Best MCP Servers for Content Creators in 2026

Content creation is a pipeline -- research, outline, draft, edit, fact-check, publish -- and each stage usually means a different tool. MCP servers connect your AI assistant to the tools you already use so you can move through the entire pipeline without leaving your editor. Here are five servers that cover the content creation workflow from research to publication.

graph LR
    A[Your Editor] --> B[AI Assistant]
    B --> C[Exa MCP]
    B --> D[Brave Search MCP]
    B --> E[Notion MCP]
    B --> F[Todoist MCP]
    B --> G[Filesystem MCP]
    C --> H[Research Sources]
    D --> H
    E --> I[Notion Workspace]
    F --> J[Task Manager]
    G --> K[Local Files]

Notion MCP -- Your Writing and Publishing Hub

Author: Notion | Tools: 10 | Requires: Notion API key

Ten tools for Notion interaction: reading pages, querying databases, creating new pages, updating blocks, and searching across your workspace. The database capability is particularly powerful for editorial workflows with fields like status, publish date, and topic.

Why use it

• Pull key points from research notes directly into your draft without switching apps
• Create editorial calendar entries with title, tags, publish date, and status in one step
• Search your workspace for existing content before starting a new article to avoid duplication
• Query your content database to find drafts that are ready for review or articles that are overdue

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notion": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "notion-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_API_KEY": "ntn_your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Create an internal integration in Notion settings and share the relevant pages and databases with it.

Exa Search MCP -- AI-Powered Research That Finds Real Sources

Author: Exa | Tools: 3 | Requires: Exa API key

Three tools: semantic web search, content extraction from any URL, and similarity search that finds pages related to a given URL. Unlike keyword-based search, Exa understands what you are looking for conceptually, returning authoritative sources instead of SEO-optimized fluff. For a deeper comparison of search servers, see Brave Search vs Exa vs Tavily.

Why use it

• Find in-depth articles, case studies, and expert opinions on any topic with semantic search
• Extract full text from a source and get a summary with the URL attached for attribution
• Discover related articles by feeding a reference URL into the similarity search
• Get results from research labs and technical blogs instead of generic listicles

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "exa-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-exa-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your API key from exa.ai.

Todoist MCP -- Editorial Workflow and Deadline Tracking

Author: Community | Tools: 8 | Requires: Todoist API token

Eight tools for Todoist: creating tasks, listing tasks by project or filter, completing tasks, updating task details, and managing projects and labels. Your assistant can read your current task list, create new tasks with due dates and priorities, and mark items complete as you finish them.

Why use it

• Create tasks for an entire month of articles with correct due dates and subtasks in one command
• Check what is due this week, what is overdue, and what is coming up at the start of each session
• Mark subtasks complete as you move through research, drafting, editing, and publishing stages
• Keep your task manager in sync with your actual progress without manual updates

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "todoist": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "todoist-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TODOIST_API_TOKEN": "your-todoist-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Find your API token in Todoist under Settings > Integrations > Developer.

Filesystem MCP -- Managing Local Content and Assets

Author: Anthropic | Tools: 11 | Setup: Zero-config

Eleven tools for file operations: reading, writing, listing directories, searching within files, creating files, moving, and copying. Access is scoped to directories you specify. If you want to learn more about getting the most from this server, check out the Filesystem MCP guide.

Why use it

• Read existing blog posts and search across all of them for internal linking opportunities
• Create new Markdown files with correct frontmatter matching your site's conventions
• Organize assets by listing image directories and checking which files are referenced in posts
• Consolidate research notes from multiple local files into a structured outline

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/path/to/your/content"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace the path with your content directory. No API keys needed.

Brave Search MCP -- Fact-Checking and Current Information

Author: Anthropic | Tools: 2 | Requires: Brave Search API key

Two tools: web search and local search. The web search returns results from the Brave Search index with titles, snippets, and URLs. For content creation, the web search gives your assistant real-time access to current information beyond its knowledge cutoff. Brave Search complements Exa well -- Exa excels at finding in-depth articles while Brave is better for quick factual queries. See the full comparison for details.

Why use it

• Verify statistics and claims against current sources before publishing
• Find up-to-date figures for market data, pricing, and recent events
• Catch factual errors by searching key claims in your article before it goes live
• Source current data with URLs for proper attribution

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-brave-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your API key from brave.com/search/api. The free tier provides 2,000 queries per month.

For a pre-configured setup, grab the Content Creator Stack and paste the config into your AI client. If you are looking to keep token usage lean across your stack, see how to cut MCP token costs.