Building AI-driven file transfer workflows | TrueFTP

File transfer is rarely the goal — it's the connective tissue between systems. A partner drops an EDI file, something validates and translates it, results get staged, a downstream job runs. Increasingly, the "something" in the middle is an AI agent. Here are practical patterns for building those workflows on TrueFTP.

The building blocks

MCP server — the agent's hands: list, read, write, and delete files; manage FTP users.
Webhooks — the agent's trigger: file.uploaded, file.deleted, ftp_user.created fire the moment something happens.
Audit events — the agent's memory: list_events gives a reconcilable history of every operation.

Put together: webhooks wake the agent, MCP lets it act, events let it verify.

Pattern 1 — Ingest and validate

A partner uploads to /incoming. A webhook fires file.uploaded. Your handler invokes an agent:

"A new file arrived at {path}. Read it, check it's valid CSV with the expected columns, and if so move it to /validated. If not, write a short error note to /rejected/{name}.txt."

The agent uses read_file, decides, then write_file/delete_file. No rules engine to maintain — the validation logic lives in the prompt and adapts as formats drift.

Pattern 2 — Transform and stage

After validation, stage results for a downstream system:

"Take every file in /validated, convert amounts to USD, and write the normalized output to /outgoing with the same filename. Then list /outgoing to confirm."

list_files (cursor-paginated, so it scales to large folders) → read_file → transform → write_file → list_files to verify.

Pattern 3 — Provision per-partner access

Onboarding a new partner is itself a workflow:

"Create an FTP user acme-payroll with write access to their folder, then tell me the connection string."

create_ftp_user returns the credentials; the agent reports the host + slug:username format. Revoke later with delete_ftp_user.

Keeping it safe

Give agents a scoped key — read-only where they only need to observe.
Everything is logged and versioned; reconcile with list_events and roll back from S3 history if an agent misfires.
Webhooks are HMAC-signed — verify the signature before acting.
Revoke instantly by deleting the API key.

Start building

Grab an API key under Dashboard → API Keys (Hyper / Scale plans), wire up the MCP server, and let your agents drive the pipeline. See the AI agent automation use case for a fuller picture.