Getting started

Requirements

• A reachable Rustpad instance. A disposable one is a single command:

  docker run --rm -dp 127.0.0.1:3030:3030 ekzhang/rustpad

• Node.js ≥ 22, or Docker.

No credentials are needed — Rustpad has no authentication.

Run it

RUSTPAD_URL=https://rustpad.example.net npx -y rustpad-mcp

The server speaks MCP over stdio. On start it logs (to stderr) which instance it targets; without RUSTPAD_URL it still starts and lists its tools, and every call returns setup instructions instead.

First calls

With the MCP Inspector:

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector --cli \
  -e RUSTPAD_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3030 \
  npx -y rustpad-mcp --method tools/list

Create a pad and read it back:

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector --cli \
  -e RUSTPAD_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3030 \
  npx -y rustpad-mcp --method tools/call \
  --tool-name create_document --tool-arg text='Hello from MCP'

The result contains the pad's id and its shareable URL (<RUSTPAD_URL>/#<id>) — open it in a browser and watch the next edits arrive live.

Next steps

• Connect a client — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Docker
• Configuration — the three environment variables
• Security — what "no authentication" means for you