rancher-mcp-server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Rancher ecosystem: multi-cluster Kubernetes, Harvester HCI (VMs, storage, networks), and Fleet GitOps.

Demo

A walkthrough of how this MCP server works (example in Cursor).

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7d8fb814-e504-47b4-956d-28f43aeea3b8

Features

• Harvester toolset: List/get VMs, images, volumes, networks, hosts; VM actions; addon list/switch (enable/disable)
• Rancher toolset: Clusters and projects via Steve (management proxy); Norman management API (/v3) for schemas, users, tokens, auth configs, global role bindings, cluster registration tokens, node drivers, cloud credentials, catalogs, cluster repos, feature flags, settings, audit (when exposed); support bundle and generic actions when writes are enabled
• Kubernetes toolset: List/get/create/patch/delete resources by apiVersion/kind; describe (resource + events), events, capacity
• Helm toolset: List/get/history of releases; install, upgrade, rollback, uninstall; repo list
• Fleet toolset: GitRepo list/get/create; Bundle list; Fleet cluster list; drift detection
• Rancher APIs: Same Bearer token for Steve (/k8s/clusters/...) and Norman (/v3/...); no CLI wrappers
• Security: Read-only default, disable-destructive, sensitive data masking (Norman token/credential fields redacted unless --show-sensitive-data)
• Config: Flags, env (RANCHER_MCP_*), or file (YAML/TOML)

Quick start

Install

npm install -g rancher-mcp-server

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json (project-level) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "rancher-mcp-server",
        "--rancher-server-url", "https://rancher.example.com",
        "--rancher-token", "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "--toolsets", "harvester,rancher,kubernetes,fleet"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor after saving. Check Settings → Tools & MCP that rancher is listed and enabled.

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "rancher-mcp-server",
        "--rancher-server-url", "https://rancher.example.com",
        "--rancher-token", "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "--toolsets", "harvester,rancher,kubernetes,fleet"
      ]
    }
  }
}

With env vars instead of args

If you prefer to keep the token out of the JSON config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rancher-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RANCHER_MCP_RANCHER_SERVER_URL": "https://rancher.example.com",
        "RANCHER_MCP_RANCHER_TOKEN": "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "RANCHER_MCP_TOOLSETS": "harvester,rancher,kubernetes"
      }
    }
  }
}

Enable write operations

For VM create, snapshots, backups, image/volume create, addon switch, host maintenance mode, VPC create/update/delete, Kubernetes create/patch/delete, Helm install/upgrade/rollback, Fleet gitrepo create/delete, and Norman writes (tokens, users, auth configs, role bindings, cluster registration tokens, cloud credentials, catalog refresh, feature flags, settings, rancher_norman_action, support bundle), add --read-only=false. Delete operations (Norman tokens/bindings/registration tokens/cloud credentials, plus existing toolset deletes) also require --disable-destructive=false (default).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "rancher-mcp-server",
        "--rancher-server-url", "https://rancher.example.com",
        "--rancher-token", "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "--toolsets", "harvester,rancher,kubernetes,helm,fleet",
        "--read-only=false"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Streamable HTTP transport

For web clients or remote access (e.g. Claude Code claude mcp add -t http), add --transport and --port:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "rancher-mcp-server",
        "--rancher-server-url", "https://rancher.example.com",
        "--rancher-token", "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "--transport", "http",
        "--port", "8080"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The server uses the MCP Streamable HTTP transport. The default MCP path is /mcp; connect to http://localhost:8080/mcp (or your server base URL + /mcp). Best supported with Claude Code; Cursor support may vary.

Build from source

If you prefer to build the Go binary yourself:

go build -o rancher-mcp-server ./cmd/rancher-mcp-server

Then reference the binary directly in your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rancher": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/rancher-mcp-server",
      "args": [
        "--rancher-server-url", "https://rancher.example.com",
        "--rancher-token", "token-xxxxx:yyyy",
        "--toolsets", "harvester,rancher,kubernetes,fleet"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Harvester tools