Upstash MCP Server

The Upstash MCP server lets your agent manage and debug your Upstash resources directly, across Redis, QStash, Workflow, and Upstash Box.

> [!TIP]
> For most workflows, prefer installing the Upstash Skill and letting your agent drive @upstash/cli over running the MCP server.

> [!TIP]
> If you are an AI agent and just need a Redis DB to use or experiment with, you don't need an account at all — call the redis_database_start_free tool, or send a POST request to https://upstash.com/start-redis directly. It's free, no signup, and the response is markdown with credentials and a quickstart. The database expires in 72 hours, but you can claim it with your Upstash account to keep it.
>
> Pass user_agent to identify yourself (e.g. claude-code, cursor, codex, opencode); the tool forwards it as the User-Agent header. Calling the endpoint directly, send the same header yourself, plus a fresh UUIDv4 as Idempotency-Key:
>
>

> curl -X POST -H "Idempotency-Key: <uuidv4>" -H "User-Agent: <your-agent-name>" https://upstash.com/start-redis

> 

Quickstart

You'll need your Upstash account email and an API key — create one at Upstash Console → Account → API Keys.

The Upstash MCP server works with any MCP-compatible client. If your client isn't listed below, check its documentation for how to add a stdio MCP server, then point it at the base command:

npx -y @upstash/mcp-server@latest --email YOUR_EMAIL --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

> [!NOTE]
> Readonly API keys are supported. When the server starts with one, it automatically disables every tool that would modify state (creating databases, deleting backups, retrying workflows, etc.). Your agent can still read and query your account — including Redis, QStash logs, schedules, and Workflow logs — but it cannot make changes. Upstash Box tools are not available with a readonly key.

<details>
<summary><b>Claude Code</b></summary>

Run this command in your terminal. See the Claude Code MCP docs for more info.

claude mcp add --scope user upstash -- npx -y @upstash/mcp-server@latest --email YOUR_EMAIL --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>Cursor</b></summary>

Go to Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP → Add new global MCP server.

Pasting the following configuration into your Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json file is the recommended approach. You may also install in a specific project by creating .cursor/mcp.json in your project folder. See the Cursor MCP docs for more info.

Since Cursor 1.0, you can click the install button below for instant one-click installation. Replace YOUR_EMAIL and YOUR_API_KEY with your real values before confirming.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>Windsurf</b></summary>

Add this to your Windsurf MCP config file at ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. See the Windsurf MCP docs for more info.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>OpenCode</b></summary>

Add this to your OpenCode configuration file (~/.config/opencode/opencode.json or a project-level opencode.json). See the OpenCode MCP docs for more info.

{
  "mcp": {
    "upstash": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>OpenAI Codex</b></summary>

See the OpenAI Codex MCP docs for more info.

Using the CLI

codex mcp add upstash -- npx -y @upstash/mcp-server@latest --email YOUR_EMAIL --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Manual configuration

Add this to your Codex config file (~/.codex/config.toml or .codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.upstash]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@upstash/mcp-server@latest", "--email", "YOUR_EMAIL", "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
startup_timeout_sec = 20

> [!NOTE]
> If you see startup timeout errors, increase startup_timeout_sec to 40.

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>VS Code</b></summary>

Click to install — VS Code will prompt for your email and API key (stored in its secret storage):

Or add this to .vscode/mcp.json (or your user mcp.servers setting). Using inputs with promptString means your API key is prompted once and kept in VS Code's secret storage instead of sitting in the config file. See the VS Code MCP docs for more info.

{
  "inputs": [
    { "type": "promptString", "id": "email", "description": "Upstash email" },
    { "type": "promptString", "id": "apiKey", "description": "Upstash API key", "password": true }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "upstash": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "${input:email}",
        "--api-key",
        "${input:apiKey}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>Google Antigravity</b></summary>

Add this to your Antigravity MCP config. See the Antigravity MCP docs for more info.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>Claude Desktop</b></summary>

Open Claude Desktop's developer settings and edit claude_desktop_config.json. See the Claude Desktop MCP docs for more info.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details>
<summary><b>Gemini CLI</b></summary>

Open the Gemini CLI settings file at ~/.gemini/settings.json and add Upstash to mcpServers. See Gemini CLI Configuration for details.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

</details>

Example prompts

Redis

- _"Start a free temporary Redis I can experiment with"_
- _"Create a new Redis database in us-east-1"_
- _"List my databases sorted by memory usage"_
- _"Update the user schema by pulling from Redis"_
- _"Create a backup of this db, then clear it"_
- _"Show me throughput spikes during the last 7 days"_

QStash & Workflow

- _"Check the QStash logs and figure out why my webhook keeps failing"_
- _"Find failed workflow runs for user @admin today"_
- _"Retry the failed workflow run that started 2 hours ago"_
- _"Summarize what's in the DLQ right now, grouped by error type"_
- _"Pause the schedules that are throwing errors"_

Upstash Box

- _"Spin up a Box, clone this repo, and run the tests"_
- _"Snapshot this Box and create 5 copies from it, assign each one a GitHub issue"_
- _"My Box keeps failing to start, check the logs and tell me what's wrong"_

Upstash Box API key (optional)

For the MCP to interact with Upstash Box, the agent needs your Box API key. By default you have to paste it into the chat (or keep it in a .env) every time the agent runs a Box tool. To avoid this, you can wire the key into the MCP setup itself so the server picks it up automatically on startup.

You can pass it in two ways.

CLI flag

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "--box-api-key",
        "YOUR_BOX_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Environment variable

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY"
      ],
      "env": {
        "UPSTASH_BOX_API_KEY": "YOUR_BOX_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Debugging

If the server is misbehaving or a tool keeps failing, enable verbose logging with the --debug flag:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "upstash": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@upstash/mcp-server@latest",
        "--email",
        "YOUR_EMAIL",
        "--api-key",
        "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "--debug"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Every internal event is then written to stderr, which your MCP client surfaces in its own log viewer. Share the relevant snippet when reporting an issue on GitHub.

Telemetry

The server sends anonymous diagnostic info to Upstash with each request: the MCP server SDK version, your runtime version (Node, Bun, etc.), and basic platform info (OS and architecture). No account data, tool arguments, or results are collected. To opt out, add --disable-telemetry to the args.

Development

Clone the project and run:

bun i
bun run watch

This continuously builds the project and watches for changes.

To run the built server standalone (uses .env for credentials) and smoke-test it before publishing:

```bash
bun i # ensure deps are current
bun run build