Open WebUI MCP Setup: Connect MCP Servers to Open WebUI

What it is

A popular self-hosted, extensible web UI for local and remote LLMs, with tools, pipelines, and multi-user support.

How MCP works in Open WebUI

Open WebUI connects to MCP servers through mcpo, its MCP-to-OpenAPI proxy. mcpo launches your servers and exposes them as standard REST/OpenAPI tools the UI can call.

Open WebUI does not speak MCP directly — it goes through the mcpo proxy, which wraps stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP servers as OpenAPI endpoints.

Config file location

mcpo's config.json uses a Claude-Desktop-style mcpServers object; Open WebUI then adds each proxied tool as an OpenAPI server URL.

Add your first server

A good first server is Playwright MCP — Microsoft's browser automation server. It runs locally over stdio via npx, needs no API key, and gives the agent a real browser to drive. Here is the verified Open WebUI config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Restart or reload Open WebUI after saving, then confirm the server's tools show up. Swap in any other server from the directory using the same structure.

Transports & platforms

FAQ