Deployment

Deployment Options

technitium-dns-mcp 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": {
    "technitium-dns": {
      "command": "technitium-dns-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"MCP_TOOL_MODE": "intent"}
    }
  }
}

Loopback development listener

technitium-dns-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/technitium-dns-mcp@sha256:<digest> technitium-dns-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": {
    "technitium-dns": {"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 technitium-dns-mcp as a long-lived server: the transports, a Docker Compose stack, putting it behind a Caddy reverse proxy, and giving it a DNS name with Technitium. To provision the Technitium DNS Server it connects to, see Backing Platform.

technitium-dns-mcp ships two console scripts: an MCP server (technitium-dns-mcp) and a Pydantic AI agent (technitium-dns-agent). The MCP server is a typed, deterministic tool surface; the agent connects to it and drives the tools autonomously.

Run the MCP server

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

stdio (default)streamable-httpsse

technitium-dns-mcp

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

technitium-dns-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

A network server with a /health endpoint and /mcp route.

technitium-dns-mcp --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Health check (HTTP transports):

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

Configuration (environment)

technitium-dns-mcp is configured entirely from the environment. The required set:

Var	Default	Meaning
TECHNITIUM_DNS_URL	Required	Technitium DNS web service URL
TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN	(empty)	API / SSO token (Bearer)
TLS_PROFILE	(empty)	Named AgentConfig transport-security profile; verification is mandatory
TLS_PROFILES_REF	(empty)	Runtime secret reference for the TLS profile catalog

Plus HOST / PORT / TRANSPORT for HTTP transports. Copy .env.example to .env and populate the values you use; the server remains inactive when TECHNITIUM_DNS_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:
  technitium-dns-mcp:
    image: example/technitium-dns-mcp@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: technitium-dns-mcp
    hostname: technitium-dns-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
      - TECHNITIUM_DNS_URL
      - TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN
      - TLS_PROFILE
      - TLS_PROFILES_REF
    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 TECHNITIUM_DNS_* values
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml logs -f

Agent server

The Pydantic AI agent (technitium-dns-agent) connects to a running MCP server and drives its tools. Point it at the MCP server with --mcp-url:

technitium-dns-agent --mcp-url http://localhost:8000 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080

A container recipe mirrors the MCP service, wiring MCP_URL to the MCP server by container name and publishing the agent on :8080:

# docker/agent.compose.yml
services:
  technitium-dns-agent:
    image: example/technitium-dns-mcp@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: technitium-dns-agent
    hostname: technitium-dns-agent
    restart: always
    entrypoint: ["technitium-dns-agent"]
    depends_on: [technitium-dns-mcp]
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - MCP_URL=http://technitium-dns-mcp:8000
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8080
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

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
technitium-dns-mcp.example.invalid {
    tls internal
    reverse_proxy technitium-dns-mcp:8000
}

# Public — automatic Let's Encrypt
technitium-dns-mcp.example.com {
    reverse_proxy technitium-dns-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 by adding an A record to the authoritative zone. Via the Technitium API:

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

This is the very operation technitium-dns-mcp automates as a tool — the add_record API call and its zones MCP tool perform the same A-record creation without hand-rolling curl.

Register with an MCP client

Add to your client's mcp_config.json (multiplexer nickname td):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "technitium-dns-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "technitium-dns-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TECHNITIUM_DNS_URL": "<configured-endpoint>",
        "TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN": "<runtime-secret>",
        "TLS_PROFILE": "private-pki",
        "TLS_PROFILES_REF": "secret://runtime/tls-profiles"
      }
    }
  }
}

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