Security and limits

Your token

Your MCP URL holds your personal token, the same one your shadcn add commands carry. Anyone with it can use your Pro access, so treat it like an API key:

• Keep it out of git. To share a config with your team, commit the version that reads the token from each person's environment: the setup guides have one for the clients that support it.
• Keep it out of screenshots, issues and public logs.
• Signed in, this site masks it on screen; Copy takes it whole.

Send it in a header instead

The server also takes the token as Authorization: Bearer <token>, with the plain endpoint as the URL. The setup guides for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and Windsurf use it that way, and it's the better choice wherever your client lets you set headers: a token in a URL's query can end up in logs along the way, a header usually doesn't.

What the server sees

Only the tool calls themselves: their names and inputs, like a component's name, framework: "vue" or a search for "date picker". Your files, file tree and code stay on your machine; your agent reads your project, the server never does.

What it can do

Every tool only reads from shadcn.io, and each is marked read-only for your client. The server can't change anything on your machine: an install is a command or files your agent runs or writes, on your side, and most editors ask you first.

Rate limits

• 600 calls a minute per token. A prompt takes a handful; past the limit, the server answers 429 with a Retry-After header. whoami shows how many calls you have left.
• Refused calls (a missing or wrong token) are limited per network, so a token can't be guessed.

Pro and teams

The MCP is part of every Pro plan. Without an active plan, the server answers 403 with a link to the plans, and your URL works again within a few minutes of Pro starting.

On a Team or Organization plan, every member has their own Pro access, and their own token: no one shares a URL.

Revoke access

Regenerate your token on your account. The old one stops working within a few minutes: your MCP URL and your shadcn add commands change together, so put the new one in each client (the URL, or the Authorization header).

FAQ