Deployment¶

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`	`http://localhost:5380`	Technitium DNS web service URL
`TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN`	(empty)	API / SSO token (Bearer)
`TECHNITIUM_DNS_SSL_VERIFY`	`True`	Verify TLS (set `False` for self-signed homelab)

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: knucklessg1/technitium-dns-mcp:latest
    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
      - TECHNITIUM_DNS_SSL_VERIFY
    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: knucklessg1/technitium-dns-mcp:latest
    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 .arpa zone
technitium-dns-mcp.arpa {
    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.arpa:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=technitium-dns-mcp.arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=10.0.0.10" \
  --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": "http://your-technitium:5380",
        "TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN": "your-api-token",
        "TECHNITIUM_DNS_SSL_VERIFY": "True"
      }
    }
  }
}

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