Seben runs an MCP server, so an AI client such as Claude Desktop can list, read, search and edit the documents in one of your organization workspaces. MCP access is in beta: its tools and limits may change.
Before you start
- MCP access uses workspace API keys, which organization workspaces can create. The free personal workspace cannot.
- Only workspace owners create and revoke keys.
- Pro includes MCP access, and organization workspaces have it during their 30-day trial.
1. Create a key
In Seben, open Settings → Integrations. Under Workspace API keys, name the key after the client that will use it, for example “Claude Desktop”, and choose Create key. Copy the key straight away: it is shown once, and Seben stores only a salted hash of it.
A key belongs to the workspace it was created in and reaches only that workspace’s documents.
2. Connect your client
Give your MCP client these settings:
- Server URL:
https://api.seben.io/mcp - Transport: streamable HTTP, with plain JSON responses and no sessions (MCP revision 2025-06-18)
- Authentication: the header
Authorization: Bearer <your key>
Claude Desktop
Claude Desktop reaches a server that needs this header through a local bridge. One option is the open-source mcp-remote package, which needs Node.js. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add Seben to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"seben": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-remote",
"https://api.seben.io/mcp",
"--header",
"Authorization:${SEBEN_AUTH}"
],
"env": {
"SEBEN_AUTH": "Bearer sk_your_key"
}
}
}
}
Replace sk_your_key with your key, save the file, and restart Claude Desktop. The key sits in that file as plain text, so keep the file private, and revoke the key in Seben if it is ever exposed. Seben does not maintain mcp-remote.
What a client can do
- Read: list documents, read a document’s details and version history, search and extract its text, read its form fields, and download it.
- Edit: upload PDFs and apply edits that don’t remove content, such as text edits, added text and markup, rotating, inserting and duplicating pages, filling forms, OCR, compression, and headers, footers, watermarks and Bates numbers. Each edit is a new version, as in the app.
- Refused: deleting pages or documents, redacting, reordering, merging and splitting need a person’s approval in Seben, so the server refuses them. Setting or removing a password, certificate signing and removing signatures also stay in the app.
A key can read the text of a password-protected document, because protection applies to downloads. Downloading a protected document needs its password and returns the encrypted file.
Limits
- Uploads and downloads of up to 25 MB per file.
- 60 calls and 10 uploads per minute for each key. Past that, the server answers with a rate-limit error that says how many seconds to wait.
- When a workspace is read-only, for example after its trial ends without a subscription, uploads and edits over MCP are refused, as they are in the app.
Revoke a key
In Settings → Integrations, choose Revoke next to the key. Every call checks the key again, so a revoked key stops working on its next call.