meetup-mcp

name	meetup-mcp
description	Use this skill when working with the Meetup MCP server to manage a Meetup group — drafting events, searching events, editing details, managing venues, and uploading photos. Covers the full tool set, auth flow, safety model, and common workflows.
invocable	false

Meetup MCP Server

The Meetup MCP server is a persistent HTTP service that gives Claude direct access to a single Meetup group's organizer tools. It runs via Docker Compose and connects to Claude Code over Streamable HTTP.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Drafting, editing, or searching Meetup events
• Looking up venue information for the group
• Uploading and attaching event photos
• Troubleshooting auth or tool errors from the meetup MCP server
• Explaining the safety model or publish flow to users

---

Available Tools

Read (always available)

Tool	Description
authorize	Start OAuth2 flow. Call this if any tool returns an auth error. Returns a URL to open in your browser.
get_group	Returns group name, URL name, and member count.
search_events	Search events by status: upcoming, past, or draft. Returns titles, dates, venues, and IDs.
get_event	Full event details for a specific event ID including description, venue, and photo.
list_venues	Lists known venues for the group with address details.

Write (requires organizer mode)

Tool	Description
create_venue	Create a new venue for the group. The API may return existing matches in didYouMean instead of creating a duplicate.
create_event	Creates an event as DRAFT by default. Set publishNow=true only if MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true.
edit_event	Edit any combination of: title, description, startDateTime, duration, venueId, howToFindUs, featuredPhotoId.
add_event_speaker	Add structured speaker details to an event. Meetup currently exposes one speaker profile per event through this API.
update_event_speaker	Update the event's structured speaker details or replace/remove its speaker photo.
remove_event_speaker	Remove structured speaker details from the event.
attach_event_speaker_photo	Attach an uploaded photo to the event's structured speaker profile.
publish_event	Publishes a draft event. Requires MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true AND confirm=true.
create_event_photo_upload	Gets a photo upload ticket with photoId and uploadUrl. The caller PUT's bytes to uploadUrl.
attach_event_photo	Attaches an uploaded photo to an event as its featured image.

---

Safety Model

The server enforces a layered safety model via environment config:

1. Group lock — each server instance is bound to one group via MEETUP_GROUP_URLNAME. Cross-group operations are blocked.
2. Mode — organizer (default) enables writes; read_only restricts to read tools only.
3. Publish gate — MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=false (default) blocks publish_event. Publishing requires explicit opt-in.
4. Draft default — create_event always creates as DRAFT unless publishNow=true AND publish is enabled.

Policy violations return errors prefixed with POLICY_DENIED.

The intended workflow is: draft → review → publish. Never go straight to publish without reviewing the draft first.

---

Auth Flow

The server uses OAuth2 authorization code flow. Tokens are stored in a Docker volume and persist across restarts — you only authorize once.

First-time authorization

1. Call authorize — it returns a Meetup authorization URL.
2. Open the URL in a browser. Log in and click Allow.
3. The browser redirects to http://127.0.0.1:8787/meetup/oauth/callback?code=...

If the server is on a remote machine: the redirect happens on your local browser, not the server. Copy the full callback URL and send it to the server manually:

curl "http://YOUR_SERVER:8787/meetup/oauth/callback?code=THE_CODE_FROM_URL"

4. Call the original tool again — it will succeed now.

Token refresh

Access tokens expire after 1 hour. The server automatically refreshes using the stored refresh token. Meetup refresh tokens are single-use — the server always persists the new refresh token immediately after use.

---

Common Workflows

Search upcoming events

search_events(status="upcoming", limit=10)

Create a venue

create_venue(
  name="Community Center",
  address="500 Innovation Blvd",
  city="Houston",
  country="us",
  state="TX"
)

Returns venue (the created venue) and didYouMean (existing similar venues if the API detected a potential duplicate). Note: the Meetup API does not support updating or deleting venues.

Draft a new event

list_venues()  // find the right venueId first

create_event(
  title="Your Event Title",
  description="Event description in plain text or HTML",
  startDateTime="2026-05-15T17:30:00-05:00",
  duration="PT2H30M",
  venueId="VENUE_ID_FROM_LIST_VENUES"
)

Returns the created event with its ID. Status will be DRAFT.

Edit a draft

edit_event(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  title="Updated Title",           // optional
  description="Updated copy",      // optional
  howToFindUs="Parking details"    // optional
)

Only include fields you want to change — all fields are optional except eventId.

Publish a draft

Publishing requires MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true in the server's environment. If it's not set, publish_event returns a POLICY_DENIED error.

publish_event(eventId="EVENT_ID", confirm=true)

The confirm=true parameter is required as an explicit acknowledgement.

Attach a photo to an event

// Step 1: get upload ticket
create_event_photo_upload(contentType="image/jpeg")
// Returns: { photoId, uploadUrl }

// Step 2: upload bytes (done externally via HTTP PUT to uploadUrl)

// Step 3: attach to event
attach_event_photo(eventId="EVENT_ID", photoId="PHOTO_ID")

Add or update the structured speaker profile

add_event_speaker(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  name="Jane Doe",
  bio="Principal engineer and community organizer.",
  photoId="PHOTO_ID" // optional
)

update_event_speaker(
  eventId="EVENT_ID",
  bio="Updated speaker bio",
  clearPhoto=false
)

attach_event_speaker_photo(eventId="EVENT_ID", photoId="PHOTO_ID")

Meetup's GraphQL surface currently exposes a single speakerDetails object per event rather than an arbitrary array of speakers.

---

Datetime and Duration Formats

• startDateTime: ISO-8601 with timezone offset — 2026-05-15T17:30:00-05:00
• duration: ISO-8601 duration — PT2H (2 hours), PT2H30M (2.5 hours), PT90M (90 minutes)

---

Deployment

The server runs as a persistent Docker Compose service:

# Build image
dotnet publish src/Meetup.McpServer/Meetup.McpServer.csproj /t:PublishContainer

# Start in background
docker compose up -d

# Check logs
docker compose logs -f

# Stop
docker compose down

Claude Code connects via .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meetup": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:5180/mcp"
    }
  }
}

---

Troubleshooting

authorize keeps returning an auth URL even after completing the flow

• The background listener may not have received the callback. Verify you curl'd the callback URL to the server, not just opened it in a browser on the same machine.

Tools return POLICY_DENIED

• Check MEETUP_MODE=organizer is set in .env
• For publish errors, set MEETUP_ALLOW_PUBLISH=true and restart the container

search_events returns empty results

• Check the status value: use upcoming, past, or draft
• upcoming maps to Meetup's ACTIVE status — published events with future dates

Container won't start

• Check .env has MEETUP_OAUTH_KEY and MEETUP_OAUTH_SECRET set
• Run docker compose logs to see the startup error