lifx-api

This MCP server exposes a local interface to control LIFX devices through natural language prompts. It maps common LIFX API operations (such as listing lights, setting state, toggling power, and applying effects or scenes) to MCP tools and prompts, enabling LLM-driven automation and chat-based control of your LIFX lights. You can query and manipulate lights using entities like lifx://lights, lifx://scenes, and related resources, with automated helper prompts to guide the interaction and fetch live device data when needed.

To use it, start the server using the NPX method described in Installation. Configure your API token via a config file, environment variable, or command-line argument. Then connect your MCP client (for example, MCP Inspector or Claude Desktop) to the running server. You can invoke tools such as list-lights, set-state, toggle-power, and activate-scene through natural language, and rely on prompts like effect-creator or selector-helper to build accurate queries. The server also supports various state and effect tools (e.g., breathe-effect, pulse-effect, move-effect, and more) to perform common lighting automations with minimal manual syntax.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js v18+ (recommended) or NPX-capable environment
• NPM or Yarn installed
• Access to the internet for fetching the lifx-api-mcp-server package

Installation steps (NPX is the easiest):

1. Ensure Node.js is installed:

node --version

2. Install and run the MCP server via NPX (token can be configured later via config file or env):

npx -y lifx-api-mcp-server@latest

If you prefer configuring a local token via environment or config, set CONFIG_API_TOKEN accordingly before starting. You can also run a Dockerized setup as shown in the README, but the NPX route is the recommended starting point.

Tip: Prefer configuring your API token via a config file (~/.lifx-api-mcp-server.jsonc) or environment variable (CONFIG_API_TOKEN) to avoid exposing tokens in command history. The server supports a config file to disable specific tools or resources, which can help tailor access for different environments. When running in Docker, you can mount your config file to /root/.lifx-api-mcp-server.jsonc or pass the token via environment variable. If you run into token-related issues, double-check the token scope and ensure the token is active. For best reliability, keep your Node.js version aligned with the server’s requirements (v18+ as recommended).