Installation¶

portainer-agent 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 Portainer instance (Community or Business Edition) — see Backing Platform to deploy one locally.

From PyPI (recommended)¶

pip install portainer-agent

Optional extras¶

The base install ships the MCP server runtime. Install the extra for what you need:

Extra	Install	Pulls in
(base)	`pip install portainer-agent`	FastMCP MCP-server runtime (`agent-utilities[mcp]`)
`agent`	`pip install "portainer-agent[agent]"`	Pydantic-AI agent server + Logfire tracing
`all`	`pip install "portainer-agent[all]"`	MCP server, agent server, and Logfire tracing
`test`	`pip install "portainer-agent[test]"`	`pytest`, `pytest-asyncio`, `pytest-cov`, `pytest-xdist`

# Typical: run the MCP server and the A2A agent
pip install "portainer-agent[all]"

From source¶

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

With uv:

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

Prebuilt Docker image¶

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

docker pull knucklessg1/portainer-agent:latest

docker run --rm -i \
  -e PORTAINER_URL=http://your-portainer:9000 \
  -e PORTAINER_TOKEN=your_api_token \
  knucklessg1/portainer-agent:latest        # stdio transport (default)

For an HTTP server with a published port and the A2A agent, see Deployment.

Verify the install¶

portainer-mcp --help
portainer-agent --help
python -c "import portainer_agent; print(portainer_agent.__version__)"

Next steps¶

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