Installation

gitlab-api is a standard Python package and a prebuilt container image. Pick the path that matches how you want to run it.

Requirements

• Python 3.11 – 3.14.
• A reachable GitLab instance (GitLab.com or self-managed) and a personal / project access token — see Backing Platform to deploy one locally.

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install gitlab-api

Optional extras

The base install is intentionally minimal. Install the extra for what you need:

Extra	Install	Pulls in
mcp	pip install "gitlab-api[mcp]"	FastMCP MCP-server runtime (agent-utilities[mcp])
agent	pip install "gitlab-api[agent]"	Pydantic-AI agent + Logfire tracing
gql	pip install "gitlab-api[gql]"	gql client for the GitLab GraphQL API
all	pip install "gitlab-api[all]"	Everything above

# Typical: run the MCP server with GraphQL support
pip install "gitlab-api[mcp,gql]"

From source

git clone https://github.com/Knuckles-Team/gitlab-api.git
cd gitlab-api
pip install -e ".[all]"          # editable install with every extra

With uv:

uv pip install -e ".[all]"
uv run gitlab-mcp

Prebuilt Docker image

A multi-stage, slim image is published on every release (entrypoint gitlab-mcp):

docker pull knucklessg1/gitlab-api:latest

docker run --rm -i \
  -e GITLAB_URL=https://gitlab.example.com \
  -e GITLAB_TOKEN=<your-gitlab-token> \
  knucklessg1/gitlab-api:latest        # stdio transport (default)

For an HTTP server with a published port and the agent server, see Deployment.

Verify the install

gitlab-mcp --help
gitlab-agent --help
python -c "import gitlab_api; print(gitlab_api.__version__)"

Next steps

• Deployment — run it as a long-lived MCP / agent server behind Caddy + DNS.
• Usage — call the tools, the API, and the CLI.
• Configuration — every environment variable.