The Box open-source MCP (Model Context Protocol) server just got a major update focused on one thing developers constantly get requests for: managing collaborations.
Why Collaborations matter
In Box, collaborations are how you control who can access what. Think of them as permission systems:
Collaborations define access permissions for users and groups to files and folders, similar to access control lists. A collaboration object grants a user or group access to a file or folder with permissions defined by a specific role.
The available roles are: editor, viewer, previewer, uploader, previewer uploader, viewer uploader, co-owner, or owner. Each role grants different levels of access — check Box support docs for the full breakdown.
For deeper technical details, see the Box collaboration guide.
What’s new
We’ve added 17 new tools that break down into three main categories:
User lookup tools:
- box_users_list_tool - Get all users in your organization
- box_users_locate_by_email_tool - Find a specific user by email
- box_users_locate_by_name_tool - Find a user by name (exact match)
- box_users_search_by_name_or_email_tool - Search across names and emails
Group lookup tools:
- box_groups_search_tool - Search for groups by name
- box_groups_list_members_tool - See who's in a group
- box_groups_list_by_user_tool - Find all groups a user belongs to
Collaboration tools:
- box_collaboration_list_by_file_tool / box_collaboration_list_by_folder_tool - See who has access
- box_collaboration_file_user_by_user_id_tool / box_collaboration_file_user_by_user_login_tool - Add user access to files
- box_collaboration_folder_user_by_user_id_tool / box_collaboration_folder_user_by_user_login_tool - Add user access to folders
- box_collaboration_file_group_by_group_id_tool / box_collaboration_folder_group_by_group_id_tool - Add group access
- box_collaboration_update_tool - Change permissions
- box_collaboration_delete_tool - Remove access
Before diving in, note that some user and group lookup tools require additional scopes in your Box app configuration. Make sure your app has the necessary permissions enabled.
Demo
Here is a walkthrough on what’s possible with these new tools.
Users tools
Let’s start by having an idea of the users available in my Box instance:
We can identify a user by email, for example:
Depending on the scopes of your application, you can search for users:
Group tools
I also have a couple of groups I can play with:
Now we can search for the Students Group:
And check the members of this group:
I can even ask what groups I belong to
Collaboration tools
For this example, I have a Collaboration MCP Test folder with a single file inside. None of them have any collaborations yet:
Let’s start by locating the folder and listing its content so the LLM figures out the ID:
Now let’s try and add Olga as an editor to this file:
And we can check the collaborator for that file:
Updating Olga’s permission to Viewer also works:
Also reflected on the Box App:
We can also add the Students group as an Editor:
Finally we can remove all collaborations from the file:
Notice that Claude actually had to list the collaborations first in order to then delete one by one.
If, instead of files, you want to work with folders, the process is exactly the same.
Benefits of these tools
These tools solve the daily headache of managing file permissions programmatically. Instead of clicking through the Box web interface or writing custom API calls, you can now handle user lookup, group discovery, and permission changes through natural language with Claude.
The MCP server handles all the API complexity — authentication, error handling, rate limiting — so you can focus on getting work done.
What’s next
This update lays the groundwork for more advanced collaboration workflows. We’re continuously improving the Box Community MCP server based on developer feedback and real-world usage patterns.
Try out the new tools and let us know what you think. The Box MCP server is open source and we welcome contributions.
Want to get started? Check out the Box MCP server repository for installation instructions and examples.
