X MCP Server: Give Claude and Grok the X API

What the official hosted X MCP server is

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a common standard for connecting AI tools to external services. A hosted MCP server is one that the service itself runs, so the AI tool connects to a web address such as api.x.com/mcp. X (formerly Twitter) is the service here, so a search for a Twitter MCP server is about the same service.

TechCrunch reported the launch on June 30, 2026. X's docs page carries no publish date. In TechCrunch's framing, users get X API access with their own account permissions, without building, hosting and authenticating their own MCP server.

X MCP and Docs MCP are two separate servers

X's docs name two servers: X MCP at api.x.com/mcp and Docs MCP at docs.x.com/mcp. X MCP calls endpoints on the X API. Docs MCP searches the API documentation.

Pick X MCP to pull data from X. Pick Docs MCP when the AI tool needs to read the API documentation before it writes a request.

The X MCP tools cover posts, users, bookmarks and trends

The docs list what X MCP can call: search posts, look up users, bookmarks, trends, news and Articles. The list ends with "and more", so it is a sample and not the full set of endpoints.

Take a research task as an example. An analyst asks an AI tool for recent posts on a topic, then for the accounts behind the most active posts. The first step matches the search posts endpoint on the docs' list, and the second matches look up users.

How the xurl bridge signs in with OAuth PKCE

A bridge is a go-between that handles the sign-in step for the AI client. X MCP needs to know whose account is calling, and the bridge is where that happens. OAuth is a standard sign-in method that lets an app act for you without your password, and PKCE is the login flow X's docs name for it.

X's docs call this piece "the bridge", and their server table says to connect via xurl mcp. mcp.directory and explainx also put xurl in their headings. The xurl repository is on GitHub at github.com/xdevplatform/xurl.

The bridge authenticates as you with a PKCE flow

The docs say the bridge authenticates as you. You sign in with your own X account, and the tool calls that follow are made as that account. For a team, that means a shared setup acts as whoever signed in.

Tools act within your account’s scopes

Scopes are the list of permissions an account grants to an app. The docs say tools act with your account's scopes, so their access follows that list.

TechCrunch describes the setup as X API access with your own account permissions. Nothing in the excerpt gives the tools any extra reach.

Read-only access with a static app-only Bearer token

A Bearer token is a fixed string that a client sends to prove it may call the API. An App-only token identifies your developer app and not a signed-in person. X's docs name it as the second way to connect, and it skips the bridge and the PKCE login.

Read endpoints such as search and user lookup can use the token. Calls that must run as your signed-in account go through the bridge from the section above.

Read endpoints can skip the bridge entirely

For read endpoints, the docs let a client point straight at the URL with a static App-only Bearer token. There is no bridge to run and no login step. A bearer token is accepted from whoever sends it, so the token itself is what grants access.

TechCrunch says the Write API is not supported

TechCrunch reported that the MCP tool is not compatible with X's Write API. In other words, writing to X through this server is not supported, according to that report. The docs excerpt above says nothing about writes.

One more claim sounds similar but is narrower. mcp.directory has a heading, "Writes fail with an app-only token", which is about the token. It is not the same statement as TechCrunch's report on the Write API.

Connecting Claude Desktop, Cursor, Grok and VS Code

X's docs give setup steps for four clients: Grok Build, Cursor, Claude Desktop and VS Code (GitHub Copilot). The screenshot below shows the first two, Grok Build and Cursor.

Setup instructions cover four named clients

X's docs give each client its own setup section, such as a config.toml block for Grok Build and an mcp.json block for Cursor. The explainx guide also gives each client a heading of its own, from Cursor to VS Code (GitHub Copilot Agent mode).

Cursor and VS Code each have setup instructions in the docs, as do the Claude desktop app and Grok through Grok Build. For the model behind Claude Desktop, see What Is Claude AI? Free Plan, Models, vs ChatGPT; for Grok costs, see Grok Pricing 2026: Free, SuperGrok, and API Costs.

Self-hosted xMCP is a separate project

mcp.directory separates the hosted X MCP server from xMCP, a self-hosted project. Its heading on hosted versus self-hosted servers notes that two things are named "X MCP", and a further section covers self-hosting xMCP instead. The xMCP code is at github.com/xdevplatform/xMCP.

The X MCP server comes as two hosted servers: X MCP for API calls and Docs MCP for documentation search. Sign in through the bridge with OAuth PKCE, or use a static App-only Bearer token for read endpoints.