Use The Deployer from your AI coding tool

If you build with an AI coding tool such as Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code, it can use The Deployer for you: check whether your repository will deploy, see where your projects stand, read the latest deployment log, or put your latest code live, without leaving the editor. Tools connect to The Deployer through MCP (the Model Context Protocol), the standard way AI coding tools use outside services.

What your AI tool can do

• check_repo checks whether a public repository will deploy: what it found, what's missing, and what it would cost on each cloud. It works without a key.
• plan_deploy does the same check, and adds your connected accounts, any project you already have for that repository, and the next step to take.
• status lists your projects, their live addresses and their latest deployment.
• logs shows the latest deployment's log for a project, with secrets removed.
• redeploy pulls the latest code on a live project's branch and restarts it, like Pull & Restart on the Dashboard.
• request_done_for_you asks for a done-for-you Launch, Launch + Secure (security problems found and fixed before it goes live) or Move. You finish the order in The Deployer.

Your AI tool asks you before it runs one of these, unless you've told it not to.

Step 1: Create an API key

1. Open Profile from the left sidebar.
2. Under API keys and AI coding tools, type a name you'll recognize, such as Cursor on my laptop, and your account password. Then click Create key.
3. Copy the key. It starts with dpl_ and is shown only once.

The Deployer emails you each time a key is created on your account, so you'll know if someone else makes one.

A key works only in AI coding tools, through The Deployer's MCP server. With it, a tool can check repositories, read your projects' status and logs, and redeploy a live project. A key can't sign in to The Deployer or be used anywhere else in it, so it can't see or change your cloud or git credentials, your environment variables, your billing or your account, and it can't create more keys.

Step 2: Add The Deployer to your tool

Right after you create a key, the Profile page shows the exact setup for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and other tools. Copy it into your tool.

Keep your key out of your project's files. Files like .mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json and .vscode/mcp.json often get committed to git, and anyone who can read the repository could use a key written there. Each setup below keeps the key in your own settings instead.

Claude Code. Run one command in a terminal, in your project:

claude mcp add --transport http thedeployer https://app.thedploy.com/api/v1/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer dpl_your_key"

Claude Code saves the key in your own settings on your computer, not in the project. To use The Deployer in all your projects, add --scope user right after thedeployer. Don't use --scope project: it writes the key into the project's .mcp.json, which is meant to be committed.

Cursor. Add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json in your home folder, which applies to every project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thedeployer": {
      "url": "https://app.thedploy.com/api/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer dpl_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

To set it up in one project's .cursor/mcp.json instead, write Bearer ${env:THEDEPLOYER_API_KEY} in place of Bearer dpl_your_key, and set THEDEPLOYER_API_KEY in the environment Cursor runs in.

VS Code. VS Code can ask for your key and store it securely, so the key never sits in a file. Add this to .vscode/mcp.json, or run MCP: Open User Configuration to use it in every project:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "thedeployer-key",
      "description": "The Deployer API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "thedeployer": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://app.thedploy.com/api/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:thedeployer-key}" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code asks for the key the first time the server starts.

Other tools that connect to a remote MCP server take the same address, https://app.thedploy.com/api/v1/mcp, and the same Authorization header. The Profile page shows both, ready to copy. Put them in the tool's user settings, not in a file inside your project.

Some tools start a local command instead of connecting to an address. For those, use The Deployer's small open-source package, which needs Node.js 18 or newer. Add it to the tool's user settings, not to a file inside your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thedeployer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "thedeployer-mcp"],
      "env": { "THEDEPLOYER_API_KEY": "dpl_your_key" }
    }
  }
}

The package passes each request to the same hosted server, so both ways offer the same tools. Its source is on GitHub.

Step 3: Ask

Talk to your AI tool as you normally would. For example:

• "Will github.com/me/my-shop deploy? What do I need to fix?"
• "What's the status of my projects on The Deployer?"
• "Show me the errors from the last deployment of my-shop."
• "I've pushed the fix. Redeploy my-shop."

Keeping keys safe

• Use one key per tool or computer, so you can revoke one without touching the others.
• Keep keys out of your repository. Put them in your tool's own settings on your computer, or let the tool ask for them, as shown in Step 2.
• A key works only in AI coding tools, through The Deployer's MCP server. It can't sign in to The Deployer.
• Creating a key needs your account password, and The Deployer emails you each time one is created. If you get that email and didn't create the key, revoke it on Profile and change your password.
• Changing or resetting your password revokes all your keys at once. Create new ones for your tools afterwards.
• If a key might have leaked, open Profile and revoke it. It stops working at once. Then create a new one.
• The Deployer keeps only a one-way hash of each key, never the key itself, and shows when each key was last used.
• The first deployment of a project, and anything that changes your accounts or settings, still happens in The Deployer itself.