Guides

Payarc MCP Server

This guide is for developers and AI-assisted tools, such as Claude Code, who want to discover, inspect, and test Payarc API endpoints directly from their development environment.

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Overview

The Payarc Documentation MCP server turns Payarc's published OpenAPI specs into a set of callable tools that your editor or AI agent can use directly. Instead of switching to a browser to hunt through reference docs, you can ask your MCP client to list every Payarc spec, search for an endpoint, read its full contract, resolve the correct base URL, and even send a live test request — all from inside your workflow. This guide explains what the server is, how to connect to it, and how to use each of its tools in a natural discovery-to-execution loop.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Step 1: Connect your client to the server

The server is hosted by Payarc and reachable at:

https://docs.payarc.net/mcp

Add the server to your client's MCP configuration. The server is HTTP-based, so the configuration is just a type and a URL — no command or local process.

For Claude Code and most clients using the standard mcpServers schema, add this to your .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "payarcdocs": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://docs.payarc.net/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What you get back: Once saved, your client exposes several payarcdocs tools, which can be seen in the Tool Reference section below. You can confirm the connection in Claude Code with the /mcp command or claude mcp list from the terminal — the server should report as connected.

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Tip: Configuration scope matters. A project-level .mcp.json makes the server available only in that project; a user/global config makes it available everywhere. Pick the scope that matches how broadly your team should have access.

Step 2: Explore the payarcdocs tools

Option 1: Inspect search-endpoints

search-endpoints finds endpoints by keyword across all specs at once. You give it a case-insensitive keyword, and it does a deep search, matching not just paths, but also operation summaries, descriptions, and parameters — then returns the relevant API endpoints.

What you get back: A list of API endpoints that contain your keyword, regardless of spec.

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Tip: A spec is a single API document that contains multiple API endpoints. Each spec is identified by a title, such as "PAYARC" and "Payarc Connect V3".

Option 2: Inspect list-endpoints

list-endpoints returns the complete endpoint map of one spec. You give the title as input and it returns the endpoints within that spec.

What you get back: A list of all API endpoints that are ONLY within the desired spec.

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Tip: A spec is a single API document that contains multiple API endpoints. Each spec is identified by a title, such as "PAYARC" and "Payarc Connect V3".
Tip: Use search-endpoints when you know what kind of API endpoint you are looking for but not where it lives; use list-endpoints when you know the spec and want to see everything in it.

Option 3: Inspect get-endpoint

Given the title, path, and method of the desired API endpoint, get-endpoint returns the full contract for that specific API endpoint.

What you get back: Several characteristics of the desired API endpoint, including summary, description, security schemes, and servers, among others.

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Tip: The security section tells you exactly which auth header to attach. Confirm it here rather than assuming — different specs may differ.

Option 4: Execute a live request

Send a real call against the API using a HAR-style request object. Use this to validate behavior or prototype an integration directly from your client.

Tool: execute-request — params: title, harRequest

The harRequest object only requires method and url, with the rest being optional. The object accepts:

  • method — get, post, put, patch, delete, head, options
  • url — the full URL of the API endpoint
  • headers — array of { name, value } (attach your Bearer token here)
  • queryString — array of { name, value }
  • postData — { mimeType, text } for raw bodies, or { mimeType, params } for form submissions

What you get back: The live API response, so you can confirm behavior end to end.

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Security reminder: execute-request makes real API calls. Run against the sandbox specs first. Never paste live cardholder data — PANs, CVVs, full card numbers, or other sensitive PII — into request bodies. Use test values only, in keeping with PCI DSS data-handling requirements.

Tool Reference

Below is a table, which is a reference to the various tools that the client gets exposed from the MCP server.

ToolRequired paramsPurpose
list-endpointstitleList all paths + methods for one spec
search-endpointspatternKeyword search across all specs
get-endpointtitle, path, methodFull detail for one endpoint
execute-requesttitle, harRequestSend a live request to the API

What's Next

Now that you can navigate the Payarc API through the MCP server, you can: