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Textbee

Textbee is an MCP server that adds messaging tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Open-source SMS gateway. Turn your Android phone into an SMS API: send and receive SMS from your apps over REST… It has 3,205 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @textbee/mcp.

github.com/textbee/textbee (opens in a new tab)

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Install Textbee

Generated from the server's published package. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "textbee": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@textbee/mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TEXTBEE_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env TEXTBEE_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio textbee -- npx -y @textbee/mcp

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "textbee": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@textbee/mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TEXTBEE_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "textbee_api_key",
      "description": "TEXTBEE_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "textbee": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@textbee/mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TEXTBEE_API_KEY": "${input:textbee_api_key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

Environment variables

Variables the server reads at startup.

NameRequiredDescription
TEXTBEE_API_KEYsecretNoShown in the README's example configuration.

About Textbee

textbee: open-source Android SMS gateway Turn an Android phone into an SMS API. Send and receive text messages from your apps, scripts, and AI agents over REST, webhooks, and MCP. No Twilio account, no rented number, no per-message fees. Self-host it or use the free hosted plan.

  • gateway
  • sms
  • sms-gateway
  • foss
  • open-source
  • android
  • api
  • sim
  • android-sms
  • android-sms-gateway

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FAQ

Textbee FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

How do I install the Textbee MCP server?

Add the command npx -y @textbee/mcp to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is Textbee free?

The server is open source under the MIT license, so running it is free. It needs credentials (TEXTBEE_API_KEY) for the service it connects to, which may require a paid account.

Is Textbee actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Oct 24, 2026. The latest release is v2.9.0, published Sep 21, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months.