TREK/wiki/MCP-Scopes.md

# MCP Scopes

OAuth scopes control exactly which data your AI client can read or write in TREK. You select scopes during the OAuth consent screen or when pre-creating an OAuth client. You can revoke access at any time by deleting the OAuth client or token, or revoking the session, under **Settings → Integrations → MCP Configuration**.

![OAuth consent screen](assets/OAuthConsentDCR.png)

![The same consent screen on a phone: Approve (33 scopes) above the permission list with the Places and Collections groups, and further down Settings, Plugins with Run plugin tools left unticked and the tools that are always included](assets/OAuthConsentDCRPhone.png)

## All scopes

TREK defines 35 scopes across 17 groups.

| Group | Scope | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| **Trips** | `trips:read` | View trips, days, day notes, and members |
| | `trips:write` | Create and update trips; create, update, and delete days, day notes, and accommodations; manage members; duplicate trips |
| | `trips:delete` | Permanently delete entire trips (irreversible) |
| | `trips:share` | Create, update, and revoke public share links for trips |
| **Places** | `places:read` | Read places, day assignments, tags, and categories |
| | `places:write` | Create, update, and delete places, assignments, and tags |
| **Collections** | `collections:read` | Read saved-place collections, their places, ratings, labels, and members |
| | `collections:write` | Create and edit collections, save, rate, label and copy places, and share lists |
| **Atlas** | `atlas:read` | Read visited countries, regions, and bucket list |
| | `atlas:write` | Mark countries and regions visited, manage bucket list |
| **Packing** | `packing:read` | Read packing items, bags, and category assignees |
| | `packing:write` | Add, update, delete, toggle, and reorder packing items and bags |
| **To-dos** | `todos:read` | Read trip to-do items and category assignees |
| | `todos:write` | Create, update, toggle, delete, and reorder to-do items |
| **Budget** | `budget:read` | Read budget items and expense breakdown |
| | `budget:write` | Create, update, and delete budget items |
| **Reservations** | `reservations:read` | Read reservations and accommodation details |
| | `reservations:write` | Create, update, delete, and reorder reservations |
| **Collaboration** | `collab:read` | Read collab notes, polls, and messages |
| | `collab:write` | Create, update, and delete collab notes, polls, and messages |
| **Notifications** | `notifications:read` | Read in-app notifications and unread counts |
| | `notifications:write` | Mark notifications as read or unread (individually or all at once) |
| **Vacation** | `vacay:read` | Read vacation planning data, entries, and stats |
| | `vacay:write` | Create and manage vacation entries, holidays, and team plans |
| **Geo** | `geo:read` | Search locations and public transit routes, resolve map URLs, and reverse-geocode coordinates |
| **Weather** | `weather:read` | Fetch weather forecasts for trip locations and dates |
| **Journey** | `journey:read` | Read journeys, entries, and contributor list |
| | `journey:write` | Create, update, and delete journeys and their entries |
| | `journey:share` | Create, update, and revoke public share links for journeys |
| **Files** | `files:read` | List the documents on a trip: names, sizes, who uploaded them, what they link to |
| | `files:write` | Rename and describe files, link them to bookings and places, star and trash them. Also needed to upload a document with `upload_trip_file`, which additionally checks the trip's file upload permission |
| | `files:content` | Read what is inside an uploaded document, such as a booking PDF or a ticket |
| **Settings** | `settings:read` | Read units, time format, language, default currency, and start page |
| | `settings:write` | Change units, time format, language, default currency, and start page |
| **Plugins** | `plugins:use` | Call tools published by plugins an administrator installed and approved |

## Scope rules

- A `:write` scope implies `:read` access for the same group (e.g. `budget:write` also grants read access to budget data).
- Any `trips:*` scope (`trips:read`, `trips:write`, `trips:delete`, or `trips:share`) grants trip read access.
- `journey:read` or `journey:write` grants journey read access. `journey:share` alone does **not** grant read access, it only enables managing public share links.
- `files:content` is a **separate** scope from `files:read` and is not implied by `files:write`. A token can list a trip's documents without being allowed to read what is inside them. Content reads are capped at 10 MB per file.
- `settings:write` never reaches a stored credential. The API keys, tokens and webhook URLs kept in settings are refused by the same allow-list the REST route uses, so an assistant can switch you to Fahrenheit but cannot read or replace your Mapbox key.
- `list_trips` and `get_trip_summary` are always available regardless of scope — they are navigation tools.
- `plugins:use` grants no data access of its own. It lets a client call tools published by plugins your administrator installed and approved, and each plugin acts with the permissions the administrator granted it — which can reach further than the scopes on your token. The admin's `mcp:tools` grant is the real boundary, not this scope. No client preset selects it for you: a client has to ask for it by name.
- Static tokens and web session JWTs have full access equivalent to all scopes, `plugins:use` included.
- Addon-gated tools (Packing, To-dos, Budget, Collections, Atlas, Collab, Vacay, Journey, Tours, Road trip, Dawarich, Document sync and AirTrail) require both the relevant scope **and** the corresponding addon to be enabled by an admin. The to-do tools ride the **Packing** addon (listed as **Lists** under **Admin → Addons**), not an addon of their own. The Tours tools sit on `trips:*` (and on `collections:*` for tours kept in a collection), the Road trip tools on `trips:*` and `places:write`, the Dawarich tools on `journey:*`, `places:write` and `atlas:write`, the Document sync tools on `files:*` under the **Documents** addon, and the AirTrail tools on `reservations:*`; without the addon, a client holding those scopes does not see them.

## Choosing the right scopes

Grant only what you need. Some examples:

| Use case | Minimum scopes |
|---|---|
| Read-only AI assistant | All `:read` scopes relevant to your data |
| Full trip planner | All scopes except `trips:delete` (use the Claude.ai or Claude Desktop preset) |
| Budget review only | `trips:read` + `budget:read` |
| Packing list assistant | `trips:read` + `packing:read` + `packing:write` |
| Journey writer | `trips:read` + `journey:read` + `journey:write` |

The preset buttons in your **Settings → Integrations → MCP Configuration → OAuth 2.1 Clients** fill in a reasonable scope set for common clients. VS Code defaults to read-only scopes; Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and Zed default to all scopes except `trips:delete`. No preset includes `plugins:use`.

## Related

- [MCP-Setup](MCP-Setup)
- [MCP-Tools-and-Resources](MCP-Tools-and-Resources)