DNSFilter MCP Server
MCP server for DNSFilter's DNS security/filtering API - organizations, networks (sites), filtering policies, content/application categories, custom block pages, and the full traffic/threat reporting surface, for AI assistants and the WYRE Conduit gateway.
Scope
This is a deliberately narrow, read-only v1 surface, hard-scoped to organizations, networks, policies, categories, block pages, and reporting. DNSFilter's REST API (api.dnsfilter.com) has 217 documented paths across a much broader surface - MSP/distributor management, billing, users, roaming-client agents, enterprise SSO connections, API key management, scheduled reports, and more. None of that is implemented here, by design, not by oversight. Every tool in this connector maps 1:1 to a real, documented GET operation in DNSFilter's own published OpenAPI spec (https://api.dnsfilter.com/docs.json) - there is no write, update, or delete tool anywhere in this codebase.
Hard-excluded (every write/mutation operation on every in-scope resource) - never implemented:
POST/PATCH/DELETE /v1/organizations*(create, bulk_update, promote_to_msp, update, cancel, destroy) - organization mutations.POST/PATCH/DELETE /v1/networks*(create, bulk_create/update/destroy, update, destroy, secret_key rotate/revoke/generate) - network mutations, including LAN IP and subnet writes.POST/PATCH/DELETE /v1/policies*(create, update, destroy, application_update, add/remove_allowed_application, add/remove_blacklist_category, add/remove_blacklist_domain, add/remove_blocked_application, add/remove_whitelist_domain, permissive_mode update) and all of/v1/policies/bulk/*(bulk allow/block-list add/remove) and/v1/policy_ipswrites - every policy-content mutation.POST/DELETE /v1/block_pages*(create, destroy) andPATCH /v1/block_pages/{id}(update) - block-page mutations.- Every write endpoint on resources this connector doesn't otherwise touch at all: API keys (
create/destroy/revoke), users and organization users (create/update/destroy/resend_invite), billing/invoices, distributors (MSP/sub-org provisioning, SKUs, cancellation), enterprise SSO connections, scheduled policies/reports, roaming-client user-agents (bulk delete/update/cleanup, dequeue-uninstall), domain notes, IP/MAC address management, and trials.
They can be added as a follow-up if there's demand, after a deliberate scope decision - not by default.
Deferred (read-only, not implemented in this v1 - not a security exclusion): a handful of GET-only sub-resources and dashboard-adjacent endpoints exist under the same resource groups this connector covers, but aren't wired up yet: network subnets (GET /v1/networks/{id}/subnets*), network LAN IPs (GET /v1/networks/{id}/lan_ips*), policy IPs (GET /v1/policy_ips*), the unpaginated */all variants of every list endpoint (redundant with the paginated list tool), and administrative */counts endpoints. These can be added later without any scope-policy change, since they're already read-only.
Authentication
DNSFilter authenticates with a static API key, generated in the DNSFilter dashboard under Account Settings -> Security -> API Keys (an account supports up to 5 active keys at a time; see DNSFilter's own API Keys article). Unlike most sibling WYRE Conduit connectors, the key is sent as the raw header value - Authorization: <key>, with no Bearer prefix - per DNSFilter's own API docs: "Authentication is done by setting the Authorization request header. The header value is the API key itself. For example: Authorization: eyJ...".
Credential scope: two separate claims, at deliberately different confidence levels
- Structurally verified (checked directly, stated with full confidence): this connector's own code makes zero mutating calls - every function in
client.tsis aGET, and noPOST/PUT/PATCH/DELETEcall exists anywhere insrc/(enforced bytool-scope.test.ts's forbidden-token check). Also structurally verified, directly against DNSFilter's own published OpenAPI spec (api.dnsfilter.com/docs.json, fetched directly): an API key is generated per user account (theApiKeyresource schema carries auser_idfield) and its own creation request (ApiKeyCreateSpec) accepts onlynameandexpiry- there is no scope/role/permission field chosen at key-creation time. A key's effective capability is therefore inherited from whatever role the DNSFilter user account it was generated under holds, not selected independently when the key itself is created. That same spec'sMembership/OrganizationUserrole enums explicitly include a"read_only"value alongside"administrator"(and, on the MSP/distributor membership shape, alongside"network_administrator"/"network_support"/"support") - so a genuinely restricted DNSFilter user role is a first-class, documented concept in the API itself, not just dashboard-UI copy. - Vendor-documented, not independently verified (hedged deliberately): DNSFilter's own help center separately describes a dashboard-level Read Only user role ("Users with more restrictive roles like Read Only... have hidden dashboard tabs and panels"). Combined with the structural finding above, generating an API key under a dedicated Read-Only-role user account should yield a key whose calls DNSFilter's API server rejects for any write endpoint - but whether the API actually enforces that role server-side against write calls (versus the restriction being dashboard-UI-only) has not been tested by WYRE. Nobody sent a live write call against a Read-Only-role key to confirm, correctly: that would be a mutating test against a real account, not something to run without consent. Do not read this README as having established that a Read-Only-role API key cannot perform writes against DNSFilter's API - only that (a) DNSFilter's spec models a
read_onlyrole as a real, first-class concept, and (b) this connector's own code never attempts a write regardless of which key it's given.
In gateway mode the key arrives per-request via the X-DNSFilter-Api-Key header; in local/stdio mode it's read once from DNSFILTER_API_KEY. The stdio transport does not use CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET.
HTTP authentication
MCP_TRANSPORT=http refuses to start when CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is empty or a known placeholder (changeme, change-me, placeholder, secret, example, replace-me, replace-with-a-real-secret, your-s2s-secret, your-secret, s2s-secret). The process logs an error and exits non-zero. It never prints the secret. A placeholder is refused even if MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV=1 is set.
MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV=1 is local development only. It starts HTTP without a secret, logs a warning, does not check X-Gateway-S2S, and listens on 127.0.0.1 only. A non-loopback MCP_HTTP_HOST (including 0.0.0.0) is ignored in that mode and the override is logged.
When a real secret is set, MCP_HTTP_HOST is honored. Unset, the bind address is 127.0.0.1. The container image sets MCP_HTTP_HOST=0.0.0.0 and AUTH_MODE=gateway.
Every /mcp request must then include X-Gateway-S2S:
t=<unix seconds>,v1=<hex hmac-sha256>
v1 is HMAC-SHA256 of the ASCII string t=<unix seconds>, keyed with CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET, hex-encoded. The timestamp must be within 300 seconds of the server clock. A missing or invalid header returns 401.
In AUTH_MODE=gateway, /mcp also requires X-DNSFilter-Api-Key. A request missing that header returns 401 and does not fall back to DNSFILTER_API_KEY. /health stays unauthenticated and does not read credentials.
Configuration
Copy .env.example and set the variables below.
| Env var | Description |
|---|---|
DNSFILTER_API_KEY | DNSFilter API key, generated in the DNSFilter dashboard. Required for stdio and for AUTH_MODE=env. Not set on the gateway Compose service. |
MCP_TRANSPORT | stdio (default) or http. |
AUTH_MODE | env (default, reads the var above) or gateway (credential arrives per-request via the X-DNSFilter-Api-Key header, injected by the Conduit gateway). The image and Compose default to gateway. Gateway mode never falls back to DNSFILTER_API_KEY. |
CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET | Required for HTTP. Service-to-service secret used to verify X-Gateway-S2S. The process exits when this is empty or a known placeholder. Compose will not start without it. Never commit a real value. |
MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV | Set to exactly 1 only for local HTTP without CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET. Logs a warning, skips X-Gateway-S2S, and binds 127.0.0.1 only. |
MCP_HTTP_HOST | Bind address when a real CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is set. Defaults to 127.0.0.1. The container image sets 0.0.0.0. Ignored (forced to 127.0.0.1) when there is no secret. |
MCP_HTTP_PORT | HTTP port. Defaults to 8080. |
LOG_LEVEL | debug | info (default) | warn | error. |
Tools
57 read-only tools, one per documented DNSFilter GET operation across six resource groups.
Organizations
dnsfilter_list_organizations- list organizations visible to this API key.dnsfilter_get_organization- get one organization's basic information.dnsfilter_get_organization_settings- get organization-level settings.
Networks
dnsfilter_list_networks- list networks (sites/locations).dnsfilter_get_network- get one network's basic information.dnsfilter_lookup_network_by_ip- find the network associated with a source IP address.dnsfilter_get_networks_geo- get every network's geo/location metadata only.
Policies
dnsfilter_list_policies- list filtering policies.dnsfilter_get_policy- get one policy's full configuration (allow/block lists, categories, applications).dnsfilter_get_application_policies- get which policies allow/block a specific application.dnsfilter_get_policy_permissive_mode- get whether a policy has permissive (monitor-only) mode enabled.
Categories
dnsfilter_list_categories- list content-filtering categories.dnsfilter_get_category- get one content category's details and hierarchy.dnsfilter_list_application_categories- list application categories.dnsfilter_get_application_category- get one application category's details.
Block Pages
dnsfilter_list_block_pages- list custom block pages.dnsfilter_get_block_page- get one custom block page's configuration.
Metrics
dnsfilter_get_organization_usage- get organization usage (plan, users, total requests) over a date range.dnsfilter_get_organization_usage_detailed- get the detailed per-metric breakdown of organization usage.
Traffic Reports
DNSFilter's entire reporting surface is GET-only, so all 38 documented report operations are implemented with no curation:
dnsfilter_get_qps,dnsfilter_get_qps_active_agents,dnsfilter_get_qps_active_organizations- queries-per-second time series.dnsfilter_get_query_logs- raw DNS query log entries (domain, requester, category, allow/block result). The most granular, PII-bearing report this connector exposes.dnsfilter_get_top_agents,dnsfilter_get_top_application_categories,dnsfilter_get_top_categories,dnsfilter_get_top_collections,dnsfilter_get_top_domains,dnsfilter_get_top_networks,dnsfilter_get_top_organizations_requests,dnsfilter_get_top_users- "top N" breakdowns by traffic volume.dnsfilter_get_total_applications_agents_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_applications_collections_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_applications_networks_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_applications_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_applications_users_stats- application request-count totals, broken out by dimension.dnsfilter_get_total_categories,dnsfilter_get_total_categories_organizations,dnsfilter_get_total_category_stats- content-category request totals.dnsfilter_get_total_client_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_deployments,dnsfilter_get_total_roaming_clients- client/deployment counts.dnsfilter_get_total_domain_stats,dnsfilter_get_total_domains,dnsfilter_get_total_domains_organizations,dnsfilter_get_total_domains_users- domain request totals.dnsfilter_get_total_organizations_requests,dnsfilter_get_total_organizations_stats- organization-level request totals.dnsfilter_get_total_requests,dnsfilter_get_total_requests_agents,dnsfilter_get_total_requests_collections,dnsfilter_get_total_requests_geo,dnsfilter_get_total_requests_organizations,dnsfilter_get_total_requests_users- total request-count totals, broken out by dimension.dnsfilter_get_total_threats,dnsfilter_get_total_threats_organizations,dnsfilter_get_total_threats_users- blocked-threat totals.
Sensitivity
Every tool in this connector is classified isAdmin: true in the Conduit gateway (see result-cache.ts's VENDOR_TOOL_CONFIG entry for this vendor), a whole-connector decision rather than a per-tool one. DNSFilter's surface here is a DNS security product: policy configuration, block-page branding, and - especially - the traffic-report family carry per-device/per-user DNS query history and threat-detection data (dnsfilter_get_query_logs returns individual domains queried by individual requesters; several total_*/top_* reports break results out by local user or client/agent). That's PII- and security-posture-adjacent data even as a plain read, the same posture this WYRE Conduit wave has taken for other security-category connectors (Cork, CyberQP, Cisco Duo).
Development
npm install
npm run build
npm test
npm run lint # tsc --noEmit
Docker
The image listens on 0.0.0.0 inside the container (MCP_HTTP_HOST) and defaults to AUTH_MODE=gateway. Publish the port on loopback and pass the S2S secret. In gateway mode the DNSFilter API key arrives on each request as X-DNSFilter-Api-Key; it is not read from the environment. Sign X-Gateway-S2S as t=<unix seconds>,v1=<hex hmac-sha256 of that t= string> with CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET.
docker build -t dnsfilter-mcp .
docker run \
-e CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" \
-p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
dnsfilter-mcp
Compose refuses to start when CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET is unset, sets AUTH_MODE=gateway, does not inject DNSFILTER_API_KEY, and publishes 127.0.0.1:8080:8080:
CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" docker compose up
Single-tenant HTTP (AUTH_MODE=env) still requires the S2S secret, then uses DNSFILTER_API_KEY:
docker run \
-e CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET="$CONDUIT_S2S_SECRET" \
-e AUTH_MODE=env \
-e DNSFILTER_API_KEY=your-api-key \
-p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
dnsfilter-mcp
Local HTTP without a secret is development-only. It binds 127.0.0.1 even if MCP_HTTP_HOST is 0.0.0.0, and logs a warning:
MCP_TRANSPORT=http MCP_ALLOW_INSECURE_DEV=1 npm run start:http
License
Apache-2.0