Gitlab Docs

What the gitlab-docs MCP server does

The gitlab-docs MCP server connects an MCP-compatible AI assistant to GitLab's official documentation. Its indexed collection contains more than 2,900 documentation pages covering areas such as CI/CD, APIs, user features, administration, and development.

The server is intended for documentation lookup rather than GitLab account operations. An assistant can use it to answer questions about pipeline configuration, GitLab Runner setup, authentication methods, GraphQL mutations, and other topics represented in the published documentation.

How it works

The gitlab-docs MCP server runs as a Node.js process started through the npm package gitlab-docs-mcp. Once registered with an MCP client, the assistant can select the appropriate tool for a question:

• searchGitLabDocs searches the documentation corpus using relevance ranking.
• getDocPage returns the full contents of a page identified by its document path.
• listDocSections exposes the available documentation sections and their structure.

Search accepts a query and can limit the number of results. It also supports section filtering for ci, api, user, admin, and development. The default result limit is 10, and the maximum is 50. A typical workflow is to search first, inspect the returned paths, and then retrieve a selected page in full.

The project states that its documentation source is automatically synchronized with the latest published version available through npm. Restarting the MCP client is the documented way to obtain updates after a newer package version is available.

Setup and configuration

Install Node.js 22.13 or newer, or Node.js 24 or newer. Add the server to the MCP client's configuration with a command equivalent to:

{
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "gitlab-docs-mcp"]
}

The surrounding configuration depends on the client. Claude Desktop uses claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor supports project-level .cursor/mcp.json or a global ~/.cursor/mcp.json; and VS Code uses its MCP user configuration. After changing the configuration, restart the client or reload VS Code. Other MCP-compatible clients can run the same npx -y gitlab-docs-mcp command using their own configuration format.

Tools and capabilities

searchGitLabDocs supports query-based searches across the indexed GitLab pages. Its maxResults parameter controls the number of returned matches, while section narrows results to a supported documentation area.

getDocPage retrieves complete page content from a supplied path, such as ci/yaml/_index.md. listDocSections helps an assistant discover the documentation hierarchy before searching or retrieving a page.

Limitations and notes

The server requires a compatible MCP client and a supported Node.js version. If it does not respond, the documented checks are to verify the Node.js version, restart the client fully, and inspect application logs for MCP connection errors.