Trello MCP: Its Own Official Server, Not Atlassian's
Yes — Trello has an official MCP server. It’s worth being precise about which one, because Trello’s parent company Atlassian ships more than one MCP server and they’re easy to mix up: the Atlassian Remote MCP Server covers Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Bitbucket, and Compass — but not Trello. Trello instead gets its own dedicated official server at mcp.trello.com, published directly by Atlassian on Trello’s own support docs. If you’re searching “Trello MCP,” that’s the one you want, and it’s genuinely official, not a community project.
The thing worth knowing before you set it up: an MCP server hands your boards to an AI inside a conversation you start. It’s a doorway, not a worker. Nothing watches Trello for you, nothing fires when a card moves to Done, and nothing runs while the chat is closed. Here’s exactly what the Trello MCP does, how to turn it on, where it stops — and what to use when you want Trello work that runs on its own.
For the wider picture, every app with an MCP server is listed by category.
What the Trello MCP server does
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard that lets an AI client — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and others — talk to an outside app through a shared interface. Trello’s official server, live at mcp.trello.com/v1 since mid-2026, gives an MCP-compatible AI read and write access to your boards using your existing Trello permissions:
- View workspace and board details — see which boards, lists, and cards exist without opening the app.
- Create and update cards — add a card, move it between lists, archive it.
- Manage checklists — view and update checklist items on a card.
- Search across boards and cards — find the right card by name or content instead of scrolling.
- Manage Inbox and Planner items — the personal task views Trello added alongside boards.
One deliberate limit: destructive delete isn’t supported. Your assistant can archive a card or list, but it can’t permanently delete one — Atlassian built the server so an AI can’t wipe out board history by mistake.
For most day-to-day questions, this is genuinely useful: ask what’s overdue on a board, get an answer grounded in your real cards, move something to Done on the spot.
How to set up the Trello MCP server
Trello’s server is a remote, hosted MCP endpoint — no code, no server to run:
- In your AI client’s connector settings, add a remote MCP server pointing at
mcp.trello.com/v1. - Authorize it against your Trello account through the OAuth 2.0 prompt — you’re granting the AI your existing read/write permissions on the boards you choose.
- Confirm the tools appear in the client, then start a chat and ask it to look up or update a card.
If your AI client doesn’t yet support the official server, or you want board coverage beyond what Atlassian has shipped so far, community servers like mcp-server-trello on GitHub cover similar ground (boards, lists, cards, labels) — just know those are third-party, not the official one.
Where the Trello MCP stops
None of this is a knock on MCP — it’s just the shape of the protocol. Four limits show up the moment you want more than a conversation:
- It only works inside a chat you start. Close the window and nothing happens. The AI doesn’t watch your board; it waits for you to ask.
- No triggers. A card landing in Done, a new card added to a list, a checklist getting completed — none of these can start anything through MCP. There’s no “when this happens on the board, do that.”
- It’s one app at a time. The Trello MCP knows Trello. Getting a finished card into Slack, a client email, or a spreadsheet means wiring up (and authing) a separate MCP server for each, then hoping your client can juggle them in one turn.
- You own the plumbing and the scopes. The OAuth grant, its scope, and the blast radius of read/write access to your boards are all on you.
So the Trello MCP is a great way to ask about your boards and make one-off edits. It is not a way to make Trello run — to have work happen on a schedule or in reaction to a card moving, across the other tools that card touches.
Running Trello work that doesn’t need a chat open
That “run on its own, across apps” gap is exactly where Carly fits. Carly connects to Trello natively — no MCP server to authorize, no separate connector per client — and to the ~260 other apps it supports, plus anything with a public API through your own key. The difference from MCP is the important part: Carly’s workflows are triggered and scheduled, so Trello work happens whether or not anyone has a chat window open.
A few things that MCP can’t do but a Carly workflow can:
- When a card lands in Done → post a summary to Slack, log it in a client-hours spreadsheet, and draft the invoice line item — automatically, the moment it moves.
- Every Monday morning → summarize what’s overdue across every board you manage and email the list before standup.
- When a client email comes in → pull the details, create the Trello card with the right list and due date, and reply confirming it’s tracked.
The non-AI steps — the moving, matching, and routing between apps — are free and unlimited, the Zapier-style backbone of the workflow. The AI steps (drafting, summarizing, deciding) start at $35/month. You describe the outcome in plain language and Carly wires up the Trello connection and everything downstream.
If you just want to interrogate your boards from a chat, Trello’s official MCP server is the right tool and it’s free to connect. If you want Trello to actually do things — on a trigger, on a schedule, across every app a card flows through — that’s the job MCP wasn’t built for, and it’s the one Carly was.
FAQ
Does Trello have an official MCP server?
Yes. Atlassian publishes an official Trello MCP server at mcp.trello.com/v1, distinct from the separate Atlassian Remote MCP Server that covers Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Bitbucket, and Compass — that one does not include Trello.
Is the Trello MCP server free? Connecting it is free; you’re authorizing an AI client against your existing Trello account and permissions through OAuth 2.0. You still need whatever Trello plan your boards live on.
Can the Trello MCP trigger automations? No. MCP is request/response inside an AI chat — it has no triggers and nothing runs when the conversation is closed. For event- or schedule-driven Trello work across apps, you need a workflow tool like Carly rather than an MCP server.
Can I connect Trello to AI without coding or hosting a server? Yes. You don’t have to touch MCP at all. Carly connects to Trello for you and lets you build the automation in plain language — describe what you want to happen and it wires up Trello and the other apps involved, with no server to host and no code to write.
Ready to automate your busywork?
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