Quip MCP Server on AWS Lambda

July 22, 2025 · View on GitHub

This project contains the AWS CDK infrastructure code to deploy the quip-mcp-server-typescript project on AWS Lambda with API Gateway.

Architecture Overview

The architecture consists of the following components:

  1. AWS Lambda Function: Hosts the Quip MCP server using AWS Lambda Web Adapter to convert API Gateway requests to HTTP requests.
  2. API Gateway: Provides the HTTP endpoint for clients to interact with the MCP server.
  3. S3 Bucket: Stores the CSV files exported from Quip spreadsheets.
  4. AWS Secrets Manager: Stores sensitive information like the Quip API token.

Architecture Diagram

flowchart TB
    Client[Client] -->|HTTP Request| APIGW[API Gateway]
    APIGW -->|Proxy Request| Lambda[Lambda Function]
    Lambda -->|Adapter| WebAdapter[AWS Lambda Web Adapter]
    WebAdapter -->|Forward Request| MCP[Quip MCP Server]
    MCP -->|Store/Retrieve Files| S3[(S3 Bucket)]
    MCP -->|Access Quip API| QuipAPI[Quip API]
    Lambda -->|Get Secrets| SecretsManager[Secrets Manager]
    
    subgraph "AWS Cloud"
        APIGW
        Lambda
        WebAdapter
        MCP
        S3
        SecretsManager
    end
    
    subgraph "External"
        QuipAPI
        Client
    end

Prerequisites

Before deploying this project, you need to have the following:

  1. AWS CLI installed and configured with appropriate credentials
  2. Node.js 20.x or later
  3. A Quip API token

Project Structure

infrastructure/
├── api-gateway-lambda/   # CDK project
│   ├── bin/
│   │   └── app.ts        # CDK app entry point
│   ├── lib/
│   │   └── quip-mcp-server-stack.ts  # Main CDK stack
│   ├── lambda/           # Lambda function code
│   │   ├── run.js        # Lambda handler
│   │   └── package.json
│   ├── package.json
│   └── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

Deployment Instructions

1. Install Dependencies

First, install the dependencies for the CDK project:

cd infrastructure/api-gateway-lambda
npm install

2. Bootstrap AWS Environment (First Time Only)

If you haven't used CDK in your AWS account before, you need to bootstrap it:

npx cdk bootstrap

3. Configure Secrets

Before deploying, you need to create a secret in AWS Secrets Manager with the following values:

  • QUIP_TOKEN: Your Quip API token
  • QUIP_BASE_URL: The base URL for the Quip API (optional, defaults to https://platform.quip.com/)

You can create this secret manually in the AWS Console or use the AWS CLI:

aws secretsmanager create-secret \
    --name quip-mcp-server/secrets \
    --description "Secrets for Quip MCP Server" \
    --secret-string '{"QUIP_TOKEN":"your-quip-api-token","QUIP_BASE_URL":"your-quip-base-url-if-needed"}'

4. Deploy the CDK Stack

Deploy the CDK stack to your AWS account:

cd infrastructure/api-gateway-lambda
npx cdk deploy

This command will:

  1. Synthesize the CloudFormation template
  2. Deploy the stack to your AWS account
  3. Output the API Gateway URL and API Key ID

5. Retrieve the API Key

After deployment, you need to retrieve the API key value from AWS Console or using the AWS CLI:

aws apigateway get-api-key \
    --api-key YOUR_API_KEY_ID \
    --include-value

Replace YOUR_API_KEY_ID with the API Key ID from the CDK output.

Using the Deployed MCP Server

To use the deployed MCP server, you need to:

  1. Use the API Gateway URL from the CDK output
  2. Include the API key in the X-API-Key header of your requests
  3. Send POST requests to the /mcp endpoint

Example:

curl -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
    -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY_VALUE" \
    -d '{
      "jsonrpc": "2.0",
      "id": "1",
      "method": "tools/call",
      "params": {
        "name": "quip_read_spreadsheet",
        "arguments": {
          "threadId": "YOUR_THREAD_ID"
        }
      }
    }' \
    https://your-api-gateway-url/mcp

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

You can monitor your Lambda function and API Gateway using AWS CloudWatch:

  1. Lambda logs are available in CloudWatch Logs
  2. API Gateway metrics are available in CloudWatch Metrics
  3. You can set up CloudWatch Alarms for error rates and latency

Cleanup

To remove all resources created by this CDK stack:

cd infrastructure/api-gateway-lambda
npx cdk destroy

Note: This will not delete the S3 bucket contents or the Secrets Manager secret due to the retention policy. You need to delete them manually if required.

Security Considerations

  1. The API Gateway is protected with an API key
  2. Sensitive information is stored in Secrets Manager
  3. The S3 bucket is encrypted with SSE-S3
  4. The Lambda function has minimal IAM permissions

Cost Optimization

  1. The Lambda function is configured with 1024MB of memory
  2. S3 lifecycle rules delete objects after 180 days
  3. Consider using provisioned concurrency for consistent performance if needed