Qlik MCP and n8n integration problem

[paivaed_]

Hi Qlik Community,

I'm reaching out to report a technical issue encountered while integrating the Qlik MCP Server with the n8n automation platform using OAuth authentication.

Problem description:
The OAuth authentication flow completes successfully — the Qlik login page is displayed correctly and access is authorized without any errors. However, after the authentication flow is completed, the tools provided by the Qlik MCP Server are not listed in the n8n MCP Client node, making the integration unusable.

Environment and configuration:
- Platform: n8n (MCP Client Tool node)
- Authentication method: OAuth2
- Endpoint: <your tenant URL>/api/ai/mcp
- Credentials were configured following Qlik's official documentation for connecting to the MCP Server

Relevant observation:
The n8n MCP Client node requires the Client ID and Client Secret fields to be filled in when setting up an OAuth2 credential. We followed this requirement as the platform demands.

Already investigated without success:
- User permissions on the Qlik tenant
- MCP endpoint URL correctness
- Repeating the authentication flow with different accounts

We believe the issue may be related to the Client Secret being rejected by the Qlik MCP Server. This hypothesis was raised by Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant), based on the following reference from Qlik's official documentation: "Qlik MCP does not support clients with Client Secrets" (Qlik MCP FAQ — community.qlik.com). Since n8n mandates a Client Secret in its OAuth2 credential setup, there may be a structural incompatibility between the two platforms that is silently breaking the tool listing after authentication.

We are looking for guidance on how to proceed so that the Qlik MCP tools are correctly exposed to the n8n client after OAuth authentication.

We are available to provide additional information or run tests as needed.

Best regards,
Edgar Paiva
[Newral]

[Gui_Approbato]

Hi Edgar, I will send you a message. I was playing with both Qlik and N8N these days for some demos.

[paivaed_ · Accepted solution]

Hey guys, I found the solution!

The issue was a single field in the n8n OAuth2 credential setup: the **Authentication** field was set to **Header** (Send credentials as Basic Auth header), but it needs to be set to **Body** (Send credentials in body).

The Qlik MCP expects the Client ID and Client Secret to be sent in the request body during the token exchange. When set to Header, the login flow completes fine but the tools fail to load with an authorization error — which is what made it so tricky to debug.

Attaching a screenshot of the correct configuration. Hope this saves someone a few hours! 🙌

[Gui_Approbato]

Boa!