USCardForum

You can run and use the USCardForum MCP Server to access and automate interactions with the USCardForum Discourse-based community. It exposes a set of typed tools over multiple transports and supports secure, scalable usage in development and production environments.

How to use

You will connect with an MCP client to the server and perform common research tasks across topics, users, and the forum hierarchy. Start by launching the local server in stdio mode during development, then switch to a web-friendly transport for deployments. Use the client to browse hot topics, read topic content with pagination, research user profiles, and manage your own authentication state to access notifications, bookmarks, and subscriptions.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing the MCP server are Python and the UV runtime for development workflows. You will also use Python’s virtual environment management and the UV tool to run the server.

# Install Python (if not already installed)
python3 --version
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # on Windows use .\.venv\Scripts\activate

# Install UV (you may have it as a preinstalled tool depending on your environment)
pip install uv

# Run the server in stdio mode (development)
uv run uscardforum

Configuration and usage notes

The server supports three transport modes for MCP communication: stdio (default), sse, and streamable-http. For web deployments, use the streamable-http transport and optionally require a bearer token for authentication.

# Start with streamable HTTP transport (example)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http MCP_PORT=8000 uv run uscardforum

# Start with local stdio transport (default)
uv run uscardforum

Security and access considerations

Access can be secured by using a bearer token when using streamable-http transport. Only the streamable-http transport enforces the bearer token at the MCP level. Other transports (stdio and sse) do not require this token.

Usage examples with the client

You can perform a variety of actions once the MCP server is running and your client is connected. Typical patterns include listing hot topics, retrieving topic information with post counts, fetching posts, and managing user profiles and notifications.

Notes and tips

If you want automatic forum login on startup for features like notifications and bookmarks, set the environment variables NITAN_USERNAME and NITAN_PASSWORD before starting the server. When using streamable-http, you may also set NITAN_TOKEN to require a bearer token for client connections.

Available tools

get_hot_topics

Return a list of currently popular topics by engagement to help you discover active discussions.

get_new_topics

Return a list of the newest topics by creation time for recent activity.

get_top_topics

Return top topics by a selected time period such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

search_forum

Perform a full-text search across the forum with operators to refine results.

get_categories

Retrieve a mapping of category IDs to their display names.

get_topic_info

Fetch topic metadata including post counts and overall info.

get_topic_posts

Retrieve a sequence of posts within a topic, typically around 20 posts per call.

get_all_topic_posts

Fetch all posts in a topic through iterative pagination.

get_user_summary

Get a concise profile overview with activity statistics and badges.

get_user_topics

List topics created by a specific user.

get_user_replies

List posts made by a user in reply history.

get_user_actions

Retrieve a full activity feed for a user.

get_user_badges

List badges earned by a user.

get_user_following

Show people that a user follows.

get_user_followers

Show people following a user.

get_user_reactions

List reactions given or received by a user.

list_users_with_badge

Find users who have a specific badge.

login

Authenticate with forum credentials to establish a user session.

get_current_session

Check the current authentication status and session details.

get_notifications

Fetch the authenticated user's notifications.

bookmark_post

Bookmark a post for later reference.

subscribe_topic

Set notification preferences for a topic.