MCP server: manage your help center from Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf
The Helprism MCP server lets AI coding tools — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf — read and write your help center directly. 19 tools, 3 prompts, open source (MIT). Helprism sync (beta) on Pro and Business; the full REST API on Business.
The Helprism MCP server is a Model Context Protocol server that connects your help center directly to AI coding tools. Have your coding agent draft help-center updates for the change it just made with the helprism-sync skill (beta), author articles from inside Claude Code by referencing a code snippet, sync content after a refactor, bulk-translate after a pricing change — all without leaving your editor. Open source (MIT), published to npm as @helprism/mcp. The MCP server and the helprism-sync skill work on the Pro and Business plans; the full REST API is on Business.
What the MCP server is
Most help centers are edited the same way they were edited in 2010 — open the dashboard, click into an article, type. Engineers writing about engineering features almost always have the source material in the tool they were already using (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf). The context-switch from "I just shipped this feature" to "now I need to open the help-center dashboard and write about it" is the single biggest reason help-center content lags behind product reality. The Helprism MCP server eliminates that context switch. Claude talks to your help center directly. "Draft an article about API rate limits based on this code." The drafts land in your workspace.
It works on two plans. On Pro, it runs Helprism sync (beta): the helprism-sync skill has your coding agent draft help-center updates for the change it just made and send them for human review. On Business, it also opens the full REST API, so your agent can create, edit and delete articles and categories and update workspace settings.
Install in 60 seconds
The MCP server is the npm package @helprism/mcp. You do not install it directly; your AI tool downloads and runs it via npx when configured. Use @helprism/mcp@latest so npx does not reuse an older cached copy; the sync tools need version 1.1.0 or later. Keep your API key in an environment variable instead of a committed file:
export HELPRISM_API_KEY=hp_your_api_key_here
Windows PowerShell:
$env:HELPRISM_API_KEY = "hp_your_api_key_here"
Claude Code (recommended):
claude mcp add helprism --env HELPRISM_API_KEY=$HELPRISM_API_KEY -- npx -y @helprism/mcp@latest
On Windows PowerShell, which drops the -- separator, run it through cmd /c:
cmd /c "claude mcp add helprism --env HELPRISM_API_KEY=$env:HELPRISM_API_KEY -- cmd /c npx -y @helprism/mcp@latest"
Codex:
codex mcp add helprism --env HELPRISM_API_KEY=$HELPRISM_API_KEY -- npx -y @helprism/mcp@latest
Cursor — add to .cursor/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"helprism": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@helprism/mcp@latest"],
"env": { "HELPRISM_API_KEY": "hp_your_api_key_here" }
}
}
}
Windsurf — same JSON config, in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.
Replace hp_your_api_key_here with your key, and do not commit a file that holds it. Get your API key from Settings → API in your Helprism workspace dashboard, on the Pro or Business plan. Keys are workspace-scoped and rate-limited to 100 requests per minute.
The helprism-sync skill (beta)
The helprism-sync skill is an Agent Skill that keeps a Helprism help center true when you ship. It tells your coding agent when and how to use the MCP server's sync tools. After your coding agent finishes a change, the skill has it:
- write a one-line impact note (Help center impact: NONE or what changed for a user);
- classify the change, and stop there for internal, visual, marketing and bug-fix-restores-docs work;
- read the live help center through the Helprism MCP server and keep only the articles with a sentence that is now wrong, or a missing thing a reader needs;
- draft the full rewritten article for each one;
- send the result to Helprism with report_change, and show you the review link.
Nothing is published by the skill. Drafts land in the Helprism review inbox, and a human accepts, edits or rejects each one. No code, diff or file content leaves your machine: only paths, the impact note and article prose. Many changes need nothing and end with a logged no-change.
The skill works on the Pro and Business plans. A Pro API key covers exactly what it needs: the sync tools report_change, list_suggestions, get_suggestion, resolve_suggestion, ask_knowledge, list_features and upsert_feature, plus read-only list_articles, get_article and list_categories. The skill and the sync tools are in beta: expect some missed updates and the occasional false alarm.
Install it next to the MCP server (above). For Claude Code, per project (commit it so your team gets it):
mkdir -p .claude/skills/helprism-sync
curl -fsSL https://helprism.com/skills/helprism-sync/SKILL.md -o .claude/skills/helprism-sync/SKILL.md
Windows PowerShell:
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force .claude\skills\helprism-sync | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest https://helprism.com/skills/helprism-sync/SKILL.md -OutFile .claude\skills\helprism-sync\SKILL.md
Codex:
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills/helprism-sync
curl -fsSL https://helprism.com/skills/helprism-sync/SKILL.md -o ~/.codex/skills/helprism-sync/SKILL.md
Restart the agent. When a change is done, or before you open a pull request, ask it in the same session: "Run helprism-sync on this change."
Already on Pro or Business? The Sync setup page in your dashboard walks through the key, the MCP server and the skill. New to Helprism? Sign up and start a 14-day trial.
Tools and prompts
The MCP server exposes 19 tools and 3 prompts. Which tools your API key opens depends on your plan. Pro (10 tools): Helprism sync (beta) — report_change, list_suggestions, get_suggestion, resolve_suggestion, ask_knowledge, list_features, upsert_feature — plus list and get for articles and list for categories. Business (all 19): the same, plus create/update/delete for articles, get/create/update/delete for categories, and get/update for workspace settings. A tool your plan does not cover returns a plan error with a link to billing. And three prompts: generate-knowledge (synthesize a draft article from a source like a code snippet, design doc, or transcript), update-knowledge (revise an existing article against new source material) and sync-knowledge (walk the agent through a sync run). Block-to-markdown conversion is handled inside the server. The LLM sees and writes markdown; the server converts to and from Helprism's block format on the way in and out.
Workflows the MCP server unlocks
The workflows below create and edit articles directly, which needs a Business API key. On Pro, the helprism-sync skill covers the ship-a-change case: it drafts the rewrites and sends them to your review inbox.
Document a feature while you ship it — open the PR in Claude Code, ask "draft a help-center article explaining what this PR adds for end users," Claude reads the diff and posts the draft into your workspace. Sync articles after a refactor — "audit articles in the Integrations category against the current code; flag any that describe behavior that no longer matches." Translate after a content update — "re-translate Billing articles for French and German because the pricing model changed." Build a help center from a codebase. Bulk content operations.
How this compares to Intercom, Zendesk, Document360, HelpScout
MCP-native integrations are new across the help-center category. Most incumbents offer a REST API and an export option; few expose their content through a protocol that an AI agent can use natively. The Helprism MCP server is, at the time of writing, one of the only first-party MCP integrations from a help-center vendor. Helprism: public REST API on Business $99; first-party MCP server (npm: @helprism/mcp) on Pro $49 and Business $99; MIT licensed. For engineering teams that already live in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Windsurf, the productivity gap is large — help-center work shifts from "context switch and write" to "ask Claude in the editor where the code lives."
Security and rate limits
Auth via X-API-Key header. Keys are scoped to a single workspace. Rate limit: 100 requests per minute per key, and ask_knowledge 20 a minute on top. A Business API key inherits owner-level permissions; a Pro key is scoped to Helprism sync (the seven sync tools plus read-only articles and the category list). Treat keys like passwords. Every API call is logged with the key that made it. All API traffic is TLS. The MCP server runs locally on your machine and talks HTTPS to api.helprism.com.
Getting started
Sign up for Helprism and choose Pro ($49/month) or Business ($99/month per workspace), each with a 14-day trial. Pro opens Helprism sync (beta); Business adds the full REST API. Generate an API key in Settings → API. Install the MCP server in your AI tool (Claude Code and Codex take one command; Cursor and Windsurf use a JSON config block), then install the helprism-sync skill; the Sync setup page in your dashboard has the same steps. Restart your AI tool. Ask "list categories in my Helprism workspace" to confirm. Finish a change and ask "Run helprism-sync on this change." On Business, try "draft a help-center article about [feature] based on this code" — the fastest way to feel the productivity gain.