Skip to content

Deployment

Deployment Options

gitlab-api supports local stdio, a loopback-only development listener, a least-privilege stdio container, and a remote authenticated HTTPS boundary. Provider endpoint, credential, selector, identity, and trust material are supplied at runtime through AgentConfig; none is stored in this repository.

Installed stdio process

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "gitlab-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"MCP_TOOL_MODE": "intent"}
    }
  }
}

Loopback development listener

gitlab-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Do not expose this listener beyond loopback. Network deployments require direct TLS or an explicitly trusted TLS-terminating ingress, configured authentication, exact MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS, and an exact trusted-proxy CIDR policy.

Least-privilege local container

docker run -i --rm \
  --read-only \
  --cap-drop=ALL \
  --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
  --pids-limit=256 \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=64m \
  -e TRANSPORT=stdio \
  registry.example.invalid/gitlab-api@sha256:<digest> gitlab-mcp

The operator projects the selected AgentConfig profile into the process at runtime; the image remains immutable and contains no environment connection profile.

Remote authenticated HTTPS endpoint

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {"url": "https://service.example.invalid/mcp"}
  }
}

Store the real remote URL, outbound identity reference, and TLS-profile reference in AgentConfig, not in MCP client JSON or documentation.

This page covers running gitlab-api as long-lived servers: the transports, a Docker Compose stack, the optional A2A agent server, putting it behind a Caddy reverse proxy, and giving it a DNS name with Technitium. To provision the GitLab instance it connects to, see Backing Platform.

gitlab-api ships both an MCP server (console script gitlab-mcp) and an A2A agent server (console script gitlab-agent). The MCP server is a typed, deterministic tool surface a policy router / agent calls; the agent server is a Pydantic-AI graph agent that wraps that surface with an AG-UI web interface.

Run the MCP server

The transport is selected with --transport (or the TRANSPORT env var):

gitlab-mcp
For IDE / desktop MCP clients that launch the server as a subprocess.

gitlab-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000
A network server with a /health endpoint and /mcp route.

gitlab-mcp --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Health check (HTTP transports):

curl -s http://localhost:8000/health        # {"status":"OK"}

Configuration (environment)

gitlab-api is configured entirely from the environment. The required set:

Var Default Meaning
GITLAB_URL https://gitlab.com GitLab instance base URL
GITLAB_TOKEN (unset) Personal / project / group access token
GITLAB_TLS_PROFILE (unset) Optional runtime TLS profile selector; verification is mandatory
HOST 0.0.0.0 Bind address (HTTP transports)
PORT 8000 Listen port (HTTP transports)
TRANSPORT stdio stdio, streamable-http, or sse

Each tool module is independently togglable with a *TOOL flag (for example BRANCHESTOOL, PIPELINESTOOL, GRAPHQLTOOL) — every variable, with its default, is documented in .env.example. Copy it to .env and fill in only what you use; the connector remains inactive when GITLAB_TOKEN is absent.

Docker Compose

The repo ships docker/mcp.compose.yml. It reads a sibling .env and publishes the HTTP server on :8000:

services:
  gitlab-api-mcp:
    image: example/gitlab-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: gitlab-api-mcp
    hostname: gitlab-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

cp .env.example .env          # then edit GITLAB_URL / GITLAB_TOKEN
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml logs -f

Agent server (A2A)

gitlab-api also ships an A2A agent server (console script gitlab-agent). It runs the Pydantic-AI graph agent, calls the MCP tool surface over MCP_URL, and exposes an AG-UI web interface on port 9017. The repo ships docker/agent.compose.yml, which deploys the MCP server and the agent server together:

services:
  gitlab-api-mcp:
    image: example/gitlab-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: gitlab-api-mcp
    hostname: gitlab-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  gitlab-api-agent:
    image: example/gitlab-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: gitlab-api-agent
    hostname: gitlab-api-agent
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - gitlab-api-mcp
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    command: ["gitlab-agent"]
    environment:
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9017
      - MCP_URL=http://gitlab-api-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
    ports:
      - "9017:9017"

docker compose -f docker/agent.compose.yml up -d
curl -s http://localhost:9017/health        # {"status":"OK"}

The agent reaches the MCP server by container name through MCP_URL; set PROVIDER and MODEL_ID (plus the matching provider API key) to select the model.

Behind a Caddy reverse proxy

Expose the HTTP server on a hostname with automatic TLS. Add to your Caddyfile:

# Internal (self-signed) — homelab .example.invalid zone
gitlab-api.example.invalid {
    tls internal
    reverse_proxy gitlab-api-mcp:8000
}

# Public — automatic Let's Encrypt
gitlab-api.example.com {
    reverse_proxy gitlab-api-mcp:8000
}

Reload Caddy:

docker compose -f services/caddy/compose.yml exec caddy caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

DNS with Technitium

Point the hostname at the host running Caddy. Via the Technitium API:

curl -s "http://technitium.example.invalid:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=gitlab-api.example.invalid" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=192.0.2.10" \
  --data-urlencode "ttl=3600"

…or add an A record gitlab-api.example.invalid → <caddy-host-ip> in the Technitium web console (http://technitium.example.invalid:5380). The ecosystem technitium-dns-mcp automates this as a tool.

Register with an MCP client

Add to your client's mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-api": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "gitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com",
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "<your-gitlab-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a remote HTTP server, point the client at http://gitlab-api.example.invalid/mcp instead.