Run the Affise MCP server on your own machine

Four routes to the same server. From npm is the one to take unless you have a reason not to.

1 · Let your client fetch it — nothing to install; the client runs npx for you. The first launch downloads the package, so give it a moment.

2 · Install it once, which puts an affise-mcp-server command on your PATH:

npm install -g @affise/mcp-server

3 · Build from source, if you want to read or change what you run:

git clone https://github.com/affise/mcp-affise.git
cd mcp-affise
npm install
npm run build          # compiles to build/index.js

4 · Build a container, if your policy is that everything runs in one:

git clone https://github.com/affise/mcp-affise.git
cd mcp-affise
docker build -t affise-mcp-server .

One thing to know before you reach for docker compose up -d: this server speaks stdio, meaning your client starts it and talks to it over the process’s own input and output. A detached container has nobody on the other end of that pipe. So the client launches docker run --rm -i itself, once per session — the config block in step 3 does exactly that. The docker-compose.yml in the repository is left over from a different arrangement and is not the way to run this.

In your Affise dashboard: Settings ▸ API, then generate a key. Note your instance URL too — it is the https://api-yourcompany.affise.com form, not the dashboard address you log into. What the key reaches is what the server reaches: an admin key sees network-wide data, an affiliate key only that affiliate’s own.

In Claude Desktop, open Settings ▸ Developer ▸ Edit Config, or edit claude_desktop_config.json directly. Use the block that matches the route you picked.

npx — nothing installed:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "affise": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@affise/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "AFFISE_BASE_URL": "https://api-yourcompany.affise.com",
        "AFFISE_API_KEY": "your_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Global install — same block, but "command": "affise-mcp-server" and no args.

From source — point at the file you built, by absolute path:

"command": "node",
"args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-affise/build/index.js"]

Docker — the client runs the container per session. The bare -e NAME form forwards the value from the env block below it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "affise": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i",
               "-e", "AFFISE_BASE_URL",
               "-e", "AFFISE_API_KEY",
               "affise-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "AFFISE_BASE_URL": "https://api-yourcompany.affise.com",
        "AFFISE_API_KEY": "your_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Whichever you use, the env block is not optional: a desktop app does not inherit your terminal’s environment, so a key exported in your shell will never reach it. Restart the client afterwards.

Claude Desktop users can skip the JSON entirely — download mcp-affise.dxt from the GitHub repository and drag it into Settings ▸ Extensions, which asks for the URL and key in a form.

Ask “Using Affise, show me the top 5 offers by revenue last week.” To test before wiring up a client, run the server by hand and send it a single message:

printf '%s\n' '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":0,"method":"initialize",
  "params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},
  "clientInfo":{"name":"smoke","version":"1"}}}' \
  | AFFISE_BASE_URL=https://api-yourcompany.affise.com \
    AFFISE_API_KEY=your_api_key npx -y @affise/mcp-server

A working install prints a JSON result line and then waits for more input — normal for a stdio server, so press Ctrl+C to stop it. Progress traces go to stderr and start with [affise-mcp].

The same tools, minus the credential form — the hosted server needs that because it has nowhere else to take a key from, and here the key is already in your config. So you get 24 tools and 6 prompts rather than 25 tools. There is no OAuth and no session: your key sits in your client’s config file in plain text, so treat that file as a secret. Updates are yours to take — npm update -g @affise/mcp-server, or nothing at all if your client fetches it fresh each launch.