Cloudways MCP — Operational Skill#

Managing Cloudways infrastructure through the Cloudways MCP server.

Connection: This skill targets the official Cloudways (Remote) MCP — an MCP hosted by Cloudways at https://mcp.cloudways.com/mcp/ that you connect to directly. The source of truth for connecting is the official article: support.cloudways.com/en/articles/14654372. See references/installation.md.

Tool names match the official articles. The tool catalog and workflows in this skill use the official Cloudways MCP tool names (verified against the setup article and the dedicated tools article). Always treat the live mcp__cloudways*__* tools as the source of truth if Cloudways changes them (see "Versioning and source of truth" below).

Context: The skill is built for day-to-day work managing clients/environments on Cloudways — monitoring, routine maintenance, onboarding/audit for new clients, and automations. All monetary values reported by the API are in $ (USD), not ₪.

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Quick Route#

IntentLoadInitial installation/configuration of the MCP serverreferences/installation.mdDon't know which tool exists / searching for a tool by namereferences/tools-catalog.mdMonitoring, status check, bandwidth, analyticsreferences/workflows-monitoring.mdCache clear, SSL, backup, restart, IP whitelistreferences/workflows-maintenance.mdNew audit / onboarding a new clientreferences/workflows-onboarding.mdBuilding an automated workflow for n8n/Make/Claude Codereferences/workflows-automation.mdMultiple Cloudways accounts / multi-account configurationreferences/installation.md (Multi-account section)

Load only what's needed. Maximum 2-3 references per task. If the user just asks "show me my servers", don't load the entire catalog — call server_list directly.

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Safety rules (read before every operation)#

1. Selecting the correct account — before anything else (multi-account). There are multiple Cloudways accounts, each as a separate MCP connection with its own prefix (e.g. mcp__cloudways-clientA__*). Before every call — verify which account it belongs to. If more than one account is connected and it's not clear from context which one is meant — stop and ask, don't guess. server/app IDs are not interchangeable between accounts — ID 1234567 in account A is an entirely different resource (or nonexistent) in account B. Don't take an ID from one account's response and run it against another account. See the "Multi-account" section below.

2. Write operations require explicit confirmation. Before every call to a tool that belongs to the Write category (see list below), present to the user: the account, the tool name, the target server/application (ID + name), the parameters, the expected impact. Wait for a confirmation response before executing. Don't assume that confirming one operation grants confirmation for further operations — nor that confirmation on one account applies to another.

3. Backup before a significant change. Before app_restore, app_delete, varnish_manage, varnish_app_manage, or any configuration change — check with the user whether a recent backup exists. If not, offer to run app_backup / server_backup first.

4. Multiple services = multiplied risk. Cloudways usually hosts several applications on the same server. server_stop, server_restart, or server_delete affects all the applications. Always make sure the user is aware of the list of applications on the server before a server-level operation.

5. server_delete, app_delete, and app_cname_delete = immediate destruction in production. Requires double confirmation (W!): of both the operation and the specific domain/application/server.

6. Credentials. Each account authenticates with its own Access Token (case-sensitive X-Access-Token header; roles + legacy-key migration in the Authentication section below). Don't print tokens in responses. Don't mix credentials between accounts. If the user asks to see them, refer them to platform.cloudways.com → API section.

7. Don't sweep the credential-returning tools. server_get, app_get and app_credentials return master, database and SSH credentials inside their ordinary payloads. Running one of them over every server or every app pulls the account's secrets into the conversation, where they stay for the rest of it — and telling yourself to keep them out of the report comes too late to help. Use server_list / app_list for inventory; call the other three for a specific field nothing else returns, or for a task the user actually asked for. But do not read "inventory" as "credential-free." The live server describes app_list as returning “ID, label, application type, version, domain, and credentials”, and both list tools are built from the same GET /server payload that makes server_get a credential tool. What makes them the right choice is that they answer the inventory question in one call per account or per server instead of one per app — not that their responses are known to be clean. Take the IDs and the fields you came for; never paste a raw list response into a report, a ticket or an automation. And when a job requires that no credential enter the transcript at all, build the roster outside the conversation — the Cloudways Platform UI, or a direct GET /server piped through a field filter on your side — and bring back only ids and labels.

8. Read-only by default. If the user just asks "show me / check / monitor" — always choose the appropriate read-only tool. Don't suggest a destructive operation unless the user explicitly asked for it.

9. execute_tool / toolset-proxy calls inherit their target tool's R/W/W! risk. Most tools live in on-demand toolsets and are invoked through the execute_tool proxy (or surfaced via get_toolset_tools). Calling a write/destructive tool through the proxy is exactly as consequential as calling it directly — apply the same confirmation (and double-confirmation for W!) as you would for the named tool.

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Write operations require confirmation — the catalog is authoritative#

The authoritative list is references/tools-catalog.md: every tool flagged W or W! there requires explicit confirmation before execution, and every W! requires the double-confirmation pattern. The grouping below is illustrative, not exhaustive — the live MCP (v1.2) exposes 244 tools — 241 across 22 toolsets plus 3 meta-tools — and 179 of them are not in your default tool list. If a tool is not named here but is flagged W/ W! in the catalog (or its live schema describes a destructive/irreversible action), it needs the same confirmation. Never treat "it's not in this list" as "it's safe to run without confirmation."

Server level (affects all applications on the server):

• server_start, server_stop, server_restart
• server_delete ⚠️⚠️ (W! — immediate destruction)
• server_scale ⚠️ (W! — resize CPU/RAM with brief downtime for every app on the server)
• server_backup, server_backup_settings_update, server_snapshot_frequency_update
• server_local_backup_delete ⚠️ (W! — permanently deletes local backup snapshots)
• server_package_update (W! for the uninstall variant — removes a package + its data)
• server_master_username_update, server_master_password_update ⚠️ (W! — old SSH/SFTP creds stop working immediately)
• service_start, service_stop, service_restart (Apache/Nginx/Memcached/MySQL/Varnish)
• varnish_manage

App level:

• app_create, app_clone, app_clone_to_server, staging_app_clone, staging_app_clone_to_server (create new copies — consume resources)
• app_backup, app_restore ⚠️⚠️ (W! — full overwrite of current state)
• app_restore_rollback ⚠️ (W! — overwrites current state with the pre-restore copy; only within the rollback window)
• app_local_backup_delete ⚠️ (W! — permanently deletes the local pre-restore snapshot)
• app_delete ⚠️⚠️ (W! — immediate destruction)
• app_db_password_update, app_admin_password_update, app_credentials_update, app_credentials_delete ⚠️ (W! — old credentials stop working immediately)
• app_enforce_https_update, app_stack_update, app_reset_permissions, app_wp_multisite_update
• app_cname_update, app_cname_delete ⚠️ (W! — can break production)
• app_purge_cache, varnish_app_manage

DNS / Projects / SSH keys (live via their toolsets):

• dns_made_easy_delete_domains, dns_made_easy_delete_records ⚠️ (W! — DNS records/domains gone; can break mail + site resolution)
• project_delete ⚠️ (W! — ungroups the project)
• ssh_key_delete ⚠️ (W! — revokes SSH/SFTP access immediately)

Add-ons:

• addon_activate, addon_activate_on_server, addon_deactivate, addon_deactivate_on_server (W — can change the account subscription / incur cost)

Security — SSL & IP access (new in MCP v1.2):

• security_lets_encrypt_install, security_lets_encrypt_renew, security_lets_encrypt_auto_renewal
• security_lets_encrypt_revoke, security_remove_own_ssl ⚠️ (W! — HTTPS breaks until a new cert is installed)
• security_update_whitelisted_ips ⚠️ (W! — replaces the SSH/SFTP or MySQL whitelist; a wrong list locks people out — always read the current list first)
• security_whitelist_ip_siab, security_whitelist_ip_adminer

Security Suite / staging / team / transfer (new in MCP v1.2):

• security_suite_app_files_restore ⚠️ (W! — restoring quarantined files can put malware back on the live site)
• security_suite_server_countries_blacklist_update ⚠️ (W! — blocks all traffic from entire countries)
• staging_sync_tables, staging_sync_code ⚠️ (W! — overwrite data/code on the target; confirm direction — a push to live overwrites production)
• team_member_update, team_member_delete ⚠️ (W! — changes/revokes a person's access)
• server_transfer_request ⚠️ (W! — hands server ownership to another Cloudways account)
• agency_os_* create/update (W — client-facing financial records: clients, services, plan prices, tax rates, invoices)
• agency_os_client_delete ⚠️ (W! — deletes a client-facing financial record, archiving their services + invoice history)
• copilot_subscribe, copilot_plan_change, addon_upgrade (W — change the account's subscription cost)

Git deployment:

• git_clone, git_pull (can break production if there's a conflict)
• git_generate_key ⚠️ (W! — overwrites the app's existing deploy key; the old key stops working)

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Confirmation pattern for a destructive operation#

Before execution, present a block like this:

text

🔒 Confirm operation execution?
   Account: clientA (mcp__cloudways-clientA)
   Tool: server_stop
   Server: production-shop-il (ID: 1234567)
   Applications affected: woocommerce-prod, staging-clone, admin-tools
   Impact: all 3 applications will be offline until a manual restart
   Proceed? (yes / no / pause and check backup first)

Wait for an explicit response. A literal "yes" only = confirmation. Implied consent is not enough. The account line is mandatory when more than one account is connected — it prevents executing an operation on the wrong account.

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Authentication — quick overview#

The official MCP is hosted at https://mcp.cloudways.com/mcp/ and authenticates via two case-sensitive HTTP headers:

• X-Access-Token — a Cloudways Access Token generated in the platform
• X-Mcp-Host — the client identifier ( claude-code / claude-desktop; full list of official values in references/installation.md)

Tokens are role-based (RBAC): READ (look-ups only), LIMITED (selected endpoint groups), FULL ACCESS (everything, including destructive actions). Start new integrations with READ and escalate only when a connection must write. This platform-level control complements (does not replace) this skill's write-confirmation discipline — even FULL ACCESS has no per-tool gating at the MCP layer.

Legacy: the old X-CW-Email + X-CW-Api-Key API-key headers are deprecated — the API key stops working on October 15, 2026 — and until migrated such connections retain unrestricted full-account access. Migration: references/installation.md.

Treat tokens like passwords and never print them in responses. If the user asks to see one, refer them to platform.cloudways.com.

For the full connection, role guidance, and multi-account setup, see references/installation.md.

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Multi-account — working with multiple Cloudways accounts#

There are usually multiple Cloudways accounts (different clients / different environments). Each account is connected as a separate MCP connection with its own credentials, and therefore appears in Claude with its own prefix:

text

mcp__cloudways-clientA__server_list
mcp__cloudways-clientB__server_list
mcp__cloudways-internal__server_list

The configuration (how multiple accounts are connected — one connection per account, each with its own credentials) is documented in references/installation.md section Multi-account configuration. The runtime rules are here.

The golden rule: identify the account before every operation#

1. A single account connected → use it, no need to ask.

2. Multiple accounts connected → determine which account the request belongs to before you call a tool:

   • If the user explicitly specified a client/account ("check clientB's prod") → use the matching connection.
   • If the server/domain name unambiguously identifies a single account → you may infer, but explicitly state which account you're operating on.
   • If it's unclear → stop and ask: "Which account? (clientA / clientB / internal)". Don't guess, and don't run on all of them "just to be safe".

Complete isolation between accounts#

• IDs don't cross accounts. A server_id / app_id you received from mcp__cloudways-clientA is valid only against clientA. Never take an ID from one account's response and pass it to a tool of another connection.
• Per-account confirmation. A write confirmation on one account does not apply to another. Every write operation on a new account = a new confirmation block (including the account line).
• Credentials don't mix. Each connection has its own Access Token. Don't assume the same credentials work on another account.

Cross-account search (read only)#

When the user asks for something broad — "which account does the domain shop.example.co.il live on?", "give me a disk overview for all accounts" — it's permitted and legitimate to read (read-only) from all the connections, but:

• Run the same sequence of reads on each connection separately, and tag each result with the account name.
• Summarize in a table with a clear "Account" column.
• Never perform a broad write operation across multiple accounts without individual confirmation for each one.

text

Example tagging in the response:
| Account  | Server           | disk |
|----------|------------------|------|
| clientA  | prod-shop-il     | 87%  |
| clientB  | prod-blog        | 41%  |
| internal | ops-tools        | 63%  |

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Common usage patterns (examples)#

Quick snapshot of an account#

text

1. server_list               → list of all servers
2. copilot_insights_list     → active insights/alerts

(No account/whoami tool exists — infer the account from the connection prefix + server_list.)

Health check before a weekend (production client)#

text

1. server_list                  → the fleet (server_get would add master credentials)
2. monitoring_server_graph      → metrics (CPU/mem/etc.)
3. app_list                     → per server, the application roster. server_list returns an
                                  app COUNT, not the IDs step 4 needs. One call per server,
                                  and rule 7 on what that one payload may carry
4. monitoring_app_summary       → for each application from step 3
5. copilot_insights_list        → open insights/alerts
6. monitoring_server_summary    → disk/bandwidth; if disk > 80% — red flag

Checking an app's details#

text

1. app_list                  → find the app: id, label, type, version, domain
2. app_settings_get          → its setting flags (XML-RPC, GEO-IP, password protection, …)
3. monitoring_app_summary    → what it is doing right now

( app_get is not in this list on purpose: it returns the application's database credentials beside fields the three calls above already give you. Step 1 is the roster you usually already hold from this conversation. Every app-scoped call takes a server_id beside the app id — app_settings_get and monitoring_app_summary included — so an app id on its own runs nothing, read or write; if you do not know the server, ask for it or for the app's name/URL. What differs between a read and a write is confirmation: a read on a known server/app pair can simply run, while a write needs name + URL from the roster first — a mistyped id that belongs to another app is still a valid id. When you hold no roster: for a name you are looking up, app_list on the server is the one API route (one call; rule 7 says what its payload may carry — take the one row, paste none of it); for an id you already know, app_list is the wrong tool, because it covers every app on the server, and one app_get for that app — or the app's page in the UI — exposes strictly less. Reach for app_get otherwise only for a field none of these return, and accept what comes with it.)

(SSL / Let's Encrypt is an MCP tool as of v1.2 — security_lets_encrypt_install / _renew / _auto_renewal / _revoke, via the security toolset. Install/renew are W; revoke is W!.)

For more detailed patterns, load the relevant workflows.

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Versioning and source of truth#

• Tool names match the official articles. The tool names and categories in this catalog are verified against the official Cloudways support articles (setup + tools reference, MCP v1.2). They are the official MCP tool names. The v1.2 additions have not yet been re-enumerated against the live server — see the note in references/tools-catalog.md.
• The live MCP remains the source of truth if Cloudways changes them. If a tool name or capability differs from what's documented here, the live list of tools connected in Claude ( mcp__cloudways*__*) wins — check it and update the catalog accordingly.
• Every write tool still goes through the confirmation pattern. W = single confirmation, W! = double-confirmation (destructive — e.g. server_delete, app_delete, app_restore, app_cname_delete), per references/tools-catalog.md. This discipline is more important now that the official destructive tools are confirmed to exist.