Merlin (Encord MCP) - BETA

Control Encord directly from your AI tools using Merlin, Encord’s MCP server.

Merlin is Encord’s agentic layer. It exposes Encord’s platform as a set of tools your AI tools can call, so you can create projects, define ontologies, check analytics, and more, all through natural language, without leaving your AI tool.

Merlin is currently in BETA. Contact your Encord representative to request access.

What Merlin can do

Once connected, your AI tools can take actions on your behalf across the Encord platform:

Category	What you can ask
Projects	List your Projects, create new annotation Projects with a chosen Ontology, Dataset, and Workflow
Ontologies	List Ontologies, create a label taxonomy with objects, classifications, and nested attributes
Datasets	Browse and search your Datasets
Workflows	List available Workflow templates (annotate → review, consensus, double review, pre-labelling)
Editor layouts	Configure custom annotation editor layouts for evaluation, rating, and scoring tasks
Analytics	Query task throughput, time spent, and collaborator performance for any Project

Prerequisites

• An Encord account (cloud). Merlin uses OAuth via WorkOS and is not available on on-premises or air-gapped deployments.
• A supported MCP client (see Connect your AI tools below).

Connect your AI tools

Choose your region’s endpoint. Merlin is available in two regions. Use the URL that matches where your Encord organization’s data is hosted:

• EU: https://mcp.encord.com/mcp
• US: https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp

Claude Code

Run the following command in your terminal:

EU

claude mcp add --transport http encord-merlin https://mcp.encord.com/mcp

claude mcp add --transport http encord-merlin https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp

The first time you call a Merlin tool, Claude Code opens a browser to sign in with your Encord account.

Claude Desktop

For Team/Enterprise plans:

1. An organization admin must first add the connector in Admin settings > Connectors with the URL https://mcp.encord.com/mcp or https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp.
2. Members then add the same connector under Settings > Connectors.
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect.

For Individual plans:

Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json:

EU

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "encord-merlin": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.encord.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "encord-merlin": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Web

For Team/Enterprise plans:

1. An organization admin must first add the connector in Admin settings > Connectors with the URL https://mcp.encord.com/mcp or https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp.
2. Members then add the same connector under Settings > Connectors.
3. Refresh claude.ai for the changes to take effect.

For Individual plans:

1. Go to claude.ai/customize/connectors.
2. Click Add custom connector.
3. Paste the server URL above and confirm: https://mcp.encord.com/mcp or https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp.
4. Complete the browser sign-in to authorize access.

Cursor

Click here to configure automatically to add Merlin to Cursor.

Or add the following to your Cursor MCP configuration:

EU

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "encord-merlin": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.encord.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "encord-merlin": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Codex

Run the following commands in your terminal:

EU

codex mcp add encord --url https://mcp.encord.com/mcp
codex mcp login encord

codex mcp add encord --url https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp
codex mcp login encord

Other

Merlin uses the standard MCP streamable-HTTP transport. Point any MCP-compatible client to:

https://mcp.encord.com/mcp

https://mcp.us.encord.com/mcp

The client runs an OAuth authorization flow against WorkOS on first use. Every WorkOS-backed login method (SSO, email, etc.) is supported.

Authentication

Merlin authenticates using OAuth. When your AI tools first call a Merlin tool, they open a browser window and prompt you to sign in with your Encord credentials. The session is managed by WorkOS. Merlin itself never stores your credentials.

You must sign in as an Encord user whose account was created (or backfilled) after Merlin launched. If your sign-in succeeds but tool calls are rejected, contact your workspace admin.

Org-level MFA enforcement is not yet supported for Merlin. Requests from organizations with mandatory MFA will be rejected.

Merlin with Workspaces

If you belong to only one Encord Workspace, Merlin automatically uses that Workspace. No additional setup is required.

If you belong to multiple Workspaces, Merlin needs to know which Workspace you want to work in before it can perform actions for you.

The first time you use Merlin, your AI tools may ask you to choose an active Workspace. Once selected, Merlin continues using that Workspace for future requests until you choose a different one.

To switch Workspaces later, simply tell your AI tools which Workspace you would like to use. Merlin lists your available Workspaces, asks you to confirm your selection, and then sets that Workspace as your active Workspace.

Example:

“Show me my available Workspaces.”

“Switch my active Workspace to Data Operations.”

Example prompts

Once connected, you can talk to your AI tools naturally. A few examples:

Setting up a new project end-to-end:

“Create an ontology for vehicle detection with bounding box classes for car, truck, and motorcycle. Then create a project called ‘Vehicle QA’ using that ontology and my existing dataset ‘Street Footage’.”

Checking project health:

“How many tasks were completed in my ‘Pedestrian Detection’ project last month, and who were the top three annotators by output?”

Exploring what’s available:

“List all my projects that are currently active and show me which ones I’m an admin on.”

Configuring an evaluation workflow:

“Set up a custom editor layout on project ‘RLHF Round 3’ that shows the media and a preference rating question side by side.”

Available tools reference

Projects

Tool	Description
create_project_tool	Create an annotation project. Accepts a title, description, ontology, one or more datasets (or a storage folder), and an optional workflow template. Returns a direct link to the new project.
list_projects_tool	List your projects, most recently created first. Supports title search and pagination (50 per page).

Ontologies

Tool	Description
create_ontology_tool	Create a label taxonomy. Define objects (things to localize, with a shape) and classifications (frame-level questions). Attributes support radio, checklist, text, and numeric types, with radio options supporting up to three levels of nesting.
list_ontologies_tool	List your ontologies, most recently created first, with cursor-based pagination.

Datasets

Tool	Description
list_datasets_tool	List your datasets with optional title/description search and pagination.

Workflows

Tool	Description
list_workflow_templates_tool	List all workflow templates, including Encord’s built-in templates and your saved custom templates. Use this to find the right template UUID before creating a project that needs a non-default review process.

Editor layouts

Tool	Description
get_project_layout_features_tool	List the ontology classifications a custom editor layout can reference for a given project. Call this before set_project_layout_tool to get the valid schema_feature_uuid values.
set_project_layout_tool	Apply a custom annotation editor layout to a project. Useful for evaluation, preference rating, and rubric-scoring tasks where the editor functions as a structured form.

Analytics

Analytics tools are available to project admins and team managers only. Time windows default to the last 30 days and cannot exceed 90 days.

Tool	Description
project_throughput_tool	Count task actions (completions, approvals, rejections, skips) over a time window. Optional group_by splits results by user, day, or workflow stage.
project_time_summary_tool	Total time spent on a project, broken down by stage, user, or day.
project_collaborator_performance_tool	Rank collaborators by task counts, rejection rate, label activity, and time — for either the annotation or review stage.

Workspaces

Tool	Description
list_workspaces_tool	List all Encord Workspaces you have access to.
set_active_workspace_tool	Set the Workspace Merlin should use for future requests. Required only for users who belong to multiple Workspaces.