Ranked roundup · Greenhouse
Best MCP Server for Greenhouse
Greenhouse is one of the few ATS vendors that actually ships an official MCP server for Greenhouse: a hosted endpoint at mcp.greenhouse.io/mcp, launched May 2026 and still in open beta, with 36 tools covering jobs, candidates, scheduling, scorecards, approvals, and reporting context. That changes the usual calculus. For most apps the community fills a vacuum; here the vendor option is the sensible default, and the community's job is filling coverage gaps — the strongest open-source server exposes up to 181 tools across the Harvest, Job Board, and Ingestion APIs, far more than the official beta. Managed platforms (Composio, Zapier) round out the list for teams that do not want to run anything. Rankings come from verifiable criteria only: official status, maintenance recency, adoption, auth model, and documented capability coverage. Nobody paid for placement, and every repo and claim below was checked on September 1, 2026.
Facts checked September 1, 2026 · ranked on verifiable criteria · placement is never for sale
Founder, Automation Squad ·
The ranking
- Official · Greenhouse Software
Any team on Greenhouse Core, Plus, or Pro that wants governed, auditable AI access to live hiring data without running infrastructure or handling API keys.
36 tools in six groups: jobs and job posts, candidates and applications, interview scheduling, scorecards and feedback, approvals, and reporting context. Reads pipeline data and can take actions like moving applications between stages or scheduling interviews, within admin-enabled scopes.
Fully hosted remote server at https://mcp.greenhouse.io/mcp (mcp.us.greenhouse.io/mcp for some tools) — nothing to install; add the URL as a custom connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Amazon Q, Copilot Studio, Glean, and other MCP clients. · OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and Dynamic Client Registration. A Site Admin first enables scopes in Dev Center > MCP Access (default is read-only across seven data categories); each user then signs in with their own Greenhouse account and the connection inherits that user's existing permissions.
- Open beta as of September 2026 — announced May 2026, rolled out from June; expect changes.
- 36 tools is the narrowest coverage on this list; the strongest community server exposes up to 181.
- Unusable until a Site Admin enables scopes in Dev Center > MCP Access — individual recruiters cannot self-serve.
- No access to pre-interview screening content (screening answers and transcripts never reach Greenhouse's database, so no scope can expose them).
- Users must reconnect if admins change enabled scopes after initial authorization.
- Only available on Core, Plus, and Pro subscription tiers.
- Community
Recruiting teams and ops engineers who need the deepest Greenhouse coverage available over MCP — bulk actions, resume search, analytics — and can self-host a Python process and manage an API key.
103 tools read-only, 127 in recruiter profile, 181 in full profile — spanning the Harvest API (candidates, applications, jobs, offers, interviews), Job Board API, and optional webhooks/ingestion. Adds workflow tools the official server lacks: candidate screening packages, boolean resume-text search across pipelines, daily application digests, and rate-limited bulk operations.
Self-hosted, stdio transport. Python 3.10+, installed via pip (open-greenhouse-mcp on PyPI); works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor. · Harvest API key in an environment variable (GREENHOUSE_API_KEY). Harvest uses Basic auth — the key as username, blank password — with per-endpoint permissions set in Dev Center. Write attribution supported via GREENHOUSE_ON_BEHALF_OF. · MIT · 5★
- Unofficial community project — not built or supported by Greenhouse.
- Low adoption so far: 5 GitHub stars (repo created April 2026).
- Auth is a long-lived Harvest API key in an env var — a broad credential compared with the official server's per-user OAuth; scope it to minimum endpoints in Dev Center.
- Creating the key requires the 'Can manage ALL organization's API Credentials' permission, so an admin is still involved.
- Full profile enables all write operations including destructive ones; the project itself recommends starting read-only.
- Community
Teams building multi-app AI agents where Greenhouse is one integration among many and managed credential handling across the whole stack matters more than vendor-official status.
133 Greenhouse tools per Composio's docs: candidate management (create, update, merge, anonymize), application handling (stage moves, reject/hire, full-text search), interview scheduling and scorecards, job and opening management, bulk async operations, and configuration (custom fields, departments, offices, sources).
Managed, hosted MCP servers via Composio's platform; SDK is open source (MIT) with a self-host option. No local process required for the hosted path. · Managed auth handled by Composio — supports API key, OAuth2, and service-to-service OAuth2 for Greenhouse; credentials stored on Composio's side (SOC 2 / ISO 27001 claimed).
- Unofficial — a third-party proxy, so candidate PII transits Composio's hosted infrastructure under their compliance posture, not Greenhouse's.
- Free tier is rate-limited (60 requests/minute per API key); sustained or higher-volume use is paid.
- Tool definitions and API-change handling are controlled by Composio; coverage claims come from their docs and were not independently exercised.
- Community
Teams already on Zapier who need light-touch Greenhouse actions from an AI client — create a candidate, find by email, add a note — without any setup beyond an existing Zapier account.
Roughly 13 Greenhouse tools: 6 triggers (e.g. Candidate Hired, New Candidate Application), 4 write actions (e.g. Create Candidate, Create Candidate Note), 2 searches (e.g. Find Candidate by email), and 1 combined action.
Fully hosted at mcp.zapier.com — no code, no install; connect from any MCP client. · Greenhouse connection handled through Zapier's existing managed integration; you authenticate Greenhouse once in Zapier and the MCP endpoint reuses it.
- Shallowest coverage on this list at ~13 tools — no scorecards, offers, bulk operations, or pipeline analytics.
- Usage is tied to Zapier MCP plans and rate limits; pricing is not stated on the Greenhouse MCP page itself.
- Unofficial — a third-party bridge, with candidate data flowing through Zapier.
- Community
Developers who want a small, readable MIT-licensed codebase as a starting point for their own Greenhouse MCP server rather than a production dependency.
A minimal set of around 11 tools: list/get jobs, list/get/create/update candidates, add candidate notes, list/get applications, advance and reject applications.
Self-hosted, stdio transport, run locally alongside your MCP client. · Harvest API key (Basic auth — key as username, blank password), same admin-created credential model as any Harvest integration. · MIT · 7★
- No commits since August 18, 2025 — over a year stale at verification, predating the official server entirely.
- Minimal coverage (~11 tools): no interviews, scorecards, offers, or search.
- Unofficial and small (7 GitHub stars); treat as reference code, not maintained software.
Greenhouse MCP servers compared
| Server | Maintained by | Runs | Auth | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse MCP (official) | Greenhouse Software | Fully hosted remote server at https://mcp.greenhouse.io/mcp (mcp.us.greenhouse.io/mcp for some tools) — nothing to install; add the URL as a custom connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Amazon Q, Copilot Studio, Glean, and other MCP clients. | OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and Dynamic Client Registration. A Site Admin first enables scopes in Dev Center > MCP Access (default is read-only across seven data categories); each user then signs in with their own Greenhouse account and the connection inherits that user's existing permissions. | — |
| open-greenhouse-mcp (benmonopoli) | Community | Self-hosted, stdio transport. Python 3.10+, installed via pip (open-greenhouse-mcp on PyPI); works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor. | Harvest API key in an environment variable (GREENHOUSE_API_KEY). Harvest uses Basic auth — the key as username, blank password — with per-endpoint permissions set in Dev Center. Write attribution supported via GREENHOUSE_ON_BEHALF_OF. | MIT |
| Composio Greenhouse toolkit | Community | Managed, hosted MCP servers via Composio's platform; SDK is open source (MIT) with a self-host option. No local process required for the hosted path. | Managed auth handled by Composio — supports API key, OAuth2, and service-to-service OAuth2 for Greenhouse; credentials stored on Composio's side (SOC 2 / ISO 27001 claimed). | — |
| Zapier MCP (Greenhouse) | Community | Fully hosted at mcp.zapier.com — no code, no install; connect from any MCP client. | Greenhouse connection handled through Zapier's existing managed integration; you authenticate Greenhouse once in Zapier and the MCP endpoint reuses it. | — |
| greenhouse-mcp (alexmeckes) | Community | Self-hosted, stdio transport, run locally alongside your MCP client. | Harvest API key (Basic auth — key as username, blank password), same admin-created credential model as any Harvest integration. | MIT |
How to choose
Pick the official Greenhouse MCP if you can: it is hosted, inherits your existing Greenhouse permissions, and costs nothing extra on Core, Plus, and Pro tiers — accept that 36 tools and open-beta status mean gaps. Pick open-greenhouse-mcp if you need deeper Harvest coverage (up to 181 tools), bulk operations, or resume-text search, and you are comfortable managing a Harvest API key yourself. Pick Composio if Greenhouse is one of many apps in an agent stack and you want managed auth across all of them. Pick Zapier MCP only for shallow trigger-style work — it exposes about 13 Greenhouse tools.
How this ranking works
Every server here is real and was checked against its repository or vendor documentation on the date above — stars and licenses come from the GitHub API, not from memory. Order reflects verifiable criteria only: official support, maintenance recency, adoption, auth model, and documented capability coverage. We do not run paid placements, and we list every caveat we find, including the unflattering ones.
Common questions
- Is there an official Greenhouse MCP server?
- Yes. Greenhouse launched its own hosted MCP server in May 2026 at mcp.greenhouse.io/mcp, and as of September 2026 it is in open beta with 36 tools, included at no extra cost on Core, Plus, and Pro tiers.
- How does setup and authentication actually work?
- For the official server, a Site Admin must first enable scopes under Dev Center > MCP Access (defaults are read-only), then each user connects their AI tool via OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and inherits their own Greenhouse permissions. Community servers instead use a Harvest API key — Basic auth with the key as username and a blank password — which requires the 'Can manage ALL organization's API Credentials' permission to create, and write calls need an On-Behalf-Of user ID header for auditing.
- Why would anyone use a community server when an official one exists?
- Coverage. The official beta exposes 36 tools, while open-greenhouse-mcp exposes up to 181 across the Harvest, Job Board, and Ingestion APIs, including bulk operations and boolean resume-text search the official server does not offer. The tradeoff is self-hosting and managing a broad API-key credential instead of per-user OAuth.
- Can these servers see screening answers or interview transcripts?
- The official server cannot expose pre-interview screening content — that data never reaches Greenhouse's database, so no scope can surface it. Community servers are bound by the same Harvest API limits, so anything outside the API is out of reach for all of them.
MCP servers we build
Automation Squad publishes its own open-source MCP servers and agent skills, documented with the same rules this ranking uses.