Skip to content

configuration.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
691 lines (502 loc) · 22.6 KB

configuration.md

File metadata and controls

691 lines (502 loc) · 22.6 KB

Configuration

The Nextcloud MCP server requires configuration to connect to your Nextcloud instance. Configuration is provided through environment variables, typically stored in a .env file.

Note: Configuration was significantly simplified in v0.58.0. If you're upgrading from v0.57.x, see the Configuration Migration Guide.

Quick Start

We provide mode-specific configuration templates for quick setup:

# Choose a template based on your deployment mode:
cp env.sample.single-user .env         # Simplest - one user, local dev
cp env.sample.oauth-multi-user .env    # Recommended - multi-user OAuth
cp env.sample.oauth-advanced .env      # Advanced - token exchange mode

# Or start from the full example:
cp env.sample .env

# Edit .env with your Nextcloud details

Then choose your deployment mode:

Deployment Mode Selection

New in v0.58.0: You can explicitly declare your deployment mode to remove ambiguity and catch configuration errors early.

# Optional but recommended
MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE=oauth_single_audience

Valid values:

  • single_user_basic - Single-user with username/password
  • multi_user_basic - Multi-user with BasicAuth pass-through
  • oauth_single_audience - Multi-user OAuth (recommended)
  • oauth_token_exchange - Multi-user OAuth with token exchange
  • smithery - Smithery platform deployment

Benefits:

  • ✅ Clear which mode is active
  • ✅ Better validation error messages
  • ✅ Self-documenting configuration
  • ✅ Catches configuration mistakes early

Auto-detection: If MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE is not set, the server auto-detects the mode based on other settings (existing behavior).

See Authentication Modes for detailed comparison of deployment modes.

Single-User BasicAuth Mode

BasicAuth with a single user is the simplest deployment mode. Use for personal instances, local development, and testing.

# Minimal single-user configuration
NEXTCLOUD_HOST=http://localhost:8080
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME=admin
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=password

# Optional: Explicit mode declaration
MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE=single_user_basic

Warning

Security Notice: BasicAuth stores credentials in environment variables and is less secure than OAuth. Use OAuth for production multi-user deployments.

Multi-User OAuth Modes

OAuth2/OIDC is the recommended authentication mode for production multi-user deployments.

Minimal Configuration (Auto-registration)

# .env file for OAuth with auto-registration
NEXTCLOUD_HOST=https://your.nextcloud.instance.com

# Optional: Explicit mode declaration (recommended)
MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE=oauth_single_audience

# Leave these EMPTY for OAuth mode
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME=
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=

This minimal configuration uses dynamic client registration to automatically register an OAuth client at startup.

Full Configuration (Pre-configured Client)

# .env file for OAuth with pre-configured client
NEXTCLOUD_HOST=https://your.nextcloud.instance.com

# Optional: Explicit mode declaration (recommended)
MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE=oauth_single_audience

# OAuth Client Credentials (optional - auto-registers if not provided)
NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret

# OAuth Callback Settings (optional)
NEXTCLOUD_MCP_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8000

# Leave these EMPTY for OAuth mode
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME=
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=

Environment Variables Reference

Variable Required Default Description
NEXTCLOUD_HOST ✅ Yes - Full URL of your Nextcloud instance (e.g., https://cloud.example.com)
NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_ID ⚠️ Optional - OAuth client ID (auto-registers if empty)
NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET ⚠️ Optional - OAuth client secret (auto-registers if empty)
NEXTCLOUD_MCP_SERVER_URL ⚠️ Optional http://localhost:8000 MCP server URL for OAuth callbacks
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME ❌ Must be empty - Leave empty to enable OAuth mode
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD ❌ Must be empty - Leave empty to enable OAuth mode

Prerequisites

Before using OAuth configuration:

  1. Install required Nextcloud apps (both are required):

    • oidc - OIDC Identity Provider (Apps → Security)
    • user_oidc - OpenID Connect user backend (Apps → Security)

  2. Configure the apps:

    • Enable dynamic client registration (if using auto-registration) - Settings → OIDC
    • Enable Bearer token validation: php occ config:system:set user_oidc oidc_provider_bearer_validation --value=true --type=boolean

  3. Apply Bearer token patch - The user_oidc app requires a patch for non-OCS endpoints - See Upstream Status for details

See the OAuth Setup Guide for detailed step-by-step instructions, or OAuth Quick Start for a 5-minute setup.

Basic Authentication (Legacy)

Basic Authentication is maintained for backward compatibility. It uses username and password credentials.

Warning

Security Notice: Basic Authentication stores credentials in environment variables and is less secure than OAuth. Use OAuth for production deployments.

Configuration

# .env file for BasicAuth mode
NEXTCLOUD_HOST=https://your.nextcloud.instance.com
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME=your_nextcloud_username
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=your_app_password_or_password

Environment Variables Reference

Variable Required Description
NEXTCLOUD_HOST ✅ Yes Full URL of your Nextcloud instance
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME ✅ Yes Your Nextcloud username
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD ✅ Yes Recommended: Use a dedicated Nextcloud App Password. Generate one in Nextcloud Security settings. Alternatively, use your login password (less secure).

Semantic Search Configuration (Optional)

New in v0.58.0: Simplified semantic search configuration with automatic dependency resolution.

The MCP server includes semantic search capabilities powered by vector embeddings. This feature requires a vector database (Qdrant) and an embedding service.

Quick Start

Single-User Mode:

NEXTCLOUD_HOST=http://localhost:8080
NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME=admin
NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=password

# Enable semantic search
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

# Vector database
QDRANT_LOCATION=:memory:

# Embedding provider
OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434

Multi-User OAuth Mode:

NEXTCLOUD_HOST=https://nextcloud.example.com
MCP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE=oauth_single_audience

# Enable semantic search
# In multi-user modes, this AUTOMATICALLY enables background operations!
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

# Required for background operations (auto-enabled by semantic search)
TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY=your-key-here
TOKEN_STORAGE_DB=/app/data/tokens.db

# Vector database
QDRANT_URL=http://qdrant:6333

# Embedding provider
OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434

Note: In multi-user modes (OAuth, Multi-User BasicAuth), enabling ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH automatically enables background operations and refresh token storage. You don't need to set ENABLE_BACKGROUND_OPERATIONS separately!

Qdrant Vector Database Modes

The server supports three Qdrant deployment modes:

  1. In-Memory Mode (Default) - Simplest for development and testing
  2. Persistent Local Mode - For single-instance deployments with persistence
  3. Network Mode - For production with dedicated Qdrant service

1. In-Memory Mode (Default)

No configuration needed! If neither QDRANT_URL nor QDRANT_LOCATION is set, the server defaults to in-memory mode:

# No Qdrant configuration needed - defaults to :memory:
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

Pros:

  • Zero configuration
  • Fast startup
  • Perfect for testing

Cons:

  • Data lost on restart
  • Limited to available RAM

2. Persistent Local Mode

For single-instance deployments that need persistence without a separate Qdrant service:

# Local persistent storage
QDRANT_LOCATION=/app/data/qdrant  # Or any writable path
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

Pros:

  • Data persists across restarts
  • No separate service needed
  • Suitable for small/medium deployments

Cons:

  • Limited to single instance
  • Shares resources with MCP server

3. Network Mode

For production deployments with a dedicated Qdrant service:

# Network mode configuration
QDRANT_URL=http://qdrant:6333
QDRANT_API_KEY=your-secret-api-key  # Optional
QDRANT_COLLECTION=nextcloud_content  # Optional
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

Pros:

  • Scalable and performant
  • Can be shared across multiple MCP instances
  • Supports clustering and replication

Cons:

  • Requires separate Qdrant service
  • More complex deployment

Qdrant Collection Naming

Collection names are automatically generated to include the embedding model, ensuring safe model switching and preventing dimension mismatches.

Auto-Generated Naming (Default)

Format: {deployment-id}-{model-name}

Components:

  • Deployment ID: OTEL_SERVICE_NAME (if configured) or hostname (fallback)
  • Model name: OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL

Examples:

# With OTEL service name configured
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-mcp-server
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text
# → Collection: "my-mcp-server-nomic-embed-text"

# Simple Docker deployment (OTEL not configured)
# hostname=mcp-container
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=all-minilm
# → Collection: "mcp-container-all-minilm"

Switching Embedding Models

When you change OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL, a new collection is automatically created:

# Initial setup
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text
# Collection: "my-server-nomic-embed-text" (768 dimensions)

# Change model
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=all-minilm
# Collection: "my-server-all-minilm" (384 dimensions)
# → New collection created, full re-embedding occurs

Important:

  • Collections are mutually exclusive - vectors cannot be shared between different embedding models
  • Switching models requires re-embedding all documents (may take time for large note collections)
  • Old collection remains in Qdrant and can be deleted manually if no longer needed

Explicit Override

Set QDRANT_COLLECTION to use a specific collection name:

QDRANT_COLLECTION=my-custom-collection  # Bypasses auto-generation

Use cases:

  • Backward compatibility with existing deployments
  • Custom naming schemes
  • Sharing a collection across deployments (advanced)

Multi-Server Deployments

Each server should have a unique deployment ID to avoid collection collisions:

# Server 1 (Production)
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=mcp-prod
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text
# → Collection: "mcp-prod-nomic-embed-text"

# Server 2 (Staging)
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=mcp-staging
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text
# → Collection: "mcp-staging-nomic-embed-text"

# Server 3 (Different model)
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=mcp-experimental
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=bge-large
# → Collection: "mcp-experimental-bge-large"

Benefits:

  • Multiple MCP servers can share one Qdrant instance safely
  • No naming collisions between deployments
  • Clear collection ownership (can see which deployment and model)

Dimension Validation

The server validates collection dimensions on startup:

Dimension mismatch for collection 'my-server-nomic-embed-text':
  Expected: 384 (from embedding model 'all-minilm')
  Found: 768
This usually means you changed the embedding model.
Solutions:
  1. Delete the old collection: Collection will be recreated with new dimensions
  2. Set QDRANT_COLLECTION to use a different collection name
  3. Revert OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL to the original model

What this prevents:

  • Runtime errors from dimension mismatches
  • Data corruption in Qdrant
  • Confusing error messages during indexing

Background Indexing Configuration

Control background indexing behavior:

# Semantic search (ADR-007, ADR-021)
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true           # Enable background indexing

# Tuning parameters (advanced - only modify if needed)
VECTOR_SYNC_SCAN_INTERVAL=300         # Scan interval in seconds (default: 5 minutes)
VECTOR_SYNC_PROCESSOR_WORKERS=3       # Concurrent indexing workers (default: 3)
VECTOR_SYNC_QUEUE_MAX_SIZE=10000      # Max queued documents (default: 10000)

# Document chunking settings (for vector embeddings)
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_SIZE=512               # Words per chunk (default: 512)
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_OVERLAP=50             # Overlapping words between chunks (default: 50)

Note: The VECTOR_SYNC_* tuning parameters keep their names as they're implementation details. Only the user-facing feature flag was renamed to ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH.

Embedding Service Configuration

The server uses an embedding service to generate vector representations. Two options are available:

Ollama (Recommended)

Use a local Ollama instance for embeddings:

OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text  # Default model
OLLAMA_VERIFY_SSL=true                   # Verify SSL certificates

Simple Embedding Provider (Fallback)

If OLLAMA_BASE_URL is not set, the server uses a simple random embedding provider for testing. This is not suitable for production as it generates random embeddings with no semantic meaning.

Document Chunking Configuration

The server chunks documents before embedding to handle documents larger than the embedding model's context window. Chunk size and overlap can be tuned based on your embedding model and content type.

Choosing Chunk Size

Smaller chunks (256-384 words):

  • More precise matching
  • Less context per chunk
  • Better for finding specific information
  • Higher storage requirements (more vectors)

Larger chunks (768-1024 words):

  • More context per chunk
  • Less precise matching
  • Better for understanding broader topics
  • Lower storage requirements (fewer vectors)

Default (512 words):

  • Balanced approach suitable for most use cases
  • Works well with typical note lengths
  • Good compromise between precision and context

Choosing Overlap

Overlap preserves context across chunk boundaries. Recommended settings:

  • 10-20% of chunk size (e.g., 50-100 words for 512-word chunks)
  • Too small (<10%): May lose context at boundaries
  • Too large (>20%): Redundant storage, diminishing returns

Examples:

# Precise matching for short notes
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_SIZE=256
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_OVERLAP=25

# Default balanced configuration
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_SIZE=512
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_OVERLAP=50

# More context for long documents
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_SIZE=1024
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_OVERLAP=100

Important: Changing chunk size requires re-embedding all documents. The collection naming strategy (see "Qdrant Collection Naming" above) helps manage this by creating separate collections for different configurations.

Environment Variables Reference

Variable Required Default Description
ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH ⚠️ Optional false Enable semantic search with background indexing (replaces VECTOR_SYNC_ENABLED)
QDRANT_URL ⚠️ Optional - Qdrant service URL (network mode) - mutually exclusive with QDRANT_LOCATION
QDRANT_LOCATION ⚠️ Optional :memory: Local Qdrant path (:memory: or /path/to/data) - mutually exclusive with QDRANT_URL
QDRANT_API_KEY ⚠️ Optional - Qdrant API key (network mode only)
QDRANT_COLLECTION ⚠️ Optional Auto-generated Qdrant collection name
VECTOR_SYNC_SCAN_INTERVAL ⚠️ Optional 300 Document scan interval (seconds)
VECTOR_SYNC_PROCESSOR_WORKERS ⚠️ Optional 3 Concurrent indexing workers
VECTOR_SYNC_QUEUE_MAX_SIZE ⚠️ Optional 10000 Max queued documents
OLLAMA_BASE_URL ⚠️ Optional - Ollama API endpoint for embeddings
OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_MODEL ⚠️ Optional nomic-embed-text Embedding model to use
OLLAMA_VERIFY_SSL ⚠️ Optional true Verify SSL certificates
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_SIZE ⚠️ Optional 512 Words per chunk for document embedding
DOCUMENT_CHUNK_OVERLAP ⚠️ Optional 50 Overlapping words between chunks (must be < chunk size)

Deprecated variables (still functional):

  • VECTOR_SYNC_ENABLED - Use ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH instead (will be removed in v1.0.0)

Docker Compose Example

Enable network mode Qdrant with docker-compose:

services:
  mcp:
    environment:
      - QDRANT_URL=http://qdrant:6333
      - ENABLE_SEMANTIC_SEARCH=true

  qdrant:
    image: qdrant/qdrant:latest
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:6333:6333
    volumes:
      - qdrant-data:/qdrant/storage
    profiles:
      - qdrant  # Optional service

volumes:
  qdrant-data:

Start with Qdrant service:

docker-compose --profile qdrant up

Or use default in-memory mode (no --profile needed):

docker-compose up

Astrolabe Internal URL

The Astrolabe Nextcloud app may need to make internal HTTP requests to the local web server (e.g., for OAuth token refresh). By default, it uses http://localhost which works for standard Docker containers where PHP and Apache run together.

Variable Description Default
astrolabe_internal_url Internal URL for server-to-server requests within container http://localhost

When to configure:

  • Custom container setups where the internal web server is not on localhost:80
  • Kubernetes deployments with service discovery
  • Multi-container setups with separate web server containers

Example (Nextcloud config.php):

'astrolabe_internal_url' => 'http://web-server.internal:8080',

Note: This is for internal PHP-to-Apache requests, NOT for external client URLs. The default (http://localhost) works for standard Docker containers where PHP and Apache run together.

Loading Environment Variables

After creating your .env file, load the environment variables:

On Linux/macOS

# Load all variables from .env
export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

On Windows (PowerShell)

# Load variables from .env
Get-Content .env | ForEach-Object {
    if ($_ -match '^\s*([^#][^=]*)\s*=\s*(.*)$') {
        [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($matches[1].Trim(), $matches[2].Trim(), "Process")
    }
}

Via Docker

# Docker automatically loads .env when using --env-file
docker run -p 127.0.0.1:8000:8000 --env-file .env --rm \
  ghcr.io/cbcoutinho/nextcloud-mcp-server:latest

CLI Configuration

Some configuration options can also be provided via CLI arguments. CLI arguments take precedence over environment variables.

OAuth-related CLI Options

uv run nextcloud-mcp-server --help

Options:
  --oauth / --no-oauth            Force OAuth mode (if enabled) or
                                  BasicAuth mode (if disabled). By default,
                                  auto-detected based on environment
                                  variables.
  --oauth-client-id TEXT          OAuth client ID (can also use
                                  NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_ID env var)
  --oauth-client-secret TEXT      OAuth client secret (can also use
                                  NEXTCLOUD_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET env var)
  --mcp-server-url TEXT           MCP server URL for OAuth callbacks (can
                                  also use NEXTCLOUD_MCP_SERVER_URL env
                                  var)  [default: http://localhost:8000]

Server Options

Options:
  -h, --host TEXT                 Server host  [default: 127.0.0.1]
  -p, --port INTEGER              Server port  [default: 8000]
  -w, --workers INTEGER           Number of worker processes
  -r, --reload                    Enable auto-reload
  -l, --log-level [critical|error|warning|info|debug|trace]
                                  Logging level  [default: info]
  -t, --transport [sse|streamable-http|http]
                                  MCP transport protocol  [default: sse]

App Selection

Options:
  -e, --enable-app [notes|tables|webdav|calendar|contacts|deck]
                                  Enable specific Nextcloud app APIs. Can
                                  be specified multiple times. If not
                                  specified, all apps are enabled.

Example CLI Usage

# OAuth mode with custom client and port
uv run nextcloud-mcp-server --oauth \
  --oauth-client-id abc123 \
  --oauth-client-secret xyz789 \
  --port 8080

# BasicAuth mode with specific apps only
uv run nextcloud-mcp-server --no-oauth \
  --enable-app notes \
  --enable-app calendar

Configuration Best Practices

For Development

  • Use BasicAuth for quick setup and testing
  • Or use OAuth with auto-registration (dynamic client registration)
  • Store .env file in your project directory
  • Add .env to .gitignore

For Production

  • Always use OAuth2/OIDC with pre-configured clients
  • Store OAuth client credentials securely
  • Use environment variables from your deployment platform (Docker secrets, Kubernetes ConfigMaps, etc.)
  • Never commit credentials to version control
  • SQLite database permissions are handled automatically by the server

For Docker

  • Mount OAuth client storage as a volume for persistence: 
    docker run -v $(pwd)/.oauth:/app/.oauth --env-file .env \
  ghcr.io/cbcoutinho/nextcloud-mcp-server:latest
  • Use Docker secrets for sensitive values in production

See Also