bamboohr-mcp

A read-only Model Context Protocol server for BambooHR.

This is a fork of evrimalacan/mcp-bamboohr (MIT). See NOTICE for attribution and the full list of changes.

Why this fork

BambooHR is sensitive HR data, so this fork hardens the upstream server for exposing it to an AI assistant safely. Design priorities: read-only by construction, least privilege, and the host process holds no credential. The upstream server is a clean, well-tested base; this fork hardens it for that posture:

• Read-only by construction. The HTTP client exposes only get/getBuffer

— post/put/delete were removed, so no write tool can be added by accident. Every registered MCP tool is a GET.

• Proxy-ready, credential-free. Set BAMBOO_BASE_URL to a loopback

token-proxy and the server sends no Authorization header — the proxy injects a fresh OAuth Bearer per request. The BambooHR credential never lives in this process.

• Injectable config. The credential is resolved in config.ts and passed

into the client, not hardwired into a boot-time singleton — so a future multi-tenant/remote host can construct a per-request client without touching the tool layer.

Configuration

Two shapes (see .env.example):

Proxied (recommended for shared / sensitive use):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bamboohr": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js"],
      "type": "stdio",
      "env": {
        // A loopback proxy injects Authorization; no token here.
        "BAMBOO_BASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:7339"
      }
    }
  }
}

Direct (a local/desktop setup with your own API key):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bamboohr": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js"],
      "type": "stdio",
      "env": {
        "BAMBOO_API_TOKEN": "your_api_token",
        "BAMBOO_COMPANY_DOMAIN": "your_company_subdomain"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools (all read-only)

Egress note. Some tools (directory, file download) can return large volumes of PII. For shared / sensitive deployments, enforce row/size caps and field scoping at the proxy in front of this server, rather than trusting the tool layer.

Activating / deactivating tools

Set BAMBOO_ENABLED_TOOLS to a comma- or space-separated allowlist to control which tools register. Unset = all tools. This lets you switch tools on/off by config alone — no code change — which is the clean way to keep tools whose BambooHR OAuth scope you didn't grant switched off, so the agent is never offered a tool that would 403. Unknown names are warned and ignored (never fail the server). Example (the read-only set covered by directory + employee name/job/photo + time-off scopes):

BAMBOO_ENABLED_TOOLS=get-employee,get-employee-photo,get-employee-directory,estimate-time-off-balance,get-time-off-requests,get-whos-out,get-meta-fields

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test
npm run dev      # watch mode

TypeScript (strict), ESM, Node ≥22. Tests run under Jest.

Scope

Read-only data access only. There are deliberately no write tools. Adding any write capability is an explicit decision that changes the security posture — not a casual PR.

License

MIT — see LICENSE and NOTICE.