Firebase MCP is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Firebase, with the goal of enabling AI assistants to interact directly with Firebase services. According to the repository description, the services it covers include: Firestore (document database operations), Storage (file management, with fairly complete upload capabilities), Authentication (user management and verification). This server can be used with MCP client applications such as Claude Desktop, Augment Code, VS Code, and Cursor.
Installation and Usage Prerequisites: a Firebase project with service account credentials, and a Node.js environment. The installation method is to add the server configuration to the MCP settings file; the MCP server can be installed manually, or installed at runtime via npx (recommended), and the installation method determines the configuration method. Examples of the corresponding configuration locations: for Claude Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json; for Augment, ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json; for Cursor, [project root]/.cursor/mcp.json. After installation, you can ask in the AI client, "Please test all Firebase MCP tools," to verify the installation.
Configuration Firebase configuration steps: go to Project Settings → Service Accounts in the Firebase Console, click Generate new private key, and securely save the JSON file. Environment variables include: SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH (the path to the Firebase service account key JSON, required); FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET (the bucket name for Firebase Storage, default [projectId].appspot.com); MCP_TRANSPORT (transport type stdio or http, default stdio); MCP_HTTP_PORT (HTTP transport port, default 3000); MCP_HTTP_HOST (HTTP transport host, default localhost); MCP_HTTP_PATH (HTTP transport path, default /mcp); DEBUG_LOG_FILE (enable file logging: when set to true, logs to ~/.firebase-mcp/debug.log; when set to a file path, logs to a custom location). Client integration also edits the corresponding configuration files mentioned above.
API and Development The repository lists the API Reference for Firestore tools and Authentication tools (the specific tool list is not expanded in the given material). The developer guide includes installation and build: first install and start the Firebase emulator, then run tests. The project structure, contribution process (fork the repository, create a feature branch, implement changes with tests, requiring 80%+ coverage, submit a pull request), and the MIT license are all explained.
HTTP Transport In addition to the default stdio, Firebase MCP now supports HTTP transport, allowing the server to run as a standalone HTTP service for access by multiple clients. To use it, run the server with HTTP transport and configure the connection to the HTTP endpoint in the MCP client. HTTP transport supports session management; multiple clients can connect to the same server instance, and each client receives a unique session ID, which is used to maintain state between requests.
Troubleshooting The material lists several common issues and how to handle them: when "The specified bucket does not exist" appears, check the bucket name in Firebase Console → Storage, and set the correct bucket name in the FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET environment variable; when "Firebase is not initialized" appears, check whether the service account key path is correct and is an absolute path, and confirm that the service account has the corresponding permissions for Firebase services; when "This query requires a composite index" appears, use the URL provided in the error message to create the required index in the Firebase Console, and retry the query after the index is created (which may take a few minutes); when using When the firestore_list_collections tool produces a Zod validation error with the message "Expected object, received boolean", diagnosis can be assisted by enabling file logging or enabling logging in the MCP client configuration, and logs can be viewed in real time; MCP Inspector provides interactive debugging.
Known issues The firestore_list_collections tool may return a Zod validation error in client logs. The repository states that this is an erroneous validation error in the MCP SDK, and investigation confirmed that no boolean value is present in the response; despite the appearance of this error message, queries still work correctly and return the expected collection data, and this is a log-level error that does not affect functionality.
Response format There is an example of the Storage upload response, and the form in which it is presented to the user is explained (specific format details are not fully given in the materials).
