CAST Imaging MCP Server

Overview

The CAST Imaging MCP Server bridges the gap between AI agents and real software architecture by exposing comprehensive software intelligence through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It allows the user to get insights about their applications ,transactions, dependencies, quality patterns, and architectural structures by prompting AI agents.

This service provides AI Agents with the understanding of your applications from portfolio-level inventories to granular object relationships. Whether you're exploring database schemas, analyzing transaction flows, investigating quality issues, the MCP server delivers precise, paginated data that enables informed architectural decisions.

Use Cases

• Portfolio-level exploration: List applications available in your CAST Imaging and provides detailed information about them.
• Application architecture analysis: Explore architectural graphs at different levels and visualize system structure.
• Transaction & data flow mapping: Analyze transactions, trace data entity interaction networks, explore complex objects and sequencing.
• Quality & security insights: Identify vulnerabilities, cloud readiness blockers and structural flaws in the applications.
• Database schema exploration: Browse database tables, columns, relationships, and constraints across applications.
• Object-level investigation: Search objects and their properties and analyze caller/callee relationships.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Quick Start
• Installation
• Configuration Reference
• Running (HTTP)
• Windows Installation
• VS Code + GitHub Copilot Setup
• Verification & Test Queries
• Toolsets & Tools
• Troubleshooting
• Security Notes
• Package Contents
• Support

Prerequisites

Required

• Linux system with Docker installed and running.
• CAST Imaging‑APIs service reachable from this host
• MCP‑aware client (e.g., GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Claude Desktop)
• CAST Imaging API Key (generate from your Imaging user profile)

Download

• Download the installer for CAST Imaging MCP server

The MCP server should run on a Linux system. CAST Imaging‑APIs may run on the same or a different Linux machine.

Quick Start

1. Verify Imaging‑APIs is live:
   Terminal

   Copy

   curl -H "x-api-key: <your-imaging-api-key>"         http://{CONTROL_PANEL_HOST}:8090/imaging/apis/rest/ready
   # expected: true
   

2. Extract the installer zip.
3. Configure config/app.config and .env.
4. Start the server with ./run.sh --install.
5. Configure client (VS Code Copilot or Claude) with your server URL.
6. Test queries (see examples below).

Installation of CAST Imaging MCP server

1) Extract the installer

com.castsoftware.imaging.mcpserver.docker.1.0.2-funcrel/
├─ config/
│  └─ app.config
├─ .env                      # hidden; use `ls -a`
├─ docker-compose.yml
├─ run.sh
├─ README.md
└─ copilot-instructions.md

2) Verify CAST Imaging‑APIs

Make sure the Control Panel/registry is reachable and Imaging‑APIs is ready (see Quick Start step #1).

3) Configure server

Edit config/app.config:

HOST_CONTROL_PANEL="your-control-panel-host"   # REQUIRED: Control Panel service registry host/IP
PORT_CONTROL_PANEL=8098                        # Default Control Panel registry port
IMAGING_PAGE_SIZE=1000                         # Internal fetch batch size
IMAGING_DISPLAY_PAGE_SIZE=20                   # Page size in responses
IMAGING_CODE=False                             # Source code access via MCP (security sensitive)
DEBUG_MODE=false                               # Debug mode to see the activity in logs
IMAGING_DOMAIN="default"                       # Imaging domain/tenant
CONTROL_PANEL_SSL_ENABLED=false                # Set true only if Control Panel config/eureka is on HTTPS
MCP_TOOL_SURFACE_PROFILE="full"                # MCP tool exposure profile: "intents" or "full"
MCP_INTENTS_HIDDEN_FUNCTIONS=""                # Comma-separated structural functions hidden from intents mode
SERVICE_HOST="your-service-host"               # REQUIRED: The IP/hostname of the machine on which the MCP Server is running
SSL_CA_BUNDLE=""                               # Optional PEM bundle for private/self-signed CAs

Set your exposed port in .env (hidden file):

MCP_SERVER_PORT=8282

Tip: On Linux, files starting with a dot (like .env) are hidden. Use ls -a to view.

4) Start

chmod +x run.sh
./run.sh --install

This launches the Docker Compose stack and the MCP server.

If you use SSL_CA_BUNDLE, place the PEM file in a certificates/ folder next to docker-compose.yml. The compose file mounts that folder into the container at /app/certificates.

Configuration Reference

HOST_CONTROL_PANEL (Required)

Default: None (user needs to provide the value)
Description: IP or hostname of the machine running the Control Panel Service.

This is a service registry used by Imaging to register and discover its internal services. It is automatically deployed when you install Imaging. You should enter the IP address of the Linux machine running the Imaging Control Panel service.

PORT_CONTROL_PANEL

Default: 8098
Description: Control Panel registry port.

IMAGING_PAGE_SIZE

Default: 1000
Description: Sets the number of records the MCP server fetches per request (internal batching). Tune for throughput.

IMAGING_DISPLAY_PAGE_SIZE

Default: 20
Description: Sets how many records are shown per page in the user-facing response. Tune for UX.

IMAGING_CODE

Default: False
Description: Controls whether the agent can access source code via the MCP server.

It's false by default, as agents typically work on open repos. Enabling it can expose source code to anyone with MCP access, making it a potential security risk, especially relevant for clients like Claude desktop without direct repo access.

DEBUG_MODE

Default: false
Description: Debug mode will show teh activity in the logs. When set to true it will show the tool picked, the API called and the result for each user prompt. When set to false, it will only show the tool picked and the corresponding API called.

IMAGING_DOMAIN

Default: default
Description: Imaging domain/tenant used to fetch data in multi-tenant environments.

CONTROL_PANEL_SSL_ENABLED

Default: false
Description: Set to true when Control Panel config/eureka endpoints run on HTTPS.

MCP_TOOL_SURFACE_PROFILE

Default: full Description: Selects the MCP tool exposure profile. Use full to expose the complete toolset, or intents for the meta-tool surface.

MCP_INTENTS_HIDDEN_FUNCTIONS

Default: empty Description: Comma-separated list of structural functions to hide when MCP_TOOL_SURFACE_PROFILE is set to intents.

SERVICE_HOST (Required)

Default: None (user needs to provide the value)
Description: IP/hostname of the machine on which the MCP Server is running.

SSL_CA_BUNDLE

Default: empty
Description: Optional path to a PEM CA bundle for private/self-signed certificate chains. With the Docker installer, place the PEM under ./certificates/ and reference it as /app/certificates/<file>.pem.

Running (HTTP)

Start the server with:

chmod +x run.sh
./run.sh --install

Windows Installation

This section provides detailed steps for installing and configuring the CAST Imaging MCP Server on Windows systems.

Prerequisites for Windows

• Windows system
• CAST Imaging‑APIs service running and accessible
• MCP‑aware client (e.g., GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Claude Desktop)
• CAST Imaging API Key (generate from your Imaging user profile)

1) Download and Extract

1. Download the installer package for windows.
2. Extract the zip file to your preferred location
3. Navigate to the extracted directory

Package contents:

com.castsoftware.imaging.mcpserver.__MCP_VERSION__*/
├─ mcpserver/
├─ tools/
├─ configuration.conf
├─ mcp-server-installer.bat
└─ README.md

2) Verify CAST Imaging‑APIs

Make sure the Control Panel/registry is reachable and Imaging‑APIs is ready:

curl -H "x-api-key: <your-imaging-api-key>" 
     http://{HOSTNAME_CONTROL_PANEL}:8090/rest/ready
# expected: true