FAQ
Permissions & access
Section titled “Permissions & access”What permissions does the Scrive MCP have?
Section titled “What permissions does the Scrive MCP have?”Exactly those of the Scrive user who signed in, restricted further by the tools it exposes: it can find, read, prepare, send and follow up on documents and flows, and read usage statistics. It cannot change account, company or user settings. See Access & permissions.
Does an admin need to enable anything in Scrive?
Section titled “Does an admin need to enable anything in Scrive?”No. Anyone with a Scrive account can connect the Scrive MCP by signing in. Your AI tool’s workspace may need an admin to allow custom connectors; see the guide for your tool under Connect your AI tool.
How do I revoke access?
Section titled “How do I revoke access?”Disconnect the connector in your AI client. See Revoke access.
Data & security
Section titled “Data & security”How is data processed between Scrive and the AI tool?
Section titled “How is data processed between Scrive and the AI tool?”Your AI client sends each tool call to the Scrive MCP server with your token. The server calls the Scrive API and returns the result to your AI client, which sends it to its model provider. Scrive’s MCP server stores nothing between requests.
Where do my credentials live?
Section titled “Where do my credentials live?”Only in your AI client: it holds the OAuth token it received when you signed in. Scrive’s MCP server does not store it, and there is no API key to keep anywhere.
Could the MCP change my Scrive setup?
Section titled “Could the MCP change my Scrive setup?”No. It cannot change account, company or user settings. It can create and edit documents, add parties, start signing processes and manage flow drafts, all as you and all visible in your account.
Can the agent send something without me noticing?
Section titled “Can the agent send something without me noticing?”Tools that reach other people (start_signing, remind_document, start_flow) or cannot be undone (cancel_document, delete_flow_draft) are marked so that AI clients ask for confirmation. Keep those confirmations on and read what the agent proposes before approving.
Capabilities & use cases
Section titled “Capabilities & use cases”What can the Scrive MCP do?
Section titled “What can the Scrive MCP do?”List, search and read documents; upload PDFs and create documents from templates; edit documents in preparation and their parties, including eID authentication and signing order; start signing, remind and cancel; download signed PDFs; create and start Journey flows; read usage statistics. See Capabilities & tools and Example use cases.
What’s the difference between the MCP and the Scrive API?
Section titled “What’s the difference between the MCP and the Scrive API?”The MCP is optimised for AI agents: connect it to a client like Claude and the agent decides which tools to call and when. The Scrive API is designed for code with explicit, predetermined logic and covers the whole platform.
Why does search inside documents say it is unavailable?
Section titled “Why does search inside documents say it is unavailable?”search_by_contents uses the Agreement Platform, which not every account has. The agent falls back to list_documents with search_text, which matches titles and party names.
Can it read PDFs from my computer?
Section titled “Can it read PDFs from my computer?”The Scrive MCP cannot see your disk. It opens a file picker panel in clients that support MCP Apps, such as Claude, so you choose the file to upload. In clients without panels, create documents from templates with create_from_template instead.
Setup & compatibility
Section titled “Setup & compatibility”Which AI tools work?
Section titled “Which AI tools work?”Any client that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth: Claude (web, desktop, mobile, Cowork, Claude Code), ChatGPT and Codex, the Gemini app, Gemini CLI and Code Assist, Gemini Enterprise, Copilot Studio, Slackbot, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed and others. See Connect your AI tool for the full matrix and a guide per tool.
Do I need Node.js or anything installed?
Section titled “Do I need Node.js or anything installed?”No. Nothing runs on your machine. Your AI tool connects to Scrive over HTTPS and you sign in once.
My client asks for an OAuth client ID and secret. What do I enter?
Section titled “My client asks for an OAuth client ID and secret. What do I enter?”Copilot Studio, Slackbot and Gemini Enterprise always need a client ID and secret from Scrive support; other tools only if sign-in fails with a client registration error. See When you need a client ID and secret for where to enter them and what to send Scrive support.
Is there a test environment?
Section titled “Is there a test environment?”The Scrive MCP connects to your production Scrive account. To try it without touching real agreements, sign in with a separate Scrive account set aside for testing.
Is there an open-source version I can run myself?
Section titled “Is there an open-source version I can run myself?”Yes, as a separate beta project. Scrive publishes an MCP server package, @scrive_ab/mcp, under the MIT licence at github.com/scrive/mcp. It is not the same thing as the Scrive MCP documented on this site: it runs on your own machine, signs in with integration credentials from Account settings → Integrations rather than the browser sign-in, reads and writes PDFs on your disk, and its tools may differ from what the hosted server offers. Use it if you want to read the code, contribute or experiment, and follow the setup instructions in the repository’s README. For everything else, connect to https://mcp.scrive.com/mcp as described in Connect your AI tool.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”The connector will not connect, or sign-in loops
Section titled “The connector will not connect, or sign-in loops”Make sure pop-ups are allowed for your AI client and that you are signing in to the Scrive account you intended. Try again from a fresh browser window. If the client reports a registration error, see the OAuth client question above.
Tools return 401
Section titled “Tools return 401”The token expired or was revoked. Disconnect and reconnect the connector.
“Rate limit exceeded”
Section titled ““Rate limit exceeded””The server allows about ten tool calls per twenty seconds per user. The agent waits and retries; for bulk work, expect a pause.
The file picker does not appear
Section titled “The file picker does not appear”Your client does not render MCP App panels. Use Claude, or create documents from templates with create_from_template.
start_signing fails after adding a party with an eID method
Section titled “start_signing fails after adding a party with an eID method”The authentication method must be enabled on your Scrive account, and eID methods generally need the party’s personal_number (SMS PIN needs mobile_number). Ask the agent to update the party and try again.
Search returns nothing
Section titled “Search returns nothing”search_by_contents needs every word in the query to appear in the document and only works for accounts on the Agreement Platform. Try fewer words, or use list_documents with search_text for titles and party names.