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Knak MCP Server Integration Guide

Use the Knak Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to connect supported Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants, such as ChatGPT or Claude, to your Knak account.

Developer Documentation

For full technical details, visit:
​https://developer.knak.com/

This feature is currently in Alpha Testing. Contact grace.lee@knak.com to request access.

Overview

The Knak MCP (Model Context Protocol) server gives AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT direct access to your Knak platform. Through a secure OAuth connection, your AI assistant can browse your brands, campaigns, and themes -- then generate production-ready emails inside Knak on your behalf.

Typical workflow:

  1. Connect -- Link your AI assistant to Knak via MCP

  2. Authenticate -- Sign in with your Knak credentials

  3. Browse -- Discover your brands and campaigns (themes are optional and opt-in)

  4. Generate -- Create an email with a natural-language prompt

  5. Preview -- A live progress widget polls until generation completes, then a rendered preview appears inline. Open the asset in Knak to refine or send.

All content is generated inside the Knak platform using your brand's themes and design system. The AI assistant orchestrates the workflow -- it does not write the email content itself.

Available Tools

The Knak MCP server gives your AI assistant a set of tools. These tools let it:

  • Browse your brands, campaigns, and themes.

  • Find existing assets and modules.

  • Generate new emails and show a preview.

The list of tools changes as new features are added. View an up-to-date list of the tools the Knak MCP server exposes here: Knak MCP Available Tools.

Prerequisites

Before connecting, ensure the following:

  • [ ] Knak account -- You need an active Knak account with access to at least one brand

  • [ ] MCP enabled -- A Knak company administrator must enable the MCP integration for your organization

  • [ ] MCP-compatible AI client -- You need an AI assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol (e.g., Claude Desktop, ChatGPT)

Your data access through MCP is scoped to your account permissions. You will only see brands, campaigns, and assets that your Knak account has access to.

MCP Server URL

Environment

URL

Production

https://enterprise.knak.io/mcp/public

OAuth discovery endpoint: https://enterprise.knak.io/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

Authentication

The Knak MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 Authorization Code flow with PKCE for secure authentication:

  1. Your AI client registers itself automatically via Dynamic Client Registration (DCR)

  2. You are redirected to Knak to sign in and authorize access

  3. The client receives an access token scoped to mcp:use

  4. All subsequent MCP requests use this token

Most users do not need to configure authentication manually -- MCP-compatible clients handle the OAuth flow automatically. If your client requires manual configuration, point it at the discovery URL -- it returns the authorization, token, and registration endpoints.

Parameter

Value

Discovery URL

https://enterprise.knak.io/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

Scope

mcp:use

PKCE

Required (S256)

Tool Reference

Full technical details for each tool live in the Knak Developer Portal. This includes:

  • The parameters each tool accepts, and which ones are required.

  • Example responses for each tool.

  • Notes on how each tool behaves, such as asset generation running in the background.

The tools change as new features are added. View the full reference for every Knak MCP server tool here: Knak MCP Tool Reference.

Interactive Widgets

On clients that support MCP UI resources (for example, ChatGPT), the Knak server provides two interactive widgets:

  • Progress widget (ui://knak/asset-progress) -- appears automatically after generate-asset and polls the signed statusUrl until the asset is ready.

  • Preview widget (ui://knak/asset-preview) -- appears when get-asset-preview is called, rendering the screenshot (or HTML fallback) of the asset inline.

Clients that do not support widgets fall back to the structured text responses, which contain the same URLs.

Example Prompts

Once connected, try asking your AI assistant:

  • "List my brands in Knak"

  • "Show me all campaigns in my [brand name] brand"

  • "Create a promotional email for our summer sale in the Q3 Marketing campaign"

  • "List my recent emails"

  • "Show me the details for asset [ID]"

  • "What themes are available for my brand?"

  • "Create a welcome email using the [theme name] theme with subject line 'Welcome to our community'"

Security

  • OAuth 2.1 with PKCE -- No client secrets are exposed; all authentication uses proof keys

  • User-scoped access -- Every API call respects your Knak account permissions. You only see your company's data.

  • Dynamic Client Registration -- AI clients register automatically; stale registrations are cleaned up after 30 days of inactivity

Troubleshooting

  • "MCP server not available" or connection refused

    Your company administrator needs to enable the MCP integration. Contact your Knak admin and ask them to enable the MCP server in company preferences.

  • "Authentication failed" or "Token expired"

    Your OAuth session has expired. Disconnect and reconnect the MCP server in your AI client's settings to re-authenticate.

  • "Brand not found" or "Campaign not found"

    You may not have access to the requested brand or campaign. Run list-brands and list-campaigns to see what is available to your account. Check with your Knak admin if you expect to see additional brands.

  • Asset generation seems stuck

    After calling generate-asset, supporting AI clients display a progress widget that polls until generation completes. Generation typically takes 1-2 minutes; the widget times out after about 5 minutes. If the widget has not finished within that window, open the campaignUrl returned by generate-asset to check status in Knak directly. If the asset still does not appear, try generating again.

Rate Limits

The Knak MCP server enforces several limits:

  • Asset generation (per user) -- Generating assets too quickly returns a rate-limit error. Wait a moment and retry.

  • Asset generation (per company) -- Each organization has a daily asset generation quota. Contact customer support if you need a higher limit.

  • Dynamic Client Registration -- Limited to 10 registrations per minute per IP to prevent abuse.

  • Standard API rate limits apply to all other MCP requests. Wait briefly and retry if you exceed a limit.

Need more help? Contact support via live chat using the chat bubble in the bottom right corner or email support@knak.com.

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