Box MCP Server – Content and AI Tools

Overview

Box's official MCP server connects AI agents and MCP-compatible applications to
Box content through a single hosted endpoint. Instead of running a local Box
server or passing raw file payloads through the client, agents connect to Box's
hosted MCP service and call approved tools after the user authorizes access with
OAuth.

What the MCP server enables

Box MCP exposes tools across content, collaboration, AI, and document workflows.
Depending on the enabled scopes, client support, and the authenticated user's
Box permissions, an AI agent can:

• Identify the authenticated Box user.
• Read file and folder details, folder contents, previews, metadata, and file
  content.
• Create, move, copy, upload, update, and version Box files and folders when
  write tools are permitted.
• Search files by keyword or metadata and search folders by name.
• List comments, tasks, and collaborations, and create comments or
  collaborations when supported.
• Use Box AI to extract metadata, ask questions about a single file, ask
  questions across multiple files, or ask questions about a Box Hub.
• Create and manage Hubs for organized project or topic content.
• Use Box Doc Gen templates to generate documents.
• Issue temporary upload and download URLs in agentic environments that can make
  direct network requests.

When to use it

Use Box MCP when an AI workflow needs governed access to enterprise content in
Box. Practical examples include finding contract files, summarizing a folder,
extracting fields from invoices, answering questions across several documents,
generating documents from a Doc Gen template, preparing metadata updates, or
helping a team organize project files into a Hub.

Connection and authentication

Box hosts the standard MCP endpoint at https://mcp.box.com. Administrators
enable predefined MCP integrations or create integration credentials in the Box
Admin Console. For custom clients, Box generates an OAuth client ID and client
secret, and the client supplies its redirect URI and requested scopes.

Client-side configuration uses the endpoint URL, the MCP name
box-remote-mcp, OAuth credentials, and an authorization token according to the
MCP client platform. Box documents OAuth authorization at
https://account.box.com/api/oauth2/authorize, token exchange at
https://api.box.com/oauth2/token, and scopes such as root_readwrite,
ai.readwrite, and docgen.readwrite.

Key considerations

Users can only access Box content they already have permission to view or edit,
and configured scopes define the maximum set of actions. Several write tools
have additional restrictions when items or parent folders have shared links or
external collaborators. Some shared-link and collaboration tools are documented
as Claude-only initially. Upload and download URL tools require an agentic
environment capable of direct network requests and may require domain
allowlisting. Box states that the self-hosted Box MCP server is deprecated, so
new integrations should use the hosted endpoint. Require human approval for
writes, external sharing, collaboration changes, metadata changes, uploads,
document generation, and content moves in production spaces.