Establishing a Connection
The CData MCP Server for Twilio defines each connection to Twilio as a named configuration that Claude can use when sending natural language queries.
You create and manage these configurations using the MCP Configuration Tool. The tool automatically handles formatting, storage, and registration with Claude Desktop.
Understanding Connection Configurations
Each connection configuration is stored in a .mcp file. This file includes the details needed to initialize the connector when Claude starts a session.
- On Windows, configuration files are stored in "~/AppData/Roaming/CData/Twilio Data Provider/".
- On macOS, configuration files are stored in "~/Library/Application Support/CData/Twilio Data Provider/".
The .mcp file is a text file that contains a list of connection properties and a timestamp. For example:
#Tue May 20 15:48:40 EDT 2025 AuthScheme=Basic User=myUser Password=myPassword Security Token=myToken
The configuration tool handles these settings automatically. Each saved configuration enables Claude to launch a dedicated MCP Server instance with the correct connector and options. Manual file editing is not required.
Connecting to Twilio
You can authenticate to Twilio using either an Auth Token or an API key.Auth Token
You can authenticate to Twilio using an Auth Token and an Account SID.
Open the Twilio Console Dashboard, navigate to the Account Info section, and set these connection properties:
- AccountSID: the value of the Account SID field.
- AuthToken: the value of the Auth Token field. Click Show to unhide it.
API Key
To authenticate to Twilio using an API key:
- Open the Twilio Console Dashboard and click Account Info > API Keys > Go to API Keys. The API keys & tokens page opens.
- Click Create API key. The Create new API key menu opens.
- Set Friendly name to a name you want to use to refer to the token.
- Set Region to the region in which you want the API key to apply.
- Set Key type to your desired key type. The options include:
- Standard - Grants access to all Twilio API features except for managing API Keys, Account Configuration, and Subaccounts.
- Main - Grants access to the same features as the Standard key type, with the added ability to manage API Keys, Account Configuration, and Subaccounts.
- Restricted - Allows granular access to a subset of the Twilio API features that the standard APIKey grants. If you select this option, you must manually specify the permissions that the token grants.
- Click Create. This opens the Copy secret key page.
- Note the values of the SID and Secret fields. The latter is only shown once, so make sure you copy it before leaving this page.
- Set the following connection properties:
- AuthScheme: APIKey
- AccountSID: the value of the Account SID field in the Account Info section of the Twilio Console Dashboard.
- APIKeySID: the SID of the API key you generated earlier, which you noted in step 4.
- APIKeySecret: the API key secret of the API key you generated earlier, which you noted in step 4.