Ably MCP. Manage real-time presence and messaging from your agent.
Gemini Works with every AI agent you already use
…and any MCP-compatible client
Just plug in your AI agents and start using Vinkius.
Ably MCP Server handles real-time messaging, user presence, and push notifications. Connect your AI client to publish messages to channels, track who's online, and send direct alerts.
You can list active channels, pull message history, and monitor application usage stats—all through natural language commands.
What your AI agents can do
Batch presence
Gets the current online status for multiple specified channels at once.
Batch publish
Publishes messages to several channels in a single call.
Batch push publish
Sends a group of push notifications simultaneously.
Checks who is currently active in a channel, or retrieves a full history of user presence changes.
Sends single or multiple messages to specified channels, and can update or delete existing messages by serial ID.
Dispatches targeted push notifications to specific devices or user IDs for web and mobile.
Lists all active channels and fetches detailed metadata or usage statistics for any given channel.
Revokes Ably API tokens before their expiry date, maintaining strict control over access.
Ask AI about this MCP
Supported MCP Clients
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Ably MCP Server: 14 Tools for Real-Time Communication
These tools let your AI client manage every aspect of your communication stack—from tracking who's online to sending mass alerts.
019e385fbatch presence
Gets the current online status for multiple specified channels at once.
019e385fbatch publish
Publishes messages to several channels in a single call.
019e385fbatch push publish
Sends a group of push notifications simultaneously.
019e385fget channel metadata
Retrieves detailed setup information for one specific channel.
019e385fget message
Retrieves the full content of a single message using its serial ID.
019e385fget messages
Gets the message history for an entire channel.
019e385fget presence
Checks the current list of active users in a single channel.
019e385fget presence history
Retrieves the timeline of user presence changes for a channel.
019e385fget stats
Pulls usage metrics like total messages or peak connections for the app.
019e385flist channels
Lists all currently active channels in your Ably application.
019e385fpublish message
Sends a new message to one specific channel.
019e385fpush publish
Sends a single, targeted push notification to a device.
019e385frevoke tokens
Immediately revokes an Ably API token before its natural expiry time.
019e385fupdate message
Modifies, deletes, or adds content to an existing message.
Choose How to Get Started
Build a custom MCP for your own tools, or connect a ready-made integration from our catalog.
Build Your Own
Turn any API into an MCP. Import a spec, define Agent Skills, or deploy with MCPFusion.
- Import from OpenAPI, Swagger, or YAML specs
- Create Agent Skills with progressive disclosure
- Deploy to edge with MCPFusion framework
- Built in DLP, auth, and compliance on every call
- Real time usage dashboard and cost metering
- Publish to catalog or keep private
Make Your AI Do More
Start with Ably, then connect any of our 4,700+ other servers whenever your AI needs more. One click, no limits.
- Use this MCP plus 4,700+ others, all in one place
- Add new capabilities to your AI anytime you want
- Every connection is secured and compliant automatically
- Track usage and costs across all your servers
- Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
- New servers added to the catalog every week
What you can do with this MCP connector
Ably MCP Server
Connect your Ably account to any AI agent to manage real-time communication. This server gives your AI client full access to the Ably REST API. You can publish messages, track user presence, and send push notifications—all from a single chat window.
What It Does
- Messaging: Publish messages to one or many channels. Get message history or update/delete existing messages.
- Presence: See who is online right now, and check the history of who was in a channel.
- Notifications: Send direct push notifications to devices or client IDs for web or mobile engagement.
- Management: List all active channels and pull usage statistics for your app.
- Security: Revoke API tokens before they expire to keep your real-time infrastructure secure.
How Ably MCP Works
- 1 Subscribe to the Ably MCP Server and provide your Ably API Key.
- 2 Ask your AI agent to perform a communication task (e.g., 'What channels are active?' or 'Publish a message to #alerts').
- 3 The agent uses the exposed tools to interact with the Ably API and returns the requested status or data.
The bottom line is that your AI client manages your real-time communication infrastructure using natural language, without you needing to write code.
Who Is Ably MCP For?
Backend engineers who need to debug message flows or check channel states directly from their IDE. DevOps staff who monitor application stats or manage API key security without leaving the command line. Product teams testing complex push notification payloads.
Uses get_messages to check historical message data or get_presence to debug real-time state changes in a chat flow.
Runs get_stats to audit application usage or revoke_tokens when an API key needs to be shut down immediately.
Tests specific push notification payloads using push_publish or checks channel setup using get_channel_metadata.
What Changes When You Connect
- See who's in a meeting right now: Use
get_presenceorbatch_presenceto instantly check the active members in a channel, eliminating the need to navigate to a status page. - Audit message history fast:
get_messagespulls the full chat log for a channel, whileget_messagelets you grab one specific message by its serial ID. - Scale message delivery:
batch_publishsends messages to multiple channels at the same time. You can alsopush_publishto send notifications across many users at once. - Monitor app usage: Run
get_statsto get current application usage metrics. It's a quick way to see if your message volume is spiking. - Maintain security: If a key is compromised,
revoke_tokensshuts it down instantly. It's a critical safety net for your real-time stack.
Real-World Use Cases
Investigating a user's sudden silence
A backend developer notices a user hasn't posted in a while. They ask their agent to run get_presence_history on the channel. The agent checks the user's activity timeline and reports the last time the user was active, helping diagnose the communication flow issue.
Coordinating a multi-channel announcement
A product engineer needs to tell everyone about a new feature. They prompt their agent to use batch_publish to send the announcement message simultaneously to the #announcements, #dev, and #marketing channels.
Debugging a push notification failure
A devops engineer confirms a client ID is inactive. They ask the agent to run get_channel_metadata to check the channel setup and then use push_publish to test the payload directly to confirm the device is reachable.
Archiving a chat conversation
A developer wants to analyze a specific chat segment. They instruct the agent to use get_messages to pull all messages from the last week in the #archive channel, and then use get_message to extract a key message for inclusion in a report.
The Tradeoffs
Polling for status updates
Manually refreshing a dashboard every second to see if a channel's presence has changed, or calling get_presence repeatedly to check if someone is online.
→
Use the agent's ability to track state changes. For presence, use get_presence once to get the current list. For continuous monitoring, rely on the event stream, not repeated API calls.
Updating messages via multiple calls
Needing to slightly adjust a message, so the developer calls get_message to retrieve the content, copies it, edits it, and then calls update_message manually.
→
Use update_message directly. The agent handles retrieving the message by serial and applying the changes without manual copy/paste steps.
Sending notifications one by one
Writing a script that loops through 100 user IDs and calls push_publish for each one, which is slow and inefficient.
→
Use batch_push_publish to send a group of push notifications in one call. This drastically cuts down on latency and API overhead.
When It Fits, When It Doesn't
Use this server if your application requires real-time, bidirectional communication. You need to know who's online, send immediate alerts, or track message flow across multiple channels. The publish_message and push_publish tools are your core actions. Don't use this if you only need a simple database write—use a dedicated record-keeping tool instead. If you only need to know if a channel exists, list_channels is enough. But if you need to know who is in it, you need get_presence.
Independent Platform Disclaimer: Vinkius is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, verified by, or otherwise authorized by Ably. All third-party trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners. Their use on this website is strictly for informational purposes to identify service compatibility and interoperability.
VINKIUS INFRASTRUCTURE
Cloud Hosted
Managed infra
V8 Isolated
Sandboxed per request
Zero-Trust Proxy
No stored credentials
DLP Enforced
Policy on every call
GDPR Compliant
EU data residency
Token Compression
~60% cost reduction
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
The Model Context Protocol standardizes how applications expose capabilities to LLMs. Instead of operating in isolation, your AI gains direct access to external platforms, live data, and real-world actions through secure, standardized connections.
This server provides 14 capabilities that interface natively with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP client. No middleware. No custom integration required.
Available Capabilities
Tracking a conversation's state used to mean opening multiple tabs.
Before this, checking a channel's status meant opening the messaging platform, navigating to the user list, opening the message history, and then cross-referencing who had posted and who was currently online. It was a mess of clicks and tabs.
Now, your agent does it all in one prompt. You ask it to check the status, and it pulls the real-time data, the full message history, and the active member list back to you. It's instant context.
Ably MCP Server: Managing Message Flow
Forget the manual process of writing code to loop through channels or using multiple API calls just to get a message history. You don't write the loop; you just tell the agent the goal.
The server handles the complexity. You just ask for the message history or the presence data. The answer is ready. Period.
Common Questions About Ably MCP
How do I check who is online using the get_presence tool? +
You simply ask the agent to run get_presence on the channel name. It returns the current list of active members for that channel.
Can I send messages to multiple channels at once with batch_publish? +
Yes. You prompt the agent to use batch_publish and list all the channels you want to send the message to in the request.
What is the difference between publish_message and batch_publish? +
Use publish_message when you need to send one message to a single, specific channel. Use batch_publish when you need to send the same message to many channels.
How do I get the full message history using get_messages? +
Tell the agent to use get_messages and provide the channel name. It will return a paginated list of all messages within that channel.
Does revoke_tokens stop an API key immediately? +
Yes. revoke_tokens forces the immediate shutdown of the specified Ably API token, regardless of its programmed expiry time.
Can I see who is currently active in a specific channel? +
Yes. Use the get_presence tool with the target Channel ID to retrieve a list of all members currently connected and their status.
How do I send a single message to multiple channels at once? +
You can use the batch_publish tool. Provide a comma-separated list of channel IDs and the data payload to broadcast to all of them in one request.
Is it possible to retrieve the history of messages sent to a channel? +
Absolutely. Use the get_messages tool to fetch the message history for any channel, with options to filter by timestamp or limit the number of results.
Use it with your favorite AI tools
Connect this server to Cursor, Claude, VS Code, and more.
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