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FabledScribe/docs/api-keys-and-mcp.md
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feat(telemetry): a read surface over retrieval_logs — the tuning loop had no read half (#2975)
`retrieval_logs` was write-only. `record_retrieval` inserted rows and nothing
in the tree ever selected from them: the only `select()` over RetrievalLog
lived in a test. So #1038's gate — "build the reranker once telemetry shows
precision is the bottleneck" — was unsatisfiable by construction, and the one
real tuning decision on record (the 0.68 write-path threshold, #2223) had to
be reached by hand-probing the live instance with eight payloads. This adds
the half that was missing.

`retrieval_summary(user_id, days=30)` returns two aggregates side by side,
each read from the table built for it — NOT a join. NoteUsageEvent's docstring
is explicit that the two are complements ("RetrievalLog tunes the threshold,
this tunes the corpus") and that RetrievalLog's JSONB `result_ids` cannot be
indexed at the per-note grain, so correlating through it would be both slower
and less honest than reading each source directly. That corrects the approach
sketched on the task.

  - `sources`, per surface: calls, zero_result_calls, cleared_threshold (how
    often the best hit beat the threshold in force for THAT call), the
    top_score spread as p10/p50/p90/min/max, avg_result_count, p90 duration.
    Zero-result calls are counted apart from low-scoring ones — they are a
    different failure and averaging them together would hide both.
  - `usage`, from note_usage_events: ranked surfacings, ambient surfacings,
    and pulls split into `pulled_by_agent` / `pulled_by_human`.

That split is not decoration. NoteUsageEvent's own comment says the mcp_/rest_
prefix is load-bearing and names #1038 while saying so: "is this dead weight?"
is answered by any pull, "was that injected line useful?" only by an agent
pull. `pull_through` exists to answer the second, so it counts agent pulls
over ranked surfacings; both halves ship so the first stays answerable.

Two things the code made me get right rather than guess:

  - Distinct-note counts get their own queries. `count(distinct note_id)` per
    (event, source) group cannot be summed across groups — a note surfaced by
    two sources is one distinct note and would be counted twice. A wrong
    number labelled "distinct" is worse than no number.
  - No CASE in the GROUP BY. #2663 is the bug where a second case() rendered
    its own expanding bind names, Postgres rejected the query, a broad except
    swallowed it, and every counter read zero in production while mocked tests
    passed. Grouping on raw `source` and classifying in Python cannot fail
    that way. For the same reason the readout distinguishes `read_failed` from
    an empty window, and its tests are integration against real Postgres —
    percentile_cont ... WITHIN GROUP only proves it parses against a database.

Exposed as the `retrieval_telemetry` MCP tool, added to `_READ_ONLY_TOOLS`:
it mutates nothing, but its name carries no read prefix, so the completeness
test cannot derive it and it would otherwise have failed closed for read-only
keys in silence — the same reason `enter_project` is spelled out there. Docs
updated to name both exceptions rather than leave the rule looking derivable.

Scoped to the caller's own telemetry: a retrieval log records what one user's
agent asked for, query text included, and is not a shared record kind — the
owner filter is the whole access rule, not a shortcut past access.py.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-23 22:48:54 -04:00

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# API Keys and Scribe MCP
## API Keys
API keys let external tools access your Fable data without a browser session. Each key is scoped to a single user — it can only access data that user owns or has been shared with them.
### Scopes
| Scope | Permissions |
|-------|-------------|
| `read` | GET endpoints only — list, search, fetch content |
| `write` | Full read + create, update, delete |
Admin-level operations (log access, user management) require a `write`-scoped key from an admin account.
### Creating a Key
1. Go to **Settings → API Keys**
2. Enter a name (e.g. "Claude MCP", "Home Server")
3. Choose scope
4. Click **Generate Key**
5. Copy the key immediately — it is shown only once (the token is `fmcp_`-prefixed)
Paste the key into the `Authorization: Bearer <key>` header of your MCP client
config (see **Scribe MCP Server** below).
### Revoking a Key
Click **Revoke** next to the key in the API Keys table and confirm. Revoked keys are deleted immediately.
---
## Scribe MCP Server
Scribe exposes itself as a set of MCP tools that Claude (and other MCP clients)
can use to read and write your notes, tasks, projects, rulebooks, and more. The
server is **built into the app** — it is mounted as a streamable-HTTP endpoint
at **`/mcp`** on the running Scribe instance (`src/scribe/mcp/server.py`). There
is nothing to install: no wheel, no separate package, no CLI. You connect a
client straight to the URL with a Bearer token.
### Authentication
Authenticate with an API key generated from **Settings → API Keys** (see above),
sent as `Authorization: Bearer fmcp_<key>`. A `read`-scoped key may call only the
read tools (`get_*`, `list_*`, `search`, `enter_project`, `retrieval_telemetry`);
any write/delete tool is rejected with `403`. The allow-list is explicit rather
than derived from the name — see `_READ_ONLY_TOOLS`, which is why the two reads
without a read-shaped name are spelled out here. A `write`-scoped key may call everything.
### Claude Code (Project-scoped)
Add a `.mcp.json` at the project root. The server `type` is `http` and the URL is
your instance's `/mcp` endpoint:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"scribe": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://your-scribe-instance.example.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer fmcp_your-api-key"
}
}
}
}
```
Note: `.mcp.json` contains an API key and should be added to `.gitignore`.
### Claude Code (Global)
The same `mcpServers` block can live in `~/.claude.json` to make the server
available across all projects. A project-scoped `.mcp.json` takes precedence over
the global entry when both define the same server name — useful for pointing a
specific project at a dev instance or an admin key.
### Available Tools
The tool surface is large (~70 tools) and evolves with the app, so the live
registration in **`src/scribe/mcp/tools/`** is the source of truth rather than a
table here. The tools are grouped by family:
| Family | Examples | Purpose |
|--------|----------|---------|
| Notes | `create_note`, `get_note`, `update_note`, `delete_note`, `list_notes` | Free-form knowledge |
| Tasks | `create_task`, `update_task`, `add_task_log`, `start_planning` | Actionable work + plans |
| Projects / Milestones | `enter_project`, `get_project`, `create_milestone`, … | Containers and outcomes |
| Search / Recall | `search`, `get_recent`, `list_tags`, `retrieval_telemetry` | Semantic + structured recall, and the readout its thresholds are tuned from |
| Systems | `create_system`, `list_systems`, `list_system_records` | Reusable per-project subsystems/areas |
| Rulebooks | `list_always_on_rules`, `list_rules`, `create_rule`, `create_project_rule`, `subscribe_project_to_rulebook`, … | Engineering/workflow rules |
| Processes | `list_processes`, `get_process`, `create_process` | Saved prompts/workflows |
| Trash | `list_trash`, `restore`, `purge_trash` | Recoverable deletes |
| Admin | `get_app_logs` (write/admin key) | Diagnostics |
Server-level usage guidance — when to reach for each entity, the
recall-before-acting reflex, and the rulebook conventions — is delivered to the
client automatically via the MCP server's `instructions` block (defined in
`src/scribe/mcp/server.py`).