stdio.

Tools

All tasklist arguments accept both a list ID and a friendly title. When omitted, the server uses DEFAULT_TASKLIST from .env, or the first list returned by Google.

Cross-list move is emulated via insert + delete. The moved task gets a new Google task ID.

Google Cloud setup

1. Create a project → enable the Google Tasks API → configure the OAuth consent screen.
2. Create an OAuth 2.0 Client ID.

Recommended: Web application

• Use this for normal local, VPS, Docker, and other server-style installs.
• Add the exact callback URL to Authorized redirect URIs.
• For local installs, use http://127.0.0.1:8787/callback.
• For remote servers, use https://your-domain.example/callback.
• Set GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET, and GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI in .env.
• GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI must exactly match one of the authorized redirect URIs.

Example .env values for a local Web application OAuth client:

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI=http://127.0.0.1:8787/callback

Local-only alternative: Desktop app

• Choose Desktop app as the OAuth client application type.
• Use this only for a personal local install where the app runs on your own machine.
• Download the client JSON, store it outside the repo, and point GOOGLE_OAUTH_KEYS_PATH to the file.
• You may leave GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID and GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET empty when using the JSON file.
• You may omit GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI if the JSON contains redirect_uris; otherwise set it to one of the JSON file's redirect URIs.

Example .env values for a Desktop app OAuth client:

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI=
GOOGLE_OAUTH_KEYS_PATH=/home/you/.config/google-tasks-mcp/gcp-oauth.keys.json

The repo-root fallback name gcp-oauth.keys.json is supported for convenience, but keeping OAuth credential JSON outside the repo is preferred.

If the consent screen is in testing mode, add your Google account as a test user or refresh tokens will expire after 7 days.

Docker

docker compose up --build

Keep .env, gcp-oauth.keys.json, and database files outside the image — mount a named volume for the database directory.

VPS / systemd

Template files are in deploy/:

• deploy/caddy/Caddyfile — Caddy reverse proxy with HTTPS
• deploy/systemd/google-tasks-mcp.service — systemd unit

Replace all placeholder domains, paths, and users before deploying.

Tests

pytest