PubNub MCP. Track live presence and chat history in real-time.
PubNub enables your AI client to manage real-time communication, track user presence across channels, and handle message history. Use this MCP to publish messages instantly, monitor who is online right now, and retrieve past conversations for support or auditing purposes.
Give Claude and any AI agent real-world access
Send a message payload instantly to any specified channel.
Determine which users are currently online, or what channels they have recently visited.
Fetch logs of past messages from a channel and count how many total messages were sent.
Get or update specific user profiles, list all available users, or change who belongs to which group.
Generate secure URLs for uploading assets or retrieving file content from the network.
Delete old message histories in channels or remove specific user accounts when necessary.
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What AI agents can do with PubNub (Real-time Messaging) With 31 Tools
These tools allow your AI client to handle every aspect of real-time communication, from publishing a single chat message to managing large-scale user memberships.
Make your AI actually useful.
Add this MCP to Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf and your AI stops guessing. It gets real tools to look things up, take action, and handle the stuff you keep doing by hand.
Start using PubNub (Real-time Messaging) MCPAdmin Create App
Creates a new PubNub application using the Admin API.
Admin Get Metrics
Retrieves current usage metrics for administrative oversight.
Admin List Apps
Lists all existing PubNub applications on the account.
Admin List Keysets
Retrieves a list of all keyset identifiers.
Delete File
Removes a specific file from within a channel.
Delete Message History
Purges message history records for selected channels.
Generate File Upload Url
Creates a secure URL that allows another service to upload files directly.
Get All Channels
Lists every channel the application has access to.
Get All Users
Retrieves a list of all user accounts associated with the system.
Get Channel
Fetches details and metadata for one specific channel.
Get File Url
Retrieves a direct, accessible URL for a file within the network.
Get Memberships
Checks which groups a specific user belongs to or is restricted by.
Get User
Retrieves detailed information for a single user account.
Get Message History
Fetches the chronological log of messages from a specified channel.
List Files
Retrieves a list of all files stored within a given channel.
Get Message Count
Counts the total number of messages ever sent to a specific channel.
Pam Grant Token
Issues a temporary, secure token for internal system authentication (PAM v3).
Pam Revoke Token
Immediately invalidates and revokes an existing PAM v3 token.
Presence Get State
Checks the current online status of a user within a specific channel.
Presence Heartbeat
Sends an update confirming that a user is still active in their session.
Presence Here Now
Gets a list of all users currently online and active in the network (Here Now).
Presence Leave
Signals that a user is manually exiting or leaving a channel.
Presence Set State
Allows the system to set a custom online status for a user in a channel.
Presence Where Now
Determines all channels that a specific user is currently participating in (Where Now).
Publish Message
Sends an immediate, new message to a specified channel.
Push Manage
Manages or lists the push notification channels for connected devices.
Push Remove All
Removes all registered push notification channels from a device's profile.
Remove User
Permanently removes a user account from the application context.
Set Channel
Creates or updates metadata for an existing channel.
Set Memberships
Updates which groups a user belongs to, defining their access rights.
Set User
Creates or updates the profile information for an existing user account.
Security and governance baked right in.
Pick your AI client below to get set up. Just create a Vinkius account, subscribe, and you're instantly up and running. We handle the entire backend infrastructure, delivering out-of-the-box support for HTTPS Streamable, SSE, and OAuth2—zero messy routing required.
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 each call
- Real time usage dashboard and cost metering
- Publish to catalog or keep private
Make Your AI Do More
Start with PubNub (Real-time Messaging), then connect any of our 5,200+ other servers whenever your AI needs more. One click, no limits.
- Use this MCP plus 5,200+ others, all in one place
- Add new capabilities to your AI anytime you want
- Connections are secured and governed automatically
- Track usage and costs across all your servers
- Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more
- New servers added to the catalog weekly
Independent Platform Disclaimer: Vinkius is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, verified by, or otherwise authorized by PubNub. 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.
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Sandboxed per request
Zero-Trust Proxy
No stored credentials
DLP Enforced
Policy on each call
GDPR Compliant
EU data residency
Token Compression
~60% cost reduction
Handling real-time user status used to be a nightmare of manual dashboard checks.
Before this MCP, knowing who was actively available involved juggling multiple dashboards. You'd have to check the main chat board for current activity, then switch to the internal directory to see if the person had changed roles, and finally consult a separate status page just to confirm they were logged in. It was slow, fragmented, and required constant manual cross-referencing.
Now, your agent handles it all automatically. By using tools like `presence_here_now`, you get a single source of truth on user availability. Your application instantly knows who's online and what channels they are active in. The result is immediate context for every interaction.
Controlling Message History with PubNub MCP
Manually auditing communications meant writing complex database queries across multiple message tables, trying to filter by specific date ranges and user UUIDs. If the chat system changed its logging format even slightly, your entire audit process broke down and required a full rewrite.
With this MCP, you simply ask for it using `get_message_history`. The agent handles the complex filtering and retrieval of chronological logs across channels, giving you accurate data whether you're looking at last week's chat or the single message from three months ago. It just works.
What PubNub MCP does for your AI
This MCP connects your agent directly into a global data stream network. It lets you orchestrate real-time communication—not just sending simple text messages, but managing complex interactions like tracking user activity or archiving entire chat logs through natural language prompts. You can monitor exactly who is in which conversation and even manage group memberships instantly.
For instance, if your application needs to handle high volume data streams, the Vinkius catalog makes connecting this functionality straightforward, letting you focus on the logic rather than the connection details. With this MCP, you control everything from generating secure file upload links to purging old message logs for compliance.
019e38dd-3d63-72ea-9d9e-b15066065d12 How to set up PubNub MCP
The bottom line is you get a persistent, low-latency channel for all things real-time communication.
Subscribe to this MCP and provide your PubNub Subscribe Key, Publish Key, and UUID credentials.
Your AI client uses these keys to establish a connection to the real-time data stream network.
You interact with the system using natural language commands, allowing your agent to manage live communications and retrieve history.
Who uses PubNub MCP
This MCP is essential for platform architects building live chat features, support teams needing immediate visibility into customer status, or IoT developers monitoring connected devices. If your application relies on instant updates or tracking user state, this is the connector you need.
Needs to check message history and see if a user has left a channel before escalating a live support ticket.
Builds chat applications, managing both the sending of new messages and tracking which users are currently active online.
Monitors device heartbeats through real-time channels and sends control commands that need immediate confirmation or logging.
Benefits of connecting PubNub MCP
You can track who is currently online using the presence_here_now tool. This means your support agent knows instantly if a user has logged off, which drastically improves response quality.
Building out an audit log? Use get_message_history to pull message logs for any channel and count them with get_message_count. This gives you the full context needed for compliance reports.
Instead of relying on a separate directory service, use get_all_users and get_user to manage user metadata right from your agent. You can ensure every interaction is tied back to accurate profile data.
File sharing becomes simple. The generate_file_upload_url tool gives you secure upload links, so users never have to send sensitive files through the chat itself.
You gain granular control over group access using tools like get_memberships. You can let your agent check who is allowed in a private channel before attempting to publish anything.
PubNub MCP use cases
A customer support queue needs real-time status updates.
The support team asked their agent, 'Who's online right now in the billing chat?' The agent used presence_here_now and reported a list of active users. This allowed the technician to immediately prioritize help for the most engaged customers.
An internal tool needs to archive communications for legal reasons.
A compliance officer asked their agent, 'Get all messages from the 'project-x' channel last month.' The agent used get_message_history and also ran delete_message_history on older, irrelevant channels, keeping only what was required.
An IoT dashboard needs to know if a device is communicating.
The system architect told their agent, 'Check the heartbeat status for Device-7.' The agent used presence_heartbeat and confirmed that the connection remained active, triggering the next scheduled check.
A collaborative workspace needs to manage roles dynamically.
The team lead asked their agent, 'Add User A to the 'admin' channel.' The agent used set_memberships and then immediately updated the user profile using set_user, ensuring the permissions were correct.
PubNub MCP tradeoffs
What to watch out for, and the recommended way to handle each one.
Assuming data consistency
The developer tried to list users and assume they had all the necessary group details, leading to incomplete access checks.
Always check permissions first. Use get_memberships before allowing a user to participate in any channel, ensuring your agent validates both their profile (get_user) and their group status.
Relying on manual data cleanup
The team manually copied old message logs into a database, wasting hours of labor and risking format errors.
Use get_message_history to pull structured log data directly from the channel. If you need to prune old records for storage reasons, use delete_message_history.
Ignoring file security
The agent tried to send a large attachment by pasting it into the chat message body, which failed or was flagged.
First, generate secure access using generate_file_upload_url. Then, instruct your agent to upload the file via that URL and reference the content in the chat.
When to use PubNub MCP
Use this MCP if your core business logic revolves around communication flow: live chats, notifications, presence tracking, or collaborative workspaces. If you need to know 'who,' 'when,' or 'where' a piece of data was shared, PubNub is the right tool. Don't use it if your main job is simply reading and writing single records in a database; for that, a standard CRUD-type connector is better. Also, don't use this MCP to replace dedicated identity management services; rather, treat it as the communication layer that uses those identities. It excels at low-latency data streams, not long-term persistent storage.
Frequently asked questions about PubNub MCP
How do I check who is online using PubNub MCP? +
You use presence_here_now to get a list of all users currently active in the network. This tells you their real-time status without needing to query specific channels first.
Can I delete old messages using PubNub MCP? +
Yes, use delete_message_history to purge message logs from entire channels. You can also target individual files with the delete_file tool for specific cleanup tasks.
What is the difference between getting all users and getting a single user? +
Use get_all_users when you need to list every account for administrative purposes. Use get_user when you already know the ID and only need to retrieve specific profile details.
How do I manage file uploads with PubNub MCP? +
First, call generate_file_upload_url to get a secure link. Then, instruct your agent on how to upload the file using that URL so it lands correctly in the channel.
Can I update user permissions with PubNub MCP? +
Yes. You can manage this by first checking roles with get_memberships, and then updating them directly using set_memberships to control access rights.