devops-mcp

Unified MCP server for DevOps engineers — query and manage Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Prometheus, and PagerDuty from any MCP-compatible AI agent.

What is this?

devops-mcp is an open source Model Context Protocol server that gives AI agents (Claude, etc.) real-time read and write access to your infrastructure stack — all from a single install.

Instead of copy-pasting kubectl output into a chat window, you can ask:

"Why is the payments deployment in CrashLoopBackOff?" "What changed in the last ArgoCD sync for the auth app?" "Show me the p99 latency for the API gateway over the last hour." "Who's on call right now and what incidents are open?"

...and get live answers, sourced directly from your cluster and tooling.

Providers included:

Quick start

Claude Desktop (stdio — recommended)

Add this to ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "devops": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "devops-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "KUBECONFIG": "/home/you/.kube/config",
        "ARGOCD_SERVER": "https://argocd.company.com",
        "ARGOCD_TOKEN": "your-argocd-token",
        "PROMETHEUS_URL": "http://prometheus.monitoring:9090",
        "PAGERDUTY_TOKEN": "your-pd-api-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The devops server will appear in the tools list.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add devops-mcp -e KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config \
  -e ARGOCD_SERVER=https://argocd.company.com \
  -e ARGOCD_TOKEN=... \
  -e PROMETHEUS_URL=http://prometheus:9090 \
  -e PAGERDUTY_TOKEN=...

Local dev / test

npx devops-mcp
# or clone and run:
git clone https://github.com/your-handle/devops-mcp
cd devops-mcp
npm install
cp .env.example .env   # fill in your values
npm run dev

Configuration

All config is via environment variables. Only set the ones for providers you actually use — providers with missing config are silently skipped.

# ── Kubernetes ────────────────────────────────────────────────
KUBECONFIG=/home/user/.kube/config       # omit to use in-cluster service account
K8S_CONTEXT=my-prod-context              # optional: pin a specific context
K8S_ALLOWED_NAMESPACES=default,backend   # optional: restrict namespace access

# ── ArgoCD ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
ARGOCD_SERVER=https://argocd.company.com
ARGOCD_TOKEN=eyJhbGci...                 # argocd account generate-token

# ── Prometheus ───────────────────────────────────────────────
PROMETHEUS_URL=http://prometheus:9090
PROMETHEUS_BEARER_TOKEN=                 # optional: for authenticated Prometheus

# ── PagerDuty ────────────────────────────────────────────────
PAGERDUTY_TOKEN=your-api-v2-token

# ── Transport ────────────────────────────────────────────────
# For stdio mode (default): no transport config needed
# For SSE mode: set these env vars
PORT=3000                                # SSE mode only
MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=shared-secret            # Bearer token for SSE authentication

# ── Safety ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
DEVOPS_MCP_DRY_RUN=false                # true = block all mutations globally
DEVOPS_MCP_AUDIT_LOG=/var/log/devops-mcp-audit.jsonl

Tool reference

All tools follow a three-tier safety model:

• Read — safe, no side effects, no confirmation needed
• Mutate — defaults to dry_run: true; set dry_run: false to execute
• Destructive — requires confirm: true as an explicit parameter

Kubernetes (k8s__*)

ArgoCD (argo__*)

Prometheus (prom__*)

PagerDuty (pd__*)

Deployment options

stdio (recommended for local use)

The MCP host launches devops-mcp as a subprocess and communicates over stdin/stdout. Zero network config. Auth comes from the local environment (kubeconfig, env vars). Process lifecycle tied to Claude Desktop.

npx @notharshhaa/devops-mcp
# or with env vars
KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config npx @notharshhaa/devops-mcp

SSE / HTTP (for shared teams)

Server runs as a persistent HTTP service. Claude connects over Server-Sent Events. Enables multiple users sharing one server. Needs TLS + a bearer token or mTLS in front. Deploy via Docker on an internal bastion.

npx @notharshhaa/devops-mcp-sse
# or with env vars
PORT=3000 MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=your-secret npx @notharshhaa/devops-mcp-sse

For team use, put it behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, Traefik). A minimal docker-compose.yml is in the examples/ directory.

WebSocket (optional extra)

Run @notharshhaa/devops-mcp with WebSocket transport for real-time bidirectional communication (not in reference implementation).

TRANSPORT=websocket PORT=3000 MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=your-secret npx @notharshhaa/devops-mcp

Connect to ws://localhost:3000/ws with the auth token in the Authorization header.

Security model

devops-mcp is designed for internal use inside a trusted network. That said:

• Kubernetes: Uses standard kubeconfig via @kubernetes/client-node. Supports exec plugins (AWS EKS, GKE). In-cluster: auto-mounts SA token. Add RBAC rules scoped to your desired permissions — run devops-mcp under a dedicated ServiceAccount with minimal verbs.
• ArgoCD: Generate a long-lived token: argocd account generate-token --account devops-mcp. Create a dedicated account in argocd-cm with apiKey capability and a role limited to read + sync.
• Prometheus: Usually unauthenticated inside a cluster. If using Grafana Mimir or Thanos with auth, pass a Bearer token. All tools are read-only so minimal permissions are needed.
• PagerDuty: Create a dedicated API key in PagerDuty → API Access → Create New API Key. Use Full Access if you want acknowledge/escalate tools; Read-only if you want a safe-only mode.
• Mutations are dry-run by default. Every mutating tool defaults dry_run: true. The AI must explicitly pass dry_run: false — it won't do this unless the user clearly requests an action.
• Destructive tools require confirm: true. This parameter is never passed by default; it requires the user to explicitly approve.
• Audit log. Set DEVOPS_MCP_AUDIT_LOG to a file path. Every tool call is written as a JSONL line with timestamp, tool name, parameters, and outcome. Mutations and destructive calls are flagged.
• Global dry-run mode. Set DEVOPS_MCP_DRY_RUN=true to prevent all mutations — useful for read-only team deployments.

Architecture

Client / UI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.)
       │
       ▼
  Transport Layer
  ┌──────────────────────────────┐
  │ stdio | SSE | WebSocket      │  ← Multiple transport support
  │ Authentication (token/JWT)    │  ← Dynamic auth system
  └──────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
  Server & Auth/Registry
  ┌──────────────────────────────┐
  │ Tool registry & routing      │
  │ Dynamic auth manager         │  ← Session-based auth
  │ Request multiplexing         │  ← Concurrent request handling
  │ Audit logging                │
  └──────────────────────────────┘
       │
       ▼
  ┌────┬────┬────┐
  k8s  argo prom  pd  ← Provider modules
  │    │    │     │
  K8s  Argo Prom  PD  ← API clients
  API  API  HTTP  API
       │
       ▼
  Cross-cutting Concerns
  ┌──────────────────────────────┐
  │ Dry-run guard                │
  │ Audit logger                 │
  │ Error normalization          │
  │ Config loader                │
  └──────────────────────────────┘

Key architectural features:

• Multi-transport support: stdio and SSE transports using official MCP SDK
• Simple authentication: Bearer token for SSE transport (matches reference pattern)
• Provider isolation: Each provider (k8s, argo, prom, pd) is a self-contained module
• Cross-cutting concerns: Dry-run enforcement, audit logging, and error normalization applied consistently across all tools

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. The most useful areas:

• New providers — Grafana, Datadog, Vault, Terraform Cloud, Flux CD
• New tools — within existing providers (e.g. k8s__get_node_pressure, argo__get_app_logs)
• Better output formatting — richer structured responses for specific resource types
• Tests — unit tests for provider logic using mocked clients

Adding a new provider

1. Create src/providers/yourprovider/ with index.ts, client.ts, and one file per resource group.
2. Register it in src/server.ts.
3. Add config keys to .env.example and src/config.ts.
4. Document tools in this README following the existing table format.
5. Open a PR.

Local development

git clone https://github.com/your-handle/devops-mcp
cd devops-mcp
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev        # tsx watch — restarts on file change

Run against a local kind/minikube cluster for Kubernetes testing. Use DEVOPS_MCP_DRY_RUN=true to prevent accidental mutations during development.

Roadmap

• Grafana provider (grafana__*) — dashboards, annotations, datasources
• Flux CD provider (flux__*) — kustomizations, helm releases, image automation
• Terraform Cloud provider (tfc__*) — workspace runs, state, variables
• HashiCorp Vault provider (vault__*) — secret read (never write), lease status
• Datadog provider (dd__*) — metrics, monitors, events
• Web UI for SSE mode — connection status, live audit log, provider health

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built for DevOps and platform engineers who want AI that actually knows what's happening in their cluster.