Freshdesk MCP server setup, tools and action limits

Freshdesk has an official MCP server, made by Freshworks, at your own Freshdesk address with /mcp on the end. It became generally available on 10 September 2026 and comes with the Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans. You connect it with your Freshdesk API key, since there’s no sign-in yet, and its 37 tools read and change tickets, contacts, companies, agents, groups and knowledge base articles. It can reply to customers too. Every successful call counts as one action, and Growth includes 1,200 actions a year, which works out at 100 a month, so the allowance is the limit you’ll hit first.

We read Freshworks’ help centre, pricing page and developer docs, the community server’s GitHub repo, and the setup docs of Claude, Claude Code and Cursor on 10 November 2026. Each fact links to the page we read it on.

Our own product, Deacon, puts an AI support agent in the chat on your website. It replies to customers from your docs within seconds, and you can try it on the free plan. It isn’t a helpdesk and has nothing that connects to Freshdesk. It does have an MCP server of its own, for the coding agent you fix bugs with, and none of that agent’s calls uses your plan’s answers, where Freshworks counts each successful call as an action. The end of this page sets the two side by side.

What Freshworks’ server is, and where it lives

Freshworks’ setup guide, last updated on 5 October 2026, gives the address as https://yourcompany.freshdesk.com/mcp, with your own subdomain in place of yourcompany. A custom domain doesn’t work, even if your help centre uses one.

The MCP FAQ, updated on 6 November, says MCP is switched on for every Freshdesk account by default. An admin can turn it off, copy the server address or make an API key under Admin Settings, then Apps & Integrations, then MCP. Each person connects their own AI tool with their own key, and the server can only do what that person’s Freshdesk role allows.

There’s no browser sign-in. Freshworks’ MCP security article says OAuth isn’t supported for Freshdesk yet, and the FAQ says Freshdesk isn’t a ready-made connector in Claude’s or Gemini’s directories. So you type the address and key into your AI tool by hand. The setup guide has steps for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Microsoft Copilot Studio and VS Code, and says any AI tool that supports MCP will work.

It only runs on current accounts, which the guide calls Freshdesk Standalone 2021 and Freshdesk Unified Omni 2026. If you’re still on an older plan, such as Blossom, Garden, Estate or Forest, ask Freshworks before you build on it. The FAQ says Freshdesk variants from before 2021 aren’t supported, while the add-ons article gives those legacy plans a monthly allowance.

The 37 tools, and what isn’t there

These are the tools in the setup guide’s list, grouped by what they cover.

Nothing on the list deletes anything. Contacts, knowledge base categories and folders can be created but not edited, and there are no tools for canned responses, ticket fields, automations or SLA policies. There’s no search for the knowledge base either, so finding an article means listing the categories, then each one’s folders, then each folder’s articles.

Treat replyTicket with care, because it answers the customer on their ticket. If you want drafts that a person on your team sends, ask for a private note with createTicketNote instead. The server works through Freshdesk’s public APIs, and Freshdesk’s API adds a note as private unless it’s told otherwise.

What MCP actions cost, and how fast they go

An action is one successful tool call, read or write, whichever AI tool made it. Freshworks’ FAQ adds that a request needing several tools can use several actions.

The setup guide counts the allowance by the year and the MCP add-ons article by the month, and the FAQ squares the two. Your allowance is prorated to your billing cycle and resets at the start of each one, so yearly billing gives you the year’s actions up front and monthly billing gives you a twelfth of them each month. Unused actions don’t roll over. The Free plan includes none, and a trial account gets 1,000 once, at 100 a minute.

What a question costs depends on how many calls your AI tool needs to answer it. We worked these out from the tool list, for an account whose knowledge base has 4 categories and 12 folders. The first and third are Freshworks’ own example prompts.

On Growth billed monthly, two questions like the last one use most of the month’s 100, and the limit of 25 actions a minute can slow one down partway through. Long lists can cost more, because results come back in batches and your AI tool fetches each next batch by itself.

On a paid plan, calls carry on past the allowance until you reach 110% of it, and the ones past 100% are billed as overage at $15 per 1,000. At 110%, Freshdesk pauses MCP until you buy more or your billing cycle resets. More actions come in packs of $15 for 1,000, which an account admin buys under Admin, then Plans & Billing, as a one-off or recurring every billing cycle at the same price.

Failed calls, including the ones refused for going over the rate limit, don’t count. Every account admin gets an email at 90%, 100% and 110%. To see whose AI tool is spending them, an admin opens Admin, then Account Settings, then Data Usage, and picks MCP Usage Overview, which splits each day’s calls by module and by agent. Freshworks is switching the limits on in phases, and the add-ons article says existing customers come in a later phase.

Connect Claude Code, Claude or Cursor

Every route needs two things, your server address and your API key. To find the key, click your profile picture in Freshdesk, choose Profile Settings, then View API key, and complete the captcha (Freshworks’ steps). The commands below are the setup guide’s, with yourcompany and YOUR_API_KEY to replace.

Claude Code

Run this in your terminal. Freshworks’ guide names the server my-remote-server, and any name works, though the deny rule further down assumes you called it freshdesk.

claude mcp add freshdesk --transport http https://yourcompany.freshdesk.com/mcp --header "Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY"

Then claude mcp get freshdesk should say Status: ✓ Connected. The header is the key on its own. Freshdesk’s REST API takes the key as a username with any dummy password, such as X, but the MCP server wants the bare key.

Claude Desktop

In Claude, go to Settings, then Developer, and choose Edit Config. Add this to claude_desktop_config.json, as a new entry under mcpServers if other servers are already there. Then quit Claude fully and open it again.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "freshdesk-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://yourcompany.freshdesk.com/mcp", "--header", "Authorization:YOUR_API_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

This route runs through npx and the mcp-remote package, so you need Node.js installed.

Claude, as a custom connector

Claude can also hold the key itself, with no config file or Node.js, if your account offers request headers on custom connectors. Anthropic says that option is in beta for a limited set of organisations, so you may not see it yet. Where you do, open Customize, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector. Enter your /mcp address, choose No sign-in under Authentication, then under Request headers pick authorization and enter the bare key. Claude sends the value exactly as you type it, without adding Bearer, which is the form Freshdesk wants.

On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the connector for the whole organisation, and Anthropic’s help article says everyone who uses a connector with an API key reaches the service with that same key. Here that’s one Freshdesk key, so everyone who uses it works as that one Freshdesk agent. If each person should act as themselves, set it up in Claude Code or Claude Desktop with their own key instead.

Cursor

Add this to .cursor/mcp.json, in a project folder for that project or in your home folder for all of them. Then open the Command Palette, run View: Open MCP Settings and check that freshdesk shows under Installed MCP Servers.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "freshdesk": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://yourcompany.freshdesk.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

If the file sits in a project, write ${env:FRESHDESK_API_KEY} in place of the key and set that variable in your environment, since Cursor fills in ${env:NAME} values in headers. The key then stays out of your repo. VS Code takes the same url and headers in its own mcp.json, opened with MCP: Open User Configuration, under servers rather than mcpServers, and you press Start above the entry.

If it won’t connect, open your /mcp address in a browser to check it answers, and check the key. If your Freshdesk account limits which IP addresses can reach it, the setup guide lists the ranges to allowlist for each region.

Freshservice’s server and Freshworks’ Developer MCP server

Freshworks also makes Freshservice, its IT service desk, and Freshservice’s MCP help articles read almost like Freshdesk’s. Freshservice has its own MCP setup guide, updated on 23 October 2026, and the same action allowances. Freshservice’s server takes OAuth as well as an API key, and its guide recommends adding it through Claude’s or Gemini’s connectors or ChatGPT. Freshdesk’s offers none of those yet. If a guide tells you to add Freshworks as a Claude connector, check which product it’s about.

There’s also another Freshworks server, the Developer MCP server at mcp.freshworks.dev. It manages the custom apps you build and submit through Freshworks’ Developer Portal, with six tools such as submit_custom_app, and none of them reads your tickets.

Freddy AI as an MCP client

Freshdesk’s own AI, Freddy AI, can call other companies’ MCP servers. In Freddy AI Agent Studio, an API action can point at a REST endpoint or a configured MCP server. That needs Freshdesk Omni or AI Agent Studio switched on, admin access and at least one AI agent. The Freshworks Marketplace lists MCP server apps, such as Notion MCP, marked Free and supported on Freshdesk Omni. The Data Usage report counts these outbound calls apart from the inbound ones your AI tools make.

Freshworks’ AI agent workflow articles describe MCP as using OAuth. Its MCP setup guide, security article and FAQ all say Freshdesk’s server takes an API key only, so go by those.

The community server, effytech/freshdesk_mcp

The other Freshdesk MCP server that turns up for this search is community-made. effytech/freshdesk_mcp is by Effy, a company in Chennai that builds integrations between SaaS products, not by Freshworks. It’s written in Python under the MIT licence, and on 10 November 2026 it had 71 stars and its last commit on 14 October 2026.

It runs on your own machine. You add it to Claude Desktop’s config with uvx freshdesk-mcp as the command, and your key and domain as FRESHDESK_API_KEY and FRESHDESK_DOMAIN. Its code defines 59 tools, more than the 28 its README lists, and they go further than Freshworks’ server. They include delete_ticket, update_contact, canned responses and creating ticket and contact fields.

It calls Freshdesk’s REST API rather than the /mcp address, so it doesn’t use your MCP actions, which Freshworks meters separately from API calls. It counts against the API’s own limit instead, 100 calls a minute on Growth, 400 on Pro and 700 on Enterprise. That limit is account-wide, so it’s shared with everything else that calls your Freshdesk API.

uvx installs the copy on PyPI, version 1.2.0, uploaded on 20 May 2025. Changes merged since, such as cc and bcc on replies in July 2026 and more ticket filters in October, are only on GitHub, so you’d run it from the repo to get them.

It’s worth the extra setup when you need something Freshworks’ server can’t do, such as deleting tickets or managing canned responses, or when you’d rather spend API calls than MCP actions. If you want a community server, it’s the one to start with. A GitHub search for Freshdesk MCP finds 90 repositories, and on 10 November the next most starred had 12 stars.

Before you give an AI tool your Freshdesk API key

Both servers take the same key, and it carries everything its owner’s Freshdesk role can do. It’s the key for Freshdesk’s whole API, not only MCP, and Freshworks says any API activity is allowed as per the role assigned to the agent. The FAQ says there’s no control over which tools a key can use, so an admin’s key hands your AI tool createAgent and updateAgent as well as your tickets. A narrower role is the one limit Freshdesk gives you, since a user without permission for something can’t do it through MCP either.

Your AI tool can take tools away, though. In Claude Code, a deny rule that names a whole tool removes it, so Claude never sees it (Claude Code’s docs). With the server named freshdesk, this in ~/.claude/settings.json takes away replying to customers and the two tools that change your agents.

{
  "permissions": {
    "deny": [
      "mcp__freshdesk__replyTicket",
      "mcp__freshdesk__createAgent",
      "mcp__freshdesk__updateAgent"
    ]
  }
}

In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, pick the connector and set a tool’s permission to Blocked (Anthropic’s steps).

A few more things are worth knowing before you paste the key in.

• The key sits in plain text in your AI tool’s config, such as ~/.claude.json for Claude Code or .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor. Freshworks’ security article says to store keys securely and rotate them now and then.
• Rotating means resetting the key, which disconnects every other app using it, so each one needs the new key.
• Customers write your tickets, and a ticket can carry instructions aimed at your AI tool. Keep the tool’s approval prompt on for anything that writes, since a sent reply can’t be taken back. A person approving each write is what human in the loop means.
• Changes made through MCP show up in Freshdesk’s activity history like any other change, so you can see what your AI tool did.

Deacon’s own MCP server, and who it’s for

If your team answers customers in Freshdesk, Freshworks’ server is the one to set up. It reaches the tickets your team already works, and it can reply to customers, which Deacon’s can’t. Deacon doesn’t try to be a help desk, so it has no ticket queue, email inbox or canned responses, and no connection to Freshdesk.

It’s built for a founder who answers support without a team, and it already answers the question in the last row of the actions table above. Asking Freshdesk what customers are stuck on in 40 new tickets takes at least 41 actions, because your AI tool has to read each one. Deacon has done that sorting before you ask. Its chat answers what your docs cover, and the questions people ask are grouped into Topics with a count of who asked, beside a What needs you list that opens on a sentence naming the first job.

Its MCP server passes that list to your coding agent. Claude Code or Cursor reads it with get_needs_you, pulls the JavaScript errors your site logged with list_site_errors, opens the chats behind a bug with get_conversation and looks for the cause in your code.

Where a Freshdesk key carries everything its owner’s role can do, a Deacon agent gets the same narrow rights whoever connects it. It can read, mark a topic done and leave a suggested answer for you to save, but it can’t reply to anyone, add to or remove what Deacon knows, or touch your webhooks. It signs in through your browser once an owner presses Allow, so there’s no key to paste into a config file.

And where Freshdesk bills actions past your allowance as overage, Deacon’s plans have none. Every owner gets an email when the month’s answers reach 80% and again at 100%, and nothing is charged past them, nor does any plan upgrade itself.

Questions about Freshdesk’s MCP server

Does Freshdesk have an official MCP server?

Yes. Freshworks’ own server for Freshdesk has been generally available since 10 September 2026, at your Freshdesk address with /mcp on the end. It’s on Growth, Pro and Enterprise, and it connects with each person’s API key. The other Freshdesk servers you’ll find, such as effytech/freshdesk_mcp, are community-made.

Is the Freshdesk MCP server free?

It comes with Growth, Pro and Enterprise at no extra charge, up to each plan’s allowance, 1,200 actions a year on Growth. Past that, actions cost $15 for 1,000. The Free plan includes no MCP actions. Freshdesk pricing has what each plan costs.

Can I stop the AI tool replying to customers?

Not from inside Freshdesk, since the FAQ says every tool is open to anyone with a key. Take replyTicket away in your AI tool instead, with a deny rule in Claude Code or the Blocked setting on a Claude connector, as above. A narrower Freshdesk role also limits what every tool can do, and either way keep your AI tool’s approval prompt on.

Can I add Freshdesk to Claude or ChatGPT as a connector?

Not from their directories yet. Freshworks’ FAQ says Freshdesk isn’t a ready-made connector in AI tools’ marketplaces. In Claude you can add it as a custom connector with your key as a request header, if your account has that option, which Anthropic says is in beta. Freshworks’ guide doesn’t cover ChatGPT. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and VS Code all take the address and key by hand.

Should I use the MCP server or Freshdesk’s API?

For a script that does the same job every time, such as copying new tickets into a spreadsheet, Freshdesk’s REST API is the usual fit, and its calls don’t use MCP actions. The MCP server suits questions you ask in your own words, where the AI tool picks the calls. MCP vs API goes through the difference.

Where can I compare it with other helpdesks’ servers?

Support tools with an MCP server sets it beside other support tools’ servers, with whether each can reply to customers and the plan each needs. We’ve also written up Zendesk’s, HubSpot’s, Intercom’s and Pylon’s servers on pages of their own.

Does anything count Deacon’s MCP calls?

Not against your plan. A Deacon plan counts answers, the replies Deacon writes on your live site, so your agent’s reads and suggested answers use none of them, and a page it re-fetches uses none of the month’s pages. Like any API, it does cap how many calls arrive in a minute, but there’s nothing like Freshdesk’s actions to buy or run out of.