GitLab MCP Server

Connect your AI assistant to GitLab so it can review merge requests, triage pipelines, manage issues, and draft releases — in plain language. One static binary (or a container), 1000+ GitLab tools over the full REST + GraphQL API, working with Claude, Cursor, VS Code, and any MCP client.

You talk to your AI assistant; it does the GitLab work. No project IDs, API endpoints, or JSON to remember.

10,359 tokens of startup context by default, the same on every GitLab tier (1,694 with GITLAB_MCP_CAPABILITY_SURFACE=minimal). Two tools reach the whole catalog; measured with the cl100k_base tokenizer and verified in CI on every commit. How it is measured

"Review merge request !15 — is it safe to merge?" · "Why did the last pipeline fail?" · "List open issues assigned to me" · "Generate release notes from v1.0 to v2.0"

🤖 Using an AI assistant? Give it this repository URL and ask it to install the server for your client. Everything a model needs to do it headlessly — the declarative per-client config, claude mcp add one-liners, and defaults — is in llms.txt (no interactive wizard required).

Install in 60 seconds

Pick one. Each path ends with you typing a prompt to your assistant. Every channel has a full guide: Installation.

Want to look before installing? The browser inspector signs in with OAuth and calls the hosted endpoint read-only from a browser tab — nothing downloaded. Running it yourself is still the way to keep using it.

One-click install

Client	One-click button	Token step
VS Code		prompts you (masked)
VS Code Insiders		prompts you (masked)
Cursor		edit YOUR_GITLAB_TOKEN
LM Studio		edit YOUR_GITLAB_TOKEN
Kiro		edit YOUR_GITLAB_TOKEN
Claude Desktop		settings UI (keychain)

Each button registers the Docker-based server (auto-pulls the image on first run; you need Docker installed). The Claude Desktop row instead downloads a native .mcpb desktop extension (macOS universal + Windows, no Docker) — open it with Claude Desktop and fill in the settings. Need a token? Create a Personal Access Token with the api scope. Self-managed GitLab? Add a GITLAB_URL env var in your client's MCP config after install.

Claude Code (claude mcp add)

Docker (no install — pulls the image on first run):

claude mcp add gitlab --env GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxxx --transport stdio \
  -- docker run -i --rm -e GITLAB_TOKEN ghcr.io/jmrplens/gitlab-mcp-server:latest

Or install the native binary first, then register it: