Deft MCP server

Deft

Where humans and agents work together.

Website | Self-hosting guide | Contributing

Deft is a self-hostable, open-source workspace where people and AI agents share chat, tasks, knowledge, calendar context, approvals, and action history.

Capture a team discussion into knowledge, ask Defty to propose a task using that context, review and approve the proposal, and keep the agreed details in the resulting task.

Alpha: for technical evaluation and controlled pilots. The walkthrough uses seeded demo data; it is not evidence of a live customer workspace or an active external agent runtime.

Watch the full walkthrough — 5:09.

Quick start with Docker

Use the prebuilt v0.3.0-preview.141 release, the latest published prerelease, for evaluation. It targets Linux amd64 and needs Docker Desktop or Docker Engine with Compose v2. An AI provider is optional. No source build, Node.js, or pnpm is needed for this path.

Download docker-compose.yml, compose.prod.yml, compose.release.yml, and default.env.example from that release into a new directory. In Bash (macOS, Linux, or Git Bash on Windows):

cp default.env.example .env
openssl rand -hex 32  # POSTGRES_PASSWORD
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # JWT_REFRESH_SECRET
openssl rand -hex 32  # ENCRYPTION_KEY

Paste each independently generated secret into its corresponding .env variable. All four are required for Docker, including local evaluation. Keep the encryption key with your backups. Leave AI keys empty and OLLAMA_URL commented unless you intend to configure a provider.

Add this pinned release image to .env:

DEFT_IMAGE=ghcr.io/maneek21/deft@sha256:2239e1cee9443d2266210e0ecb6d35abf67dfb78d8347c5f60c475324f3403c8

Then run, from that directory:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml config --quiet
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d postgres
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm init
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml up -d deft
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm doctor
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.release.yml run --rm smoke

Open http://localhost:3000 and create the first account, which owns the workspace. Subsequent users join by invitation. This creates an empty workspace with the platform bundle, not the video's demo records. Create a chat message and a task to try the core workspace without AI.

Use init only with a fresh database. For custom ports, public URLs, image verification, source builds, backups, and upgrades, follow the self-hosting guide. Versioned upgrades start at v0.2.0-preview.1; use the backup-first upgrade flow for existing workspaces. Historical releases through v0.2.0-preview.4 retain their shipped BSL 1.1 license; the selected release is AGPL-3.0-only.

Try Deft: install a workspace, connect your AI client, or build an internal App. See the current availability map before enabling an experimental feature.

Architecture · Current limitations · Licensing

Try one workflow

• Set up your first workspace
• Ask Defty for a task and approve it
• Connect a personal AI client
• Build a small vendor Module

The core loop

1. Capture the discussion. Save useful decisions and references in Knowledge with links back to their source conversation.
2. Ask Defty for a task. With an AI provider configured, Defty can use workspace context to propose the title, owner, dates, and description.
3. Review and approve. Defty's chat requests always wait for your approval, whatever the trust level; inspect the proposed details before approving. The workspace trust level applies only to Defty's approved plans and background work, and each agent employee has its own trust level.
4. Keep the agreed details. The task stores the approved content, and governed agent actions have approval history and receipts to inspect.

Optional video chapters: Knowledge capture — 1:09 · Defty task request and approval — 2:06 · ChatGPT connection and workspace read/write — 3:25.

Personal MCP connections use a different authority model. ChatGPT and other personal clients act as the authorizing user within their granted scopes and normal permissions. Their writes do not automatically enter Deft's agent approval queue. Defty and Agent Employees use agent identities and policy-based approval flows. See MCP access and agents.

What ships today

A workspace people can use normally

• Real-time chat with spaces, DMs, threads, mentions, reactions, files, presence, and rich text
• Task management with Board, Table, Timeline, Calendar, and personal views
• Notes, company knowledge, channel memory, decisions, references, and knowledge graph views
• Native calendar events plus read-only ICS subscriptions
• Dashboard, inbox, notifications, people, teams, roles, and profile management
• Dark and light themes, desktop and mobile layouts

A work record agents can use safely

• Built-in Defty workflows for workspace questions and governed native actions
• Personal MCP access for Codex, Claude, ChatGPT, and streamable HTTP MCP clients
• Agent employees that can participate in channels, receive assignments, and use Deft tools
• Native task, message, wiki, note, calendar, member, team, and context-packet tools
• Approval tiers, trust levels, token scopes, revocation, activity history, and action receipts
• Provider-neutral AI configuration: OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, or local Ollama-style providers

Deft still works as a normal workspace without an AI provider key. Chat, tasks, notes, knowledge, calendar, people, and teams remain available; AI features stay disabled until a provider is configured.

An extensible workspace through Modules and Apps

Modules add domain records, relationships, and native views. Apps package Module resources and may request supported connected actions. They use different manifests and installation flows; start with Modules and Apps. Declarative internal Apps, connected Apps, and bounded scheduled actions are opt-in alpha capabilities. General release defaults remain off; the explicitly Apps-enabled developer-preview profile described below compiles the supported browser gates on. Arbitrary custom UI and public portals are planned rather than part of the current contract.

The bundled Contacts module is the first example of this model. The goal is not to turn Deft's core into every application a company might need, but to let new capabilities live on the same shared substrate instead of becoming another disconnected system.

See Deft, App Kit and domain App boundaries for authoring contracts, permissions and execution limits. The Apps developer preview exposes generic Protocol 7 forms, external Runtime and source contracts. Standalone Email is the reference implementation. Host v0.3.0-preview.141 is published with the Apps-enabled browser profile and Author Kit 0.1.0-alpha.43. Follow the connected App author guide and the compatibility.json attached to the Email release you install, which names the Host version it requires. Use an explicitly Apps-enabled preview image; enabling runtime variables cannot turn on browser features omitted at build time. This is an operator-managed developer preview, not a production Gmail replacement.

Product surfaces

Chat keeps the source conversation attached

Chat is both a human communication surface and part of the workspace record. Threads, structured mentions, quiet knowledge capture, and agent replies keep decisions close to their source.

Tasks turn context into accountable work

Projects support Board, Table, Timeline, and Calendar views, plus dependencies, subtasks, recurrence, comments, activity diffs, bulk actions, and agent-created drafts.

Knowledge becomes durable team memory

Deft separates transient conversation from durable concepts, entities, decisions, resources, procedures, preferences, and facts. Agents can ask for org-wide or channel-specific context instead of reading an undifferentiated transcript.

Connect the AI app you already use

The Connections page guides each user through the setup required by their client. Personal connections act as that user, inherit their access boundaries, expose explicit scopes, and can be revoked.

Why Deft is different

Traditional stack	Deft
Chat, tasks, docs, calendar, and AI live in separate products	One work record connects the discussion, assigned work, durable memory, and agent action
Context is copied into an AI conversation by hand	Agents retrieve permission-aware workspace context through MCP or native tools
Agent writes are invisible or happen outside the workspace	Proposed writes can require approval and completed work leaves a receipt
AI is tied to one vendor or sidebar	Teams can use Defty, Codex, Claude, ChatGPT, or their own agent runtime
SaaS data and behavior are controlled by a vendor	The product is self-hostable and open source under AGPL-3.0-only

Local development

Requirements: Node.js 22.13+, the pnpm version pinned in package.json, and a running PostgreSQL 16 database with pgvector. Set the four secrets in .env and DATABASE_URL for your disposable development database before initialization; see Contributing.

git clone https://github.com/Maneek21/Deft.git
cd Deft
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env
# Set the four secrets and DATABASE_URL before continuing.
pnpm db:push-full
pnpm db:seed
pnpm dev

Useful development seeds:

pnpm db:seed:demo   # Testers Tomatoes demo data
pnpm db:seed:pilot  # Demo data plus pilot fixtures

Both development seeds reset the database. Never run them against a production workspace.

Architecture

deft/
|-- apps/
|   |-- web/       Next.js 16, React 19, Tailwind CSS, TipTap
|   `-- api/       Hono, Socket.io, PostgreSQL job workers, agent and MCP runtime
|-- packages/
|   |-- app-kit/   Author Kit for Modules and Apps
|   |-- db/        PostgreSQL, pgvector, Drizzle schema and migrations
|   |-- mcp/       Shared MCP protocol support
|   `-- shared/    Shared types, schemas, and constants
|-- docker-compose.yml
`-- pnpm-workspace.yaml

Layer	Technology
Web	Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, TipTap
API	Hono on Node.js
Data	PostgreSQL 16, pgvector, Drizzle ORM
Realtime	Socket.io in-process (single app instance)
Jobs	PostgreSQL job_queue and in-process workers
Auth	Email/password with bcrypt, JWT access tokens, and refresh tokens
AI	Provider-neutral routing plus MCP
Storage	Local disk with R2-compatible paths
Monorepo	pnpm workspaces

Project status and limitations

Deft is an alpha. It is suitable for technical evaluation, internal dogfooding, and controlled pilots. Expect breaking changes before a stable release.

Important current boundaries:

• One workspace per self-hosted deployment is the supported product contract.
• Versioned upgrades are supported from the v0.2.0-preview.1 baseline forward; older untracked alpha databases require a reviewed migration or fresh install.
• Native Google, Slack, Gmail, and GitHub OAuth integrations are not part of the current self-hosted v1 promise. Use ICS for calendar subscriptions and bring external tools through your own agent or MCP runtime.
• Agent quality depends on the configured model, scopes, workspace data, and approval policy.
• The per-employee daily cost budget is not enforced: nothing records spend against it, so do not rely on it to cap cost. The daily action cap and the unhealthy (circuit breaker) state do apply.
• This repository is open source under GNU AGPL v3.0 only.

Security reports should follow SECURITY.md. Operational support boundaries are documented in docs/self-hosted-v1-contract.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, run the relevant tests, and open a focused pull request.

If Deft is useful to you, starring the repository helps more teams find the project.

Contact

Email maneek@deft.ing for questions, demos, or private support requests. See SUPPORT.md for community support and SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reporting.

License

Deft is free software licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only (AGPL-3.0-only). You may use, study, modify, and redistribute it subject to the license terms. If you modify Deft and let users interact with that version over a network, section 13 requires you to offer those users its Corresponding Source.

Public modified deployments should set DEFT_SOURCE_CODE_URL to the public URL for the exact source they run. See NOTICE for the project copyright notice and THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md for third-party attribution.