Connect NocoDB to Microsoft Copilot via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → NocoDB, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

NocoDB + Microsoft Copilot

Read NocoDB workspaces, bases, tables, and records from NocoDB Cloud or a self-hosted instance. 7 read-only tools using xc-token API key authentication against the v3 REST API.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

NOCODB_URL, NOCODB_API_TOKEN

Step 1 — Get credentials

Setting up takes about 2 minutes. You need your NocoDB address and an API token.

1. In NocoDB, open Team & Settings → API Tokens and create a token. Use a token with read-only access where possible. Copy it into NOCODB_API_TOKEN.
2. Set NOCODB_URL to the root NocoDB host, without a trailing slash: https://app.nocodb.com on NocoDB Cloud, or your own host, for example https://nocodb.example.com.
3. Install the connector and run nocodb_list_workspaces: it lists the workspaces your token can see.

Token scope: NocoDB API tokens apply to the whole NocoDB instance and are sent in the xc-token header. To limit what the AI can see, create the token from a user account that has only the permissions it needs.

Where NocoDB runs: AnythingMCP Cloud reaches only publicly reachable NocoDB instances. If your NocoDB host is private or resolves to private address space, self-host AnythingMCP on the same network and allow the host through SSRF_ALLOWED_HOSTS, otherwise the outbound guard blocks the request.

What it reads: through the NocoDB v3 API, your workspaces, bases and tables, a table's columns with names and types, records, one record by its numeric row ID, and record counts. IDs follow a chain: nocodb_list_workspaces gives workspace IDs (starting with w), nocodb_list_bases base IDs (starting with p) and nocodb_list_tables table IDs. Before filtering or sorting, the AI calls nocodb_get_table for the exact field names. Filters use NocoDB syntax, for example (Status,eq,Open)~and(Priority,eq,High), and sorting is JSON, for example [{"field":"CreatedAt","direction":"desc"}].

Community Edition: an unlicensed self-hosted NocoDB may have a single implicit workspace, so nocodb_list_workspaces can return one entry or an empty list. Then go straight to nocodb_list_bases with the known workspace ID, or to the tables if you already know the base ID.

Limits: pageSize is silently capped at 100 on NocoDB Cloud and 1000 on self-hosted instances; nocodb_count_records gives the total before paging through a large table. NocoDB allows about 5 requests per second per user, shared by all of that user's tokens. Over that it returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.

The connector is read-only: it does not create, update or delete records, tables, bases or workspaces, and it does not use views (plan-gated), attachments, webhooks or the deprecated v1 and v2 APIs.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Microsoft Copilot

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Microsoft Copilot uses MCP servers through agents built in Copilot Studio: you add AnythingMCP to an agent as a tool, then publish the agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud over Streamable HTTP, which AnythingMCP supports.

1. In Copilot Studio, open your agent (or create one), go to Tools and choose Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol.
2. Enter a Server name (for example AnythingMCP), a Server description that says what the connector does, and the Server URL https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID. Copilot Studio uses the description to decide when to call the server.
3. Under authentication, choose API key, set Type to Header and the header name to X-API-Key, then select Create.
4. In Add tool, choose Create a new connection, paste an MCP API key from AnythingMCP (MCP Servers → your server → API keys) and select Add to agent.
5. Try it in the agent's Test pane: ask for something that needs the NocoDB tools.
6. Select Publish, then Channels → Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, keep Make agent available in Microsoft Copilot selected and choose Add channel. See agent in Teams installs it for you; in Microsoft 365 Copilot, type @ and pick the agent.

Prefer per-user sign-in? Choose OAuth 2.0 → Dynamic discovery instead of an API key: each user then signs in to AnythingMCP the first time the agent calls it.

Self-hosting? Use your instance's public HTTPS address instead of https://cloud.anythingmcp.com. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud, so localhost does not work.

Available tools

FAQ

Which Copilot is this for? Microsoft 365 Copilot at work, through agents built in Copilot Studio. The Microsoft Copilot app for personal accounts has no option to add your own MCP server.

What do I need? A work account with access to Copilot Studio (a license or a trial) to build the agent. People who use it in Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams need access to the agent: share it with them, or ask an admin to publish it to the organization. If your organization applies data policies to Power Platform connectors, they cover MCP servers too.

The agent doesn't call the tools. Check that the header name is exactly X-API-Key and that the key belongs to the same MCP server as the URL, and make the server description specific: Copilot Studio uses it to decide when to call the server. Publish the agent again after each change; in an open chat, type "start over" to get the new version.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to Claude
• Connect to ChatGPT