GitLab MCP server

Advanced GitLab MCP server

Advanced GitLab MCP server: 66 tools across 27 registry groups, including 60 CQRS tools with 242 typed actions and 6 setup helpers. The tool catalog and parameters are filtered to each instance's GitLab version, tier, and token scopes, so the agent sees only what the connected instance actually supports.

Packages

This is a monorepo with two npm packages:

• @structured-world/gitlab-mcp — the MCP server. In-memory and file OAuth-session storage, no database dependency. This is all most users need.
• @structured-world/gitlab-mcp-db — optional PostgreSQL/Prisma OAuth-session backend for running multiple replicas behind a load balancer. Enable it with OAUTH_STORAGE_TYPE=postgresql; see the PostgreSQL deployment guide for the full setup.

Quick Start

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@structured-world/gitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "your_gitlab_token",
        "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requirements: Node.js >= 24

GitLab Duo sessions

GitLab Duo sessions are also supported: discover agents and flows, inspect progress and outputs, and explicitly start or answer asynchronous CI sessions. Commands can consume credits and change GitLab. See the Duo session guide.

Supported clients

Client	Setup
Codex (CLI and desktop)	Configurable local plugin, local MCP registration or HTTP server
Antigravity CLI (agy)	Workspace MCP configuration and tested compatibility
Claude Desktop	Desktop extension or MCP configuration
Claude Code	CLI or MCP configuration
VS Code	MCP configuration
Cursor	MCP configuration
Windsurf	MCP configuration
Cline	MCP configuration
Roo Code	MCP configuration

The Codex plugin can be installed before configuring a target. Its connection panel supports a GitLab instance with a locally started core server, or an existing HTTP MCP server. The local plugin requires Node.js 24+; credentials are entered in its private panel. See the installation guide for marketplace setup and authentication.

The shared sw.foundation marketplace lists verified releases. Add it once with codex plugin marketplace add structured-world/repo --sparse .agents/plugins, then install GitLab MCP from that catalog after its first configurable plugin release.

Download the ready-made Codex marketplace ZIP and its SHA-256 checksum from GitHub Releases. It includes the local runtime and dependencies, separately from the Claude Desktop MCPB bundles. Add the extracted marketplace once, then install through Codex. An install link requires an already configured marketplace; downloading the ZIP does not install it automatically. Older releases may not contain these assets.

With the Codex CLI installed and GITLAB_API_URL and GITLAB_TOKEN set in your environment, run npx @structured-world/gitlab-mcp install --codex to register a local server. For Antigravity, add the server to .agents/mcp_config.json in your workspace. Follow the linked guides for authentication, remote-server setup and client-specific configuration.

Codex and Claude Code can be configured side by side. Antigravity CLI 1.4.10 is qualified against the installed core package on macOS and Linux, including empty and single-MR lists. See the client overview for all setup guides.

Highlights

• 66 tools across 27 registry groups: projects, merge requests, pipelines, work items, wiki, and more
• CQRS architecture — browse_* for queries, manage_* for commands
• Connection resilience — Bounded startup, auto-reconnect with exponential backoff, disconnected mode when GitLab is unreachable
• Multi-instance support — Connect to GitLab.com, self-managed, and self-hosted instances with per-instance OAuth and rate limiting; one connection can link several accounts, such as a company GitLab and a personal GitLab.com account, and each chat switches between them
• Multiple transports — stdio, SSE, StreamableHTTP
• OAuth 2.1 — Per-user authentication via Claude Custom Connector
• Read-only mode — Safe operation for production environments
• Auto-discovery — Detects GitLab config from git remotes
• Fine-grained control — Enable/disable tool groups, filter actions, customize descriptions
• Docker support — ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

Tool model

GitLab exposes hundreds of API operations. Giving each its own MCP tool floods an agent's context; a thin API wrapper pushes that complexity back onto the agent. This server takes a third path: 60 CQRS tools expose 242 typed actions, with 6 additional helpers for account, connection and settings work. The complete catalog contains 66 tools across 27 registry groups. This total includes core and account/context tools. Settings expose a different set of configurable tool groups: core and context tools are always available, and CI job tokens and deploy keys share one switch.

• browse_* tools are read-only queries; manage_* tools are writes.
• Sub-resources fold into actions rather than new tools — browse_pipelines covers pipelines, jobs, and logs in a single tool.
• The tool list, actions, and parameters are resolved at schema-generation time against GitLab version, tier, token scopes, admin-mode, feature flags, and profiles.

Examples:

• browse_pipelines — list, get, jobs, job, logs, triggers
• manage_pipeline — create, retry, cancel
• browse_environments — list, get, list_deployments
• manage_environment — create, update, stop, delete, update_deployment_status
• browse_deploy_keys / manage_deploy_key — list, get / add, enable, update, delete

Documentation

Full documentation is available at gitlab-mcp.sw.foundation

Section	Description
Installation	npm, Docker, VS Code, Codex
Configuration	Environment variables, feature flags
Multi-Instance	Connect to multiple GitLab instances
Tool Reference	All 66 tools with parameters
OAuth Setup	Team authentication with Claude
TLS/HTTPS	Production deployment with SSL
Customization	Tool descriptions, action filtering
CLI Tools	Browse and export tool documentation

Auto-generated Tool Reference

For the complete tool reference with parameters:

# View locally
yarn list-tools --detail

# Generate documentation
yarn list-tools --export --toc > docs/tools/api-reference.md

See the Full API Reference for the auto-generated tool documentation.

Docker

# HTTP mode
docker run -e PORT=3002 -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your_token -p 3333:3002 \
  ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

# stdio mode
docker run -i --rm -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your_token \
  ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

Connection Resilience

The server handles GitLab connectivity issues gracefully:

• Bounded startup — Server starts within GITLAB_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS (default 5s) regardless of GitLab availability
• Disconnected mode — When GitLab is unreachable (disconnected/failed state), only the manage_context tool is exposed, with local actions such as whoami, switch_preset, and set_scope for diagnostics. During active reconnect (connecting state), the full tool list remains available so MCP clients don't lose their tool catalog during brief outages. MCP clients are notified of tool availability changes via tools/list_changed
• Auto-reconnect — Exponential backoff reconnection (5s → 60s) with ±10% jitter
• Error classification — Transient errors (network, 5xx, timeouts) trigger auto-reconnect. Auth/config errors at startup transition to failed state (no auto-reconnect). Mid-session token revocation is detected via an authenticated HEAD /api/v4/user check that runs alongside each periodic health check (static token mode only; skipped in OAuth mode). A 401 or 403 on this check transitions the instance to failed state immediately.
• Instance health monitor — Each monitored instance URL has its own XState state machine. Untracked OAuth URLs currently pass through as reachable.

Variable	Default	Description
GITLAB_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS	5000	Max time to wait for GitLab during startup
GITLAB_RECONNECT_BASE_DELAY_MS	5000	Initial reconnect delay (doubles each attempt)
GITLAB_RECONNECT_MAX_DELAY_MS	60000	Maximum reconnect delay
GITLAB_HEALTH_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS	60000	Health check interval when connected
GITLAB_FAILURE_THRESHOLD	3	Consecutive transient failures before disconnecting
GITLAB_TOOL_TIMEOUT_MS	120000	Max time for tool/bootstrap execution before timeout
GITLAB_RESPONSE_WRITE_TIMEOUT_MS	10000	Max time to flush a non-SSE response before destroying zombie connection (0 to disable; SSE uses heartbeat)
GITLAB_INSTANCE_CACHE_MAX	100	Max number of per-URL instance states kept in memory (OAuth multi-tenant; LRU eviction when exceeded)
GITLAB_INSTANCE_TTL_MS	3600000	TTL for idle per-URL instance states in ms; evicted on next insert (OAuth multi-tenant)

Feature Flags

Flag	Default	Tools Enabled
USE_LABELS	true	Label management
USE_MRS	true	Merge requests
USE_FILES	true	File operations
USE_VARIABLES	true	CI/CD variables
USE_WORKITEMS	true	Issues, epics, tasks
USE_WEBHOOKS	true	Webhook management
USE_SNIPPETS	true	Code snippets
USE_INTEGRATIONS	true	50+ integrations
USE_GITLAB_WIKI	true	Wiki pages
USE_MILESTONE	true	Milestones
USE_PIPELINE	true	Pipelines & CI/CD
USE_RELEASES	true	Release management
USE_REFS	true	Branch & tag management
USE_MEMBERS	true	Team members
USE_SEARCH	true	Cross-project search
USE_ITERATIONS	true	Iteration planning (sprints)
USE_CI_TOKENS	true	CI access credentials: job token scope and deploy keys
USE_ENVIRONMENTS	true	Environments and deployments
USE_RUNNERS	true	CI runner management
USE_REGISTRY	true	Container registry repositories and tags
USE_ACCESS_TOKENS	true	Project/group/personal access token management
USE_AUDIT_EVENTS	true	Audit events (Premium+)
USE_VULNERABILITIES	true	Vulnerability management (Ultimate)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and PR guidelines.

Support the Project

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License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.

Based on zereight/gitlab-mcp (MIT). See LICENSE.MIT.