Backing Platform — Camunda

camunda-mcp is a client of a Camunda process automation platform. This page provides a Docker recipe for deploying one locally to serve as the target of CAMUNDA7_URL (Camunda 7) or the Camunda 8 REST endpoints. For production topologies, follow the upstream Camunda documentation.

Backing-system recipe

Each connector in the ecosystem follows the same convention — a docs/platform.md recipe for the system it integrates with, accompanied by a sample Compose stack that mirrors services/. Systems offered only as a managed service have no local recipe.

Single-node deployment (Compose)

Camunda publishes the camunda/camunda-bpm-platform image for Camunda 7. The following stack runs one Engine REST platform on :8080, mirroring services/camunda/compose.yml:

# docker/camunda-platform.compose.yml
services:
  camunda:
    image: camunda/camunda-bpm-platform:latest
    container_name: camunda
    hostname: camunda
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"            # Engine REST + Cockpit / Tasklist webapps
    volumes:
      - camunda_data:/camunda
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-fsS", "http://localhost:8080/engine-rest/engine"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 40s

volumes:
  camunda_data:

docker compose -f docker/camunda-platform.compose.yml up -d

# Wait for the Engine REST API to answer
curl http://localhost:8080/engine-rest/engine

The default Camunda 7 demo credentials are demo / demo.

Connect camunda-mcp

export CAMUNDA_PLATFORM=7
export CAMUNDA7_URL=http://localhost:8080/engine-rest
export CAMUNDA7_USERNAME=demo
export CAMUNDA7_PASSWORD=demo

camunda-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Combined deployment

A combined stack places the platform and the MCP server on one Docker network, so the server reaches Camunda by container name:

# docker/stack.compose.yml
services:
  camunda:
    image: camunda/camunda-bpm-platform:latest
    hostname: camunda
    ports: ["8080:8080"]
    volumes: ["camunda_data:/camunda"]

  camunda-mcp:
    image: knucklessg1/camunda-mcp:latest
    depends_on: [camunda]
    environment:
      - CAMUNDA_PLATFORM=7
      - CAMUNDA7_URL=http://camunda:8080/engine-rest
      - CAMUNDA7_USERNAME=demo
      - CAMUNDA7_PASSWORD=demo
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
    ports: ["8000:8000"]

volumes:
  camunda_data:

docker compose -f docker/stack.compose.yml up -d

Camunda 8

For Camunda 8, deploy the upstream Zeebe / Operate / Tasklist stack from the official Camunda 8 self-managed distribution, then point the connector at the REST endpoints:

export CAMUNDA_PLATFORM=8
export CAMUNDA8_ZEEBE_REST_URL=http://localhost:8088
export CAMUNDA8_OPERATE_URL=http://localhost:8081
export CAMUNDA8_TASKLIST_URL=http://localhost:8082

When the cluster requires OAuth, also set CAMUNDA8_CLIENT_ID, CAMUNDA8_CLIENT_SECRET, CAMUNDA8_OAUTH_URL, and CAMUNDA8_AUDIENCE.