Ably MCP Server

by usefulapi Your server? Claim it

answering

Ably is answering right now. Last checked 15 min ago. It exposes 15 tools. Last commit 1 Sep 2026.

MCP server for Ably — channel history, presence, occupancy, stats, publish, and app management.

Uptime history 47 days of history · worst day 11%

47 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

91 of 91 checks

Tools

read from the server

175 ms

Response time

average over 24h

Stars

last commit 1 Sep 2026

What the code does

We read the source, 20 h ago · tools taken from the live server · rules 3dff92dd89df

Capabilities

What this server is able to do. For an MCP server this is often the job itself — a terminal server runs commands because that is what it is for. Listed so you know what you are plugging in, not as an accusation.

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Is this your server and something here is wrong? Tell us — corrections are free and do not require a plan.

This code can reach further than it looks

We found places where it runs commands, builds paths or queries from values it is given. None of that is a flaw by itself — it becomes one when the code changes, and code changes quietly between releases. We re-read it on every one.

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 15 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add ably --transport http https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ably": {
      "url": "https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.ably]
url = "https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ably": {
      "url": "https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ably": {
      "url": "https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 15

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

ably

ably_get_account_stats

Retrieve aggregated usage statistics across the whole account, bucketed by time. Account id is resolved from the control token when ABLY_ACCOUNT_ID is unset. Control API: GET /accounts/{account_id}/stats.

ably_get_channel_details

Get status and occupancy metrics for a single channel (connections, publishers, subscribers, presence members). REST: GET /channels/{channel}.

ably_get_channel_history

Retrieve historical messages published to a channel, newest-first by default. REST: GET /channels/{channel}/messages.

ably_get_presence

List the members currently present on a channel (who is online now). REST: GET /channels/{channel}/presence.

ably_get_presence_history

Retrieve historical presence events (enter/leave/update) for a channel. REST: GET /channels/{channel}/presence/history.

ably_get_service_time

Return the current Ably service time in ms since epoch. Useful for aligning start/end windows to the server clock. REST: GET /time.

ably_get_stats

Retrieve message/connection/channel usage statistics for the app tied to the API key, bucketed by time. REST: GET /stats.

ably_list_apps

List all apps in the account (id, name, status, tls-only). Account id is resolved automatically from the control token when ABLY_ACCOUNT_ID is unset. Control API: GET /accounts/{account_id}/apps.

ably_list_channels

Enumerate channels that are currently active in the app. Requires the API key to have the 'channel-metadata' capability. REST: GET /channels.

ably_list_keys

List the API keys for an app, including their capabilities (but not the full secret). Control API: GET /apps/{app_id}/keys.

ably_list_namespaces

List the channel namespaces (channel-rule prefixes) configured for an app, e.g. persistence and push settings. Control API: GET /apps/{app_id}/namespaces.

ably_list_queues

List the Ably Queues (AMQP/STOMP message queues) provisioned for an app, with their state and messaging stats. Control API: GET /apps/{app_id}/queues.

ably_list_rules

List the integration rules (reactor rules: webhooks, AWS Lambda/SQS/Kinesis, Kafka, Pulsar, etc.) configured for an app. Control API: GET /apps/{app_id}/rules.

ably_publish_message

WRITE: publish a message to a channel. Every connected subscriber receives it in real time. This is a real, outward-facing side effect — confirm the channel and payload before calling. REST: POST /channels/{channel}/messages.

ably_whoami

Return details about the configured control token: the account and user it belongs to and its capabilities. Good first call to confirm control-plane access. Control API: GET /me.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://ably.usefulapi.io/mcp	streamable-http	answering	434 ms	15 min ago

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Ably — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Ably do?

It exposes 15 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: ably_get_account_stats, ably_get_channel_details, ably_get_channel_history, ably_get_presence, ably_get_presence_history, ably_get_service_time and 9 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →

Is Ably working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 91 of 91 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 175 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect Ably?

Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.

Does Ably need an API key?

No. Ably completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 15 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is Ably?

It answers our handshake in 175 ms on average, which is faster than 71% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

Is Ably open source?

Yes — it is published under the MIT licence, written in JavaScript and 0 stars on GitHub. The source link is on this page, so you can read exactly what it does with your data before you connect it.