Box Community Edition

Community-maintained Box MCP server with full CRUD capabilities for file uploads, deletions, moves, copies, shared links, and collaboration management.

Overview

The Box Community Edition server provides full file management capabilities for your Box account. Unlike the official Box server (read-only + AI), this community-maintained server enables AI assistants to upload, delete, move, copy files, manage shared links, and view collaborations.

When to use which server:

• Box (Official): Read files, search, and use Box AI for document Q&A and metadata extraction
• Box Community Edition: Full file/folder management with create, update, and delete operations

How to Add Box Community Edition

1. Create Box Account

   1. Go to https://account.box.com/
   2. Sign up for a free Box account or use your existing account
2. Connect to Civic

   1. Add the Box Community Edition server to your Civic environment through the server directory
   2. Authorize Box when prompted using OAuth
3. Test Connection

   Start with a simple command like “List files in my Box” or “Show my Box account info” to verify the connection works properly.

What You Can Do

File Management

Upload, download, copy, move, rename, and delete files in your Box account

Folder Operations

Create, delete, copy, move, and rename folders with recursive listing support

Shared Links

Create, update, and remove shared links for files and folders with access controls

Box AI

Ask questions about single or multiple files using Box AI

Available Tools (30)

User & Authentication

box_who_am_i

Get information about the currently authenticated user

• Input: None
• Use Cases: Verify authentication, get user details

Box AI

box_ai_ask_file_single_tool

Ask a question about a single file’s content using Box AI

• Input:
  • file_id - The ID of the file to query
  • prompt - The question to ask about the file
• Use Cases: Get insights from documents, ask questions about file content

box_ai_ask_file_multi_tool

Ask a question across multiple files using Box AI

• Input:
  • file_ids - Array of file IDs to query
  • prompt - The question to ask about the files
• Use Cases: Get insights across multiple documents, compare information

box_ai_ask_hub_tool

Ask a question using Box AI Hub

• Input: prompt - The question to ask
• Use Cases: Query collections of content, Hub-specific insights

Search

box_search_tool

Search for files and folders in Box

• Input: query - Search query string
• Use Cases: Find files by name or content

box_search_folder_by_name_tool

Search for a folder by name in Box

• Input: folder_name - Name of the folder to search for
• Use Cases: Locate specific folders

File Operations

box_file_info_tool

Retrieve information about a specific file

• Input: file_id - ID of the file
• Use Cases: Get file metadata, check file details

box_file_download_tool

Download a file from Box

• Input: file_id - ID of the file to download
• Use Cases: Retrieve file content for processing

box_file_upload_tool

Upload a file to Box

• Input:
  • file_content - Content of the file to upload
  • file_name - Name for the uploaded file
  • parent_folder_id (optional) - ID of the parent folder (default: “0” for root)
• Use Cases: Store new files, backup content

box_file_copy_tool

Copy a file to a new location

• Input:
  • file_id - ID of the file to copy
  • destination_parent_folder_id - ID of the destination folder
  • name (optional) - New name for the copied file
• Use Cases: Duplicate files, create backups

box_file_move_tool

Move a file to a new location

• Input:
  • file_id - ID of the file to move
  • destination_parent_folder_id - ID of the destination folder
• Use Cases: Organize files, relocate documents

box_file_delete_tool

Delete a file from Box

• Input: file_id - ID of the file to delete
• Use Cases: Remove unwanted files

box_file_rename_tool

Rename a file in Box

• Input:
  • file_id - ID of the file to rename
  • new_name - New name for the file
• Use Cases: Update file names, fix naming conventions

box_file_text_extract_tool

Extract text content from a file

• Input: file_id - ID of the file to extract text from
• Use Cases: Get text from PDFs, documents for analysis

Folder Operations

box_folder_items_list_tool

List items in a folder with optional recursive traversal

• Input:
  • folder_id - ID of the folder to list items from
  • is_recursive (optional) - Whether to recursively list subfolder contents
  • limit (optional) - Maximum items per API call (default: 1000)
• Use Cases: Browse folder contents, explore structure

box_folder_info_tool

Retrieve information about a specific folder

• Input: folder_id - ID of the folder
• Use Cases: Get folder metadata, check folder details

box_folder_create_tool

Create a new folder

• Input:
  • name - Name of the new folder
  • parent_folder_id (optional) - ID of the parent folder (default: “0” for root)
• Use Cases: Organize content, create project folders

box_folder_delete_tool

Delete a folder from Box

• Input:
  • folder_id - ID of the folder to delete
  • recursive (optional) - Whether to delete recursively (default: false)
• Use Cases: Remove empty folders, clean up structure

box_folder_copy_tool

Copy a folder to a new location

• Input:
  • folder_id - ID of the folder to copy
  • destination_parent_folder_id - ID of the destination folder
  • name (optional) - New name for the copied folder
• Use Cases: Duplicate folder structures, create templates

box_folder_move_tool

Move a folder to a new location

• Input:
  • folder_id - ID of the folder to move
  • destination_parent_folder_id - ID of the destination folder
• Use Cases: Reorganize folder structure

box_folder_rename_tool

Rename a folder

• Input:
  • folder_id - ID of the folder to rename
  • new_name - New name for the folder
• Use Cases: Update folder names

Shared Links

box_shared_link_file_create_or_update_tool

Create or update a shared link for a file

• Input:
  • file_id - ID of the file
  • access (optional) - Access level: ‘open’, ‘company’, or ‘collaborators’
  • can_download (optional) - Whether the file can be downloaded
  • can_preview (optional) - Whether the file can be previewed
  • can_edit (optional) - Whether the file can be edited
  • password (optional) - Password to protect the shared link
  • unshared_at (optional) - Expiration date (ISO 8601 format)
• Use Cases: Share files externally, create time-limited access

box_shared_link_folder_create_or_update_tool

Create or update a shared link for a folder

• Input: Same as file shared link tool, but with folder_id
• Use Cases: Share folders with teams, create project access links

box_shared_link_file_remove_tool

Remove a shared link from a file (unshare)

• Input: file_id - ID of the file to unshare
• Use Cases: Revoke file access

box_shared_link_folder_remove_tool

Remove a shared link from a folder (unshare)

• Input: folder_id - ID of the folder to unshare
• Use Cases: Revoke folder access

Collaborations

box_collaboration_list_by_folder_tool

List all collaborations on a folder

• Input: folder_id - ID of the folder
• Use Cases: See who has access to a folder

box_collaboration_list_by_file_tool

List all collaborations on a file

• Input: file_id - ID of the file
• Use Cases: See who has access to a file

Users & Groups

box_users_list_tool

List users in the Box enterprise

• Input: None
• Use Cases: Get enterprise user list

box_users_search_by_name_or_email_tool

Search for users by name or email

• Input: query - Name or email to search for
• Use Cases: Find specific users

box_groups_search_tool

Search for groups in Box

• Input: query - Search query for groups
• Use Cases: Find enterprise groups

Use Cases

File Management

• Upload Documents: “Upload this report to the Q4 Reports folder”
• Organize Files: “Move all PDFs from Downloads to the Archive folder”
• Clean Up: “Delete the old draft files in the Temp folder”
• Duplicate Files: “Copy the template to a new project folder”

Folder Organization

• Create Structure: “Create a new folder called ‘Q1 2025’ in Projects”
• Browse Content: “List all files in the Contracts folder recursively”
• Reorganize: “Move the Archive folder into Completed Projects”

Sharing & Collaboration

• Share Files: “Create a shared link for this document that expires in 7 days”
• Secure Sharing: “Generate a password-protected link for the folder”
• Check Access: “Who has access to the Finance folder?”
• Revoke Access: “Remove the shared link from the old report”

Box AI Queries

• Document Q&A: “What are the key terms in this contract?”
• Multi-file Analysis: “Summarize the main points across these three reports”
• Extract Information: “What is the total amount in this invoice?”

Security Guardrails

The Box Community Edition server has built-in security constraints to prevent accidental or malicious operations:

Default Security Restrictions:

• Public shared links (‘open’ access) are blocked - use ‘company’ or ‘collaborators’ instead
• Recursive folder deletion is disabled to prevent accidental data loss
• Uploading to the root folder is blocked - specify a parent folder
• Malicious file types (.exe, .dll, .bat, etc.) cannot be uploaded or downloaded

Known Limitations

• Root folder ID: Use "0" to reference the root folder
• Folder IDs required: Most operations require folder/file IDs - use search tools to find them first
• Box AI subscription: AI features require Box AI to be enabled on your account
• Enterprise features: Some features like user listing may require Box Enterprise

Pro Tip: Use search tools first to find file and folder IDs, then use those IDs for management operations.

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Guardrails

In addition to the 14 universal guardrails, this server has 10 server-specific guardrails across 6 operations.

Guardrail	Operation	Timing	Description
Block Malicious File Downloads	box_file_download_tool	Response	Blocks downloading files with potentially malicious extensions
Block Malicious File Upload Extensions	box_file_upload_tool	Request	Blocks uploading files with potentially malicious extensions
Block Root Directory Upload	box_file_upload_tool	Request	Prevents uploading files directly to the root directory
Block Root Folder Creation	box_folder_create_tool	Request	Prevents creating folders directly in the root directory
Block Recursive Folder Deletion	box_folder_delete_tool	Request	Prevents recursive folder deletion which could cause data loss
Block Public Shared Links	box_shared_link_file_create_or_update_tool	Request	Prevents creating shared links with ‘open’ (public) access
Require Expiration on Shared Links	box_shared_link_file_create_or_update_tool	Request	Requires an expiration date to be set on all shared links
Require Password on Shared Links	box_shared_link_file_create_or_update_tool	Request	Requires a password to be set on all shared links
Block Public Folder Shared Links	box_shared_link_folder_create_or_update_tool	Request	Prevents creating folder shared links with ‘open’ (public) access
Block Enterprise User Listing	box_users_list_tool	Request	Blocks listing all users in the Box enterprise

Configure guardrails via the Civic UI or ask the Configurator Agent: “Add guardrails to my Box Community Edition server.”