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Renovate MCP

Design, validate, inspect, diff, preview, and save Renovate configurations through MCP.

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Install Renovate MCP

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "renovate-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "renovate-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Install not yet sandbox-tested— the server itself is confirmed live (we called its tools/list endpoint). The stdio install command is a separate, ongoing check.

Overview

renovate-mcp connects an MCP client to local repositories, the Renovate CLI, and renovate-config-validator for interactive configuration work. Its tools locate and explain configs, expand presets, suggest settings, validate and lint changes, test package rules, preview custom managers, and write validated files. A dry-run mode can inspect local repositories or remote GitHub and GitLab targets without opening pull requests or pushing changes. Reach for it when you need to understand an existing Renovate setup, safely refactor configuration, or diagnose why dependencies and rules behave a certain way.

Use cases

  • Inspect an existing Renovate configuration
  • Compare effective settings before and after a refactor
  • Debug why a package rule or dependency update was skipped
  • Preview custom managers against a local repository
  • Dry-run Renovate without opening pull requests

Key features

  • Offline preset resolution and intent-based preset search
  • Schema validation and semantic Renovate linting
  • Dry-run reports for local, GitHub, and GitLab targets
  • Package-rule and dependency explanation tools
  • Regex and JSONata custom-manager previews
  • Validated configuration migration and writing

Tools17

What Renovate MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Verified live~10.8k tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked Today

Recent health check succeeded.

What it can do

From the 17 tools this server returned when we ran it.

Runs commands · 4Handles credentials · 3Makes network requests · 3Read-only tools · 13
Unusual tool instructions. 1 tool description contain text aimed at the AI model rather than at you (reaches for local secrets). Read the tool descriptions before connecting.
Network at startup3 connections
Files written at startupNone
Install scriptsNone
npm provenanceSigned build
Package age186 days
Maintainers1

Observed 2026-10-27 in an isolated sandbox. A description of reach, not a security audit.

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 4d ago via OSV.dev · renovate-mcp (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars11Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads2kPackage downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commitTodayMost recent push to the default branch.
Tools exposed17Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

How Renovate MCP works

What renovate-mcp does

renovate-mcp provides MCP tools for designing and maintaining Renovate configuration files. It can discover configuration in a repository, including supported Renovate filenames and the renovate field in package.json, then parse and inspect the result. Preset-related tools expand extends entries, show which presets contributed each field, compare two resolved configurations, and search built-in or local preset catalogues from a natural-language goal.

Configuration quality checks cover both structure and Renovate-specific behavior. validate_config invokes the official Renovate schema validator, while lint_config checks issues such as malformed regular expressions, unknown manager names, and deprecated matcher keys. migrate_config applies Renovate's built-in migrations without writing the result. write_config validates before saving and supports forced writes only with explicit confirmation.

The server also helps investigate behavior. Package-rule tools show which rules match hypothetical dependency data or each update in a dry-run report. Dependency explanations identify occurrences, skip reasons, proposed updates, warnings, and possible remedies. Custom-manager previews inspect regex or JSONata managers against a local repository.

How it works

Install the package as an MCP server and point it at a repository through tool inputs. Most analysis tools operate offline. Built-in presets are expanded from the committed catalogue; external GitHub and GitLab presets require an explicit opt-in and can use an endpoint and token. Configurations may be supplied as an inline object or read from a repository, depending on the tool.

dry_run launches Renovate in dry-run mode, returning a structured report without creating pull requests or pushing commits. It defaults to local filesystem analysis, but can target GitHub or GitLab with platform, endpoint, repository, and authentication inputs. Reports can be kept inline or redirected to a mode-0600 file for large repositories. The diff tools compare either resolved configurations or the proposed updates in two dry-run reports.

The server uses Renovate's own matching and merging behavior in worker threads where supported. Results identify merge quality, warnings, unresolved presets, and fields that could not be evaluated from the supplied data.

Setup and configuration

The runtime requirements are Node.js 24.11 or newer on Linux or macOS. Windows is not supported; WSL2 can provide a Linux environment. One installation route for Claude Code is:

Terminal
npm install -g renovate-mcp
claude mcp add renovate -s user -- renovate-mcp

No token is needed for offline operations. For remote runs and external private presets, configure RENOVATE_TOKEN, or use GITHUB_TOKEN or GITLAB_TOKEN as supported fallbacks, in the MCP server environment. Registry credentials such as NPM_TOKEN, COMPOSER_AUTH, or RENOVATE_HOST_RULES must likewise be available to the server process or supplied through Renovate configuration and tool inputs. Environment settings belong in the MCP client's server configuration rather than only in an interactive shell.

Tools and capabilities

  • Discover and parse Renovate configuration files.
  • Resolve, explain, search, and compare presets.
  • Validate, lint, migrate, and write configuration.
  • Preview regex and JSONata custom managers locally.
  • Test package-rule matching and annotate dry-run updates.
  • Run Renovate safely and compare its proposed updates.
  • Diagnose setup, platform selection, endpoint reachability, and token coverage.
  • Access resources listing presets, options, managers, and datasources.

Limitations and notes

Preset resolution is offline by default. bitbucket>, gitea>, and npm presets remain unresolved in the standalone resolver. Handlebars expressions beyond {{argN}} are not expanded there, and full-fidelity resolution should use dry_run.

Custom-manager preview supports regex and JSONata managers with JSON, YAML, or TOML file formats. Strategies other than any are not implemented, and template substitution has limited handling for values and helpers. Package-rule analysis reports fields that are unavailable or require post-lookup data as unevaluatable rather than treating them as non-matches.

Large dry-run reports may exceed an MCP client's response limit, so reportOutputPath is available. Base-branch selection applies to remote GitHub or GitLab runs, not local-platform runs. Inline tokens can appear in client transcripts; environment-based authentication is preferred.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions about Renovate MCP

renovate-mcp is an MCP server that connects AI clients to local repositories, the Renovate CLI, and renovate-config-validator. Its main tools read, resolve, explain, validate, lint, preview, dry-run, diff, migrate, and write Renovate configurations, helping developers design settings and diagnose dependency updates without opening pull requests.

Install it globally with `npm install -g renovate-mcp`, then register it with Claude Code using `claude mcp add renovate -s user -- renovate-mcp`. Node.js 24.11 or newer is required, and the server runs on Linux or macOS.

Yes. renovate-mcp uses the standard MCP server model and can be used with Cursor and other MCP-compatible clients. Configure the server command in the client, then provide repository paths and any required authentication through the server environment.

Yes. The `dry_run` tool runs Renovate in dry-run mode, so it does not open pull requests or push commits. It returns a structured report for a local checkout or, with the required platform settings and credentials, a remote GitHub or GitLab repository.

Use `test_package_rules` with a configuration and hypothetical dependency context to see matching rules, deciding matchers, and contributions. For actual proposed updates, run `dry_run` first and pass its report to `annotate_dry_run` or `explain_dependency`.

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