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Smartsheet MCP server tools

Important: This feature is only available to Claude with Smartsheet Early Adopter Program (EAP) members. For membership enrollment details, refer to Become a Smartsheet early adopter.

The Smartsheet Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides a way to leverage Smartsheet’s public API via AI clients, allowing you to interact with your data using natural language.

The MCP server's underlying tools (operations) interact with your Smartsheet data (with your permission) to respond to your prompts. Here are a couple of examples:

  • Prompt: Summarize what changed in the Marketing Campaign sheet since Monday.

    Tools: get_sheet_summary - Filters on rows where Modified Date > Monday

    Returns: (An instant change log)

  • Prompt: What's our biggest bottleneck right now? Look at what's blocking the most items across my sheets.

    Tools: search & get_sheet_summary (multiple times) - AI identifies patterns in blocker columns

    Returns: (Root cause identification across portfolio)

Here is a tool overview and guidance on getting tool details.

See also

Smartsheet integration with Claude introduces the connector and its capabilities, and provides instructions on getting started using the connector.

Tool overview

The following sections describe some key tools available via the Smartsheet Connector.

List all the tools

To view the most current list of available tools, ask Claude.

Prompt: List the Smartsheet Connector MCP server tools.

Note

The tools are subject to Smartsheet API rate limiting and standard limitations.

Discovery & navigation

  • search - Search across all accessible Smartsheet assets (sheets, reports, dashboards, folders, workspaces).

  • list_workspaces - Retrieve a list of workspaces with pagination support.

  • browse_workspace - Browse all children (folders, sheets, reports, dashboards) within a workspace.

  • browse_folder - Browse all children (nested folders, sheets, reports, dashboards) within a folder.

Data retrieval

  • get_sheet_summary - Retrieve sheet data with multi-column filtering, sorting, and column selection. Use this tool to view, analyze, or work with Smartsheet data.

    • Best for targeted queries: Apply filters and column selection to get exactly what you need
    • Filters use AND logic only (OR isn't supported)
    • Large sheets: Responses are sampled to ~8,000 tokens when sheets exceed this size
    Tip

    Call get_columns FIRST when using filters, sorting, or columns parameters.

    Why? Column names are case-sensitive, and get_columns gives you the exact names, types (TEXT_NUMBER, DATE, PICKLIST, and more), and available options.

    Just exploring? Call get_sheet_summary directly without filters - it returns available_columns you can use for follow-up queries.

    Note

    Tokens are the basic units that AI language models use to process text. They're chunks of text that can be individual words, parts of words, or even punctuation marks. Both your input and the AI's responses are measured in tokens. This matters because:

    • Models have maximum token limits (context windows)
    • Processing speed decreases with increasing token count

  • get_sheet_version - Get the current version number of a sheet for change detection

  • get_columns - Retrieve detailed column metadata from a sheet.

  • get_cell_history - Retrieve complete modification history for a specific cell

Sheet creation

  • create_sheet_in_workspace - Create a sheet within a workspace.
  • create_sheet_in_folder - Create a blank sheet within a folder.
  • create_sheet_in_folder_from_template - Create a sheet from a template within a folder.

Row operations

  • add_rows - Add one or more new rows to a sheet.

  • update_rows - Update one or more rows in a sheet. (⚠️ destructive)

  • delete_rows - Delete one or more rows from a sheet. (⚠️ destructive, irreversible)

    Maximum 10 rows - For safety, you can delete up to 10 rows.

Column operations

  • add_columns - Add one or more new columns to a sheet.
  • update_column - Update an existing column's properties. (⚠️ destructive)
  • delete_column - Delete a column from a sheet. (⚠️ destructive, irreversible)

Discussion & Comment Operations

  • list_sheet_discussions - Retrieve all discussions from a sheet.
  • list_row_discussions - Retrieve discussions for a specific row.
  • get_discussion - Retrieve a single discussion by ID.
  • create_discussion_on_sheet - Create a new discussion at the sheet level.
  • create_discussion_on_row - Create a new discussion on a specific row.
  • add_comment - Add a comment to an existing discussion.
  • update_comment - Update the text of an existing comment. (⚠️ destructive)

Workspace & Folder Operations

  • list_workspaces - Retrieve a list of workspaces
  • create_workspace - Create a new workspace
  • browse_workspace - Browse all children within a workspace
  • browse_folder - Browse all children within a folder
  • create_folder_in_workspace - Create a folder in a workspace
  • create_folder_in_folder - Create a nested folder within a folder

Connector and tool details

The Smartsheet MCP server is fully self-describing, providing built-in tool definitions, detailed parameter schemas, and pre-defined prompt templates. These integrated resources streamline the interaction process, ensuring AI clients can accurately interpret and execute commands with minimal configuration.

Chatting with Claude is the easiest way to learn about the MCP server and get tool details. Here are some example prompts.

Learn the connector's capabilities: Claude, what can I do with the Smartsheet connector?

List underlying tools: List the Smartsheet connector tools

Get a detailed description: Describe get_sheet_summary

Get examples: Give me examples of using create_sheet_in_workspace

Discover underlying endpoints: Which API endpoints does add_rows use?

Now that you have the big picture on the tools and know how to get their details, you're ready to operate on project data.

Related content

Smartsheet integration with Claude

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