Deere Ops Center MCP

[!WARNING] This is alpha software. It was written largely with the help of AI coding tools and has only been tried on a few computers. It may not install or run at all on yours, especially on a version of Windows, macOS or Linux, or an AI app, that it hasn’t been tried with. Expect rough edges, and double-check anything it tells you against Operations Center before you rely on it.

Deere Ops Center MCP lets an AI assistant such as Claude read your John Deere Operations Center data: your fields and boundaries, each tillage, planting, application and harvest pass with its totals, your machines and their health, plus the products, operators, guidance lines and work plans behind them. It runs on your own computer. It can only read; it cannot change anything in Operations Center.

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What you need

1. A John Deere Operations Center account with access to at least one organization.
2. A free John Deere developer application. It gives you two codes that let the tool sign in on your behalf. Step 1 explains how.
3. A computer running Windows, macOS or Linux.
4. An AI app that supports MCP, the standard AI apps use to connect to tools like this one. Claude Desktop (the Claude app for Windows and macOS) and Claude Code (Claude’s command-line tool) both do.
5. uv, a free helper program that downloads and runs this tool. Installing it is one command, shown in each quick start. uvx is the part of uv that runs a tool.

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Step 1: Create your John Deere application

The same on every platform. You do it once.

1. Sign in at developer.deere.com with your John Deere account.

2. Open My Applications and click Create Application. Accept the API Development License Agreement when it is shown.

3. Fill in the application details. Deere asks for a real name rather than “test”, for example your farm’s name, and a one-line description such as “Reads my Operations Center data for analysis”.

4. For the Redirect URI, enter exactly:

   http://localhost:9090/callback
   

   It must match character for character. It only works on your own computer; it is how John Deere hands the sign-in back to the tool.

5. Click Next. Deere now offers to request API access. You can do it here, or later from the application’s page (My Applications, View Details, the Access tab, Request Access). In that screen, choose Precision Tech on the left, tick a category to list its APIs, expand each API below and tick only the permission named. Every one of them is a read permission; tick nothing marked Write or Delete.

   Category	API	Permission to tick
   Organization/User	Operations Center - Organizations	Organizations Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Fields	Fields Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Boundaries	Boundaries Read
   Work Results	Operations Center - Field Operations	Field Operations Read and Field Operations Export Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Equipment	Equipment Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Machine Alerts	Alerts Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Machine Engine Hours	Engine Hours Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Machine Hours Of Operation	Hours Of Operation Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Machine Locations	Location History Read
   Equipment	Operations Center - Machine Device State Reports	Device State Reports Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Work Plans	Workplans Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Operators	Operators Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Products	Products Read
   Setup/Plan	Operations Center - Guidance Lines	Guidance Lines Read

   Deere asks for a written business use case before granting Work Plans. Skip it if you do not use work plans in Operations Center; nothing else depends on it. If you want it, Deere emails you after you request it, and this answers the questions it asks:

   The application is a read-only connector that lets a grower view their own Operations Center data in an AI assistant running on their own computer. Work Plans access is read-only (Workplans Read): it lists and displays the organization’s existing work plans next to its fields and field operations, so the grower can compare what was planned with what was done. It does not create, edit, assign or execute work plans and cannot write anything to Operations Center. No plans are created through the application, by a grower or by a service provider; plans continue to be created in Operations Center as today.

   Request nothing else. The requests show as Pending on the Access tab until Deere approves them, which can take up to a day, and an approval takes a few more minutes to reach the API. You can finish Step 2 meanwhile. Once the requests show as approved, run the login command from Everyday use once more: that is when John Deere asks which of your organizations the application may see. Until then every request is refused with “403 Forbidden”.

6. Open the application’s View Details page. Its Security section shows the Application ID and the Secret. Keep both for Step 2. Treat the Secret like a password.

New applications run against John Deere’s sandbox, which uses your real organizations and data. Deere limits how long an application may stay in the sandbox (six months at the time of writing) and how much it may call; after that you ask Deere to move it to production or to grant an exception. See Deere’s getting started page for the current rules.

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Step 2: Quick start on macOS

1. Install uv. Open Terminal (press Command+Space, type Terminal, press Return). Paste this line and press Return:

   curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
   

   Close Terminal and open it again. If you use Homebrew, brew install uv also works.

2. Run setup. Paste this and press Return:

   uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp setup
   

   The first run downloads the tool. Setup then:

   • asks for your Application ID, then your Secret. Paste each and press Return. The Secret does not show as you paste it.
   • opens your browser to sign in to John Deere. Once Deere has approved the API access, John Deere also asks which of your organizations the application may see. Choose them and confirm.
   • asks Add the server to Claude Desktop? [Y/n]. Press Return for yes.
   • if Claude Code is installed, asks Also add it to Claude Code? [Y/n]. Press Return for yes, or type n and Return.

   It ends with Signed in. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop to finish. If it ends with only Signed in., it did not find Claude Desktop: see Manual configuration, then continue with step 4.

3. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Closing the window is not enough. In the menu bar choose Claude, then Quit Claude (Command+Q), and open it again.

4. Try it. Ask Claude: “List my John Deere organizations.”

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Step 2: Quick start on Windows

1. Install uv. Open PowerShell (click Start, type PowerShell, choose Windows PowerShell). Paste this line and press Enter. To paste, press Ctrl+V or right-click in the window.

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
   

   Close PowerShell and open it again. winget install --id=astral-sh.uv -e does the same if you prefer.

2. Run setup. Paste this and press Enter:

   uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp setup
   

   The first run downloads the tool. Setup then:

   • asks for your Application ID, then your Secret. Paste each and press Enter. The Secret does not show as you paste it.
   • opens your browser to sign in to John Deere. Once Deere has approved the API access, John Deere also asks which of your organizations the application may see. Choose them and confirm.
   • asks Add the server to Claude Desktop? [Y/n]. Press Enter for yes.
   • if Claude Code is installed, asks Also add it to Claude Code? [Y/n]. Press Enter for yes, or type n and Enter.

   It ends with Signed in. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop to finish. If it ends with only Signed in., it did not find Claude Desktop: see Manual configuration, then continue with step 4.

3. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Closing the window is not enough. Right-click the Claude icon at the right end of the taskbar (click the small up arrow there if it is hidden) and choose Quit. If there is no icon, the app has already quit. Open Claude Desktop again from the Start menu.

4. Try it. Ask Claude: “List my John Deere organizations.”

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Step 2: Quick start on Linux

1. Install uv. In a terminal, paste this line and press Enter:

   curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
   

   Open a new terminal afterwards.

2. Run setup. Paste this and press Enter:

   uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp setup
   

   Setup asks for your Application ID and Secret (the Secret does not show as you paste it), opens your browser to sign in to John Deere and choose your organization, and, if Claude Code is installed, asks Also add it to Claude Code? [Y/n]. If no browser opens, copy the link the terminal prints into one. It ends with Signed in.

3. Connect your AI app. If setup found Claude Desktop or you answered yes for Claude Code, that app is connected. Otherwise use the command in the next section, or give any other MCP app the command uvx with the arguments --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp.

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Using it with Claude Code (any platform)

setup offers to add the server to Claude Code when it finds it. On Windows that includes the Code tab in Claude Desktop, which runs its own copy of Claude Code and needs the server added there as well as to Claude Desktop. If you skipped that question, or installed Claude Code later, run this once in a terminal:

claude mcp add --scope user deere -- uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp

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Installing with Claude

If you use the Code tab in Claude Desktop, paste this repository’s address into it and ask Claude to install the server. Claude does everything except type your two codes.

1. Claude installs uv. You approve one command.

2. Claude opens the Terminal panel (a command window inside Claude Desktop) and starts setup there with --yes, which answers the two “add” questions for you:

   uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp setup --yes
   

3. You type the Application ID and Secret into that panel (the Secret is hidden), sign in to John Deere in the browser that opens, and choose your organization.

4. Claude checks the result with deere-mcp config and asks you to quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Then start a new Code session: the one that ran the install does not get the new tools.

Rules for Claude, or for anyone helping you:

• Never ask for the Secret in chat, and never put it on a command line or in a settings file. It belongs only in the hidden prompt.
• Run setup and login only in the Terminal panel, where a person can type. They wait for input and open a browser, so they cannot run as background commands.

Without a Terminal panel, follow the quick start for your platform.

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Everyday use

Signing in again. The sign-in renews itself. If the assistant says the session expired, or you want to switch to a different John Deere account:

uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp login

John Deere asks for your user name and password every time, so you can sign in as someone else. If the terminal then says an organization is “Not connected” and you expected it to be, open connections.deere.com to change that, then run the command again. If that page shows someone else’s organizations, sign out there first. The command lists which of your organizations are connected when it finishes.

Signing out. Removes the saved sign-in from your computer and cancels it at John Deere:

uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp logout

Updating. Add --refresh once:

uvx --refresh --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp login

If you reinstall or move uv. The Claude Desktop entry holds the full location of uvx. When that changes, Claude Desktop reports that the server could not start. Rewrite the entry without signing in again:

uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp connect

It asks the same questions as setup and prints one line per app: created, updated (with the name of the backup it saved first), unchanged, or skipped. A message ending in Run "deere-mcp connect" to try again. means the sign-in worked but the settings file was not changed; fix what it describes and run the command above.

Where your sign-in is kept. In a folder only your user account can read:

It holds your Application ID, Secret and sign-in tokens. Do not copy or share it. To see the exact locations, whether the Claude Desktop entry is present, and whether Claude Code was found:

uvx --from https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip deere-mcp config

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Settings you can change (optional)

Everything works without these. Set them as environment variables, or in the config.toml file in the folder above. An environment variable wins if both are set.

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What it can and cannot do

It can read:

• Organizations, clients, farms and fields, including field boundaries
• Field operations: tillage, planting, applications and harvests, with dates, products, rates, varieties, crop and measurement totals such as area, seeding rate and yield
• Equipment, with machine alerts, engine hours, hours of operation, location history and terminal status
• Work plans, operators, products and guidance lines
• One map image per measurement of an operation

It cannot:

• Create, edit or delete anything. The sign-in asks John Deere for read permissions only.
• Show seasons from before your farm started using Operations Center.
• Hand the assistant point-by-point yield maps. Those are large files; the tool can download them to your output folder for other software.

The permissions it asks John Deere for: view fields and production data, view equipment, view operators, view work plans, and stay signed in between uses.

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Troubleshooting

“redirect_uri mismatch” or “invalid redirect” during sign-in. The Redirect URI in your John Deere application is not exactly http://localhost:9090/callback. Fix it there and sign in again.

“403 Forbidden” on everything, including listing organizations. The application has not been granted the API access yet, most often Organizations Read: see step 5 of Step 1. Approved requests can take a while to take effect. One kind of data is refused. That API is missing from the application’s approved list. The organization list works but data for an organization is refused. The application is not connected to that organization yet. Sign in again and complete the organization page John Deere shows, or connect it at connections.deere.com.

Claude Desktop says the server could not start. Run connect (see “If you reinstall or move uv” above).

“command not found: uvx” on macOS or Linux, or “The term ‘uvx’ is not recognized” on Windows. Either uv is not installed yet, or the terminal was opened before it was installed. Run the install line from step 1 of the quick start if you have not, then close the terminal and open a new one. If you are using a terminal inside another app, such as Claude, quit that whole app and open it again; a new tab inside it does not see the change. On macOS or Linux, if a new terminal still does not find it, run the line for your system once, then open a new terminal. On macOS:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

On Linux (most use bash):

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

No browser opened during sign-in. Copy the link printed in the terminal into any browser.

“Session expired.” Sign in again.

“List was cut short.” The result had more pages than the page cap allows. Ask for less (one season, a shorter date range) or raise DEERE_PAGE_CAP.

Machine alerts or locations fail with a date error. John Deere allows at most 7 days of alerts and 1 month of location history per request. Ask for a shorter window.

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Manual configuration

Only needed if setup did not find Claude Desktop (it never asked Add the server to Claude Desktop? [Y/n] and ended with just Signed in.). These steps add the entry to Claude Desktop’s settings file, claude_desktop_config.json, by hand. The file is JSON, where every quote, comma and bracket matters; copy the example exactly and change only the location from step 1.

On macOS

1. Find where uvx is. Claude Desktop needs the full location. In Terminal:

   which uvx
   

   It prints something like /Users/yourname/.local/bin/uvx.

2. Edit the settings file. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Make the file look like this, with the location from step 1:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "deere": {
         "command": "/Users/yourname/.local/bin/uvx",
         "args": ["--from", "https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip", "deere-mcp"]
       }
     }
   }
   

   If the file already has an mcpServers section, add only the "deere" entry inside it, with a comma between entries. Save.

3. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop, as in step 3 of the macOS quick start, then continue with step 4 there.

On Windows

1. Find where uvx is. Claude Desktop needs the full location. In PowerShell:

   where.exe uvx
   

   It prints something like C:\Users\yourname\.local\bin\uvx.exe.

2. Edit the settings file. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Make the file look like this, with the location from step 1. Every backslash is written twice:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "deere": {
         "command": "C:\\Users\\yourname\\.local\\bin\\uvx.exe",
         "args": ["--from", "https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip", "deere-mcp"],
         "env": { "PYTHONUTF8": "1" }
       }
     }
   }
   

   Keep the "env" line; it makes the tool send text to Claude Desktop as UTF-8. If the file already has an mcpServers section, add only the "deere" entry inside it, with a comma between entries. Save.

3. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop, as in step 3 of the Windows quick start, then continue with step 4 there.

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Privacy

Your data moves between your computer and John Deere only. There is no third-party server. The AI app you connect sees what the tools return. Only error messages are logged; sign-in tokens never are. During use, the tools write only the files you ask for, in your output folder; setup writes its own settings and tokens in the folder shown by deere-mcp config.

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For developers

git clone https://github.com/vanantwerp/deere-ops-center-mcp
cd deere-ops-center-mcp
uv sync
uv run pytest
uv run deere-mcp setup --source .

--source . makes Claude Desktop run your checkout instead of the published version; edits take effect the next time Claude Desktop starts the server. The tests use a fake John Deere, so they need no account. Before a pull request, run uv run ruff check ., uv run ruff format --check . and uv run pytest -q, the same checks CI runs.

Rules that keep the tool safe:

• Tools only read from John Deere. The sign-in asks for read permissions and that stays true. The three file tools write only inside the output folder and carry the WRITES_FILES annotation, so AI apps know to ask before running them; every other tool is READ_ONLY.
• No real Application IDs, Secrets, tokens or farm data anywhere in the repository. Use made-up values.
• No print() under src/ except in cli.py; the server talks to the AI app over standard output.
• Never log tokens, secrets, or request or response bodies.

To add a tool, copy a small one such as src/deere_mcp/tools/operators.py. Its docstring is the description the assistant reads, so say what it returns, where its IDs come from, and any limit John Deere sets. Build addresses with client.url(...), return a dict, raise ToolError for anything the assistant should read as a failure, and write files only through resolve_output_path. Add a test with the mcp_client fixture and note the change in CHANGELOG.md.

Found a security problem? Report it privately through the repository’s Security tab on GitHub, not in a public issue, and leave real codes and tokens out of the report.

Acknowledgements

Inspired by john-deere-ops-mcp by Corey Fransen, a John Deere MCP server for Cloudflare Workers, which served as a reference for the Operations Center endpoints and parameters. This project is an independent rewrite in Python and shares no code with it.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.