Gitlab Api

CLI or API | MCP | Agent

Version: 26.4.0

Documentation — Installation, deployment, usage across the API, CLI, and MCP interfaces, the integrated A2A agent server, and guidance for provisioning the backing GitLab instance are maintained in the official documentation.

Overview

Gitlab Api is a production-grade Agent and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to interface directly with GitLab API + MCP Server + A2A Server.

Key Features

• Consolidated Action-Routed MCP Tools: Minimizes token overhead and eliminates tool bloat in LLM contexts by grouping methods into optimized, togglable tool modules.
• Enterprise-Grade Security: Comprehensive support for Eunomia policies, OIDC token delegation, and granular execution context tracking.
• Integrated Graph Agent: Built-in Pydantic AI agent supporting the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and standard Web interfaces (AG-UI).
• Native Telemetry & Tracing: Out-of-the-box OpenTelemetry exports and native Langfuse tracing.

CLI or API

This agent wraps the GitLab API + MCP Server + A2A Server API. You can interact with it programmatically or via its integrated execution entrypoints.

Detailed instructions on how to use the underlying API wrappers, extended schema bindings, and developer SDK references are maintained in docs/index.md.

MCP

This server utilizes dynamic Action-Routed tools to optimize token overhead and maximize IDE compatibility.

Tool surface — MCP_TOOL_MODE

Set MCP_TOOL_MODE (in the shared ~/.config/agent-utilities/config.json or env): condensed (default — the action-routed tools below), verbose (one named 1:1 tool per API method, e.g. gitlab_get_branches(...), tagged verbose), or both. Filter the verbose set with --tools tag:verbose / MCP_ENABLED_TAGS=verbose. See the agent-utilities MCP Tool Modes guide.

Available MCP Tools

Auto-generated from the live MCP server — do not edit by hand.

Condensed action-routed tools (default — MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed)

Verbose 1:1 API-mapped tools (MCP_TOOL_MODE=verbose or both)

34 action-routed tool(s) (default) · 196 verbose 1:1 tool(s). Each is enabled unless its <DOMAIN>TOOL toggle is set false; MCP_TOOL_MODE selects the surface (condensed default · verbose 1:1 · both). Auto-generated — do not edit.

Detailed tool schemas, parameter shapes, and validation constraints are preserved in docs/mcp.md.

Dynamic Tool Selection & Visibility

This MCP server supports dynamic toolset selection and visibility filtering at runtime. This allows you to restrict the set of exposed tools in order to prevent blowing up the LLM's context window.

You can configure tool filtering via multiple input channels:

• CLI Arguments: Pass --tools or --toolsets (or their disabled counterparts --disabled-tools and --disabled-toolsets) during startup.
• Environment Variables: Define standard environment variables:
  • MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS / MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS
  • MCP_ENABLED_TAGS / MCP_DISABLED_TAGS
• HTTP SSE Request Headers: Pass custom headers during transport initialization:
  • x-mcp-enabled-tools / x-mcp-disabled-tools
  • x-mcp-enabled-tags / x-mcp-disabled-tags
• HTTP SSE Request Query Parameters: Append query parameters directly to your transport connection URL:
  • ?tools=tool1,tool2
  • ?tags=tag1

When query strings or parameters are supplied, an LLM-free Knowledge Graph resolution layer (using DynamicToolOrchestrator) matches query intents against known tool tags, names, or descriptions, with safe fallback and automated 24-hour background cache refreshing.

MCP Configuration Examples

Install the slim [mcp] extra. All examples install gitlab-api[mcp] — the MCP-server extra that pulls only the FastMCP / FastAPI tooling (agent-utilities[mcp]). It deliberately excludes the heavy agent runtime (pydantic-ai, the epistemic-graph engine, dspy, llama-index), so uvx / container installs are far smaller. Use the full [agent] extra only when you need the integrated Pydantic AI agent.

stdio Transport (local IDEs — Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "gitlab-api[mcp]",
        "gitlab-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "BRANCHESTOOL": "True",
        "COMMITSTOOL": "True",
        "CUSTOM_APITOOL": "True",
        "DEPLOY_TOKENSTOOL": "True",
        "ENVIRONMENTSTOOL": "True",
        "EPICSTOOL": "True",
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "your_gitlab_token_here",
        "GITLAB_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com",
        "GRAPHQLTOOL": "True",
        "GRAPHQL_OPSTOOL": "True",
        "GROUPSTOOL": "True",
        "ISSUESTOOL": "True",
        "JOBSTOOL": "True",
        "LABELSTOOL": "True",
        "MEMBERSTOOL": "True",
        "MERGE_REQUESTSTOOL": "True",
        "MERGE_RULESTOOL": "True",
        "MILESTONESTOOL": "True",
        "MISCTOOL": "True",
        "NAMESPACESTOOL": "True",
        "NOTESTOOL": "True",
        "PACKAGESTOOL": "True",
        "PIPELINESTOOL": "True",
        "PIPELINE_SCHEDULESTOOL": "True",
        "PROJECTSTOOL": "True",
        "PROTECTED_BRANCHESTOOL": "True",
        "RELEASESTOOL": "True",
        "RUNNERSTOOL": "True",
        "SNIPPETSTOOL": "True",
        "TAGSTOOL": "True",
        "USERSTOOL": "True",
        "VULNERABILITIESTOOL": "True",
        "WIKITOOL": "True"
      }
    }
  }
}

Streamable-HTTP Transport (networked / production)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "gitlab-api[mcp]",
        "gitlab-mcp",
        "--transport",
        "streamable-http",
        "--port",
        "8000"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRANSPORT": "streamable-http",
        "HOST": "0.0.0.0",
        "PORT": "8000",
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "BRANCHESTOOL": "True",
        "COMMITSTOOL": "True",
        "CUSTOM_APITOOL": "True",
        "DEPLOY_TOKENSTOOL": "True",
        "ENVIRONMENTSTOOL": "True",
        "EPICSTOOL": "True",
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "your_gitlab_token_here",
        "GITLAB_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com",
        "GRAPHQLTOOL": "True",
        "GRAPHQL_OPSTOOL": "True",
        "GROUPSTOOL": "True",
        "ISSUESTOOL": "True",
        "JOBSTOOL": "True",
        "LABELSTOOL": "True",
        "MEMBERSTOOL": "True",
        "MERGE_REQUESTSTOOL": "True",
        "MERGE_RULESTOOL": "True",
        "MILESTONESTOOL": "True",
        "MISCTOOL": "True",
        "NAMESPACESTOOL": "True",
        "NOTESTOOL": "True",
        "PACKAGESTOOL": "True",
        "PIPELINESTOOL": "True",
        "PIPELINE_SCHEDULESTOOL": "True",
        "PROJECTSTOOL": "True",
        "PROTECTED_BRANCHESTOOL": "True",
        "RELEASESTOOL": "True",
        "RUNNERSTOOL": "True",
        "SNIPPETSTOOL": "True",
        "TAGSTOOL": "True",
        "USERSTOOL": "True",
        "VULNERABILITIESTOOL": "True",
        "WIKITOOL": "True"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, connect to a pre-deployed Streamable-HTTP instance by url:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/gitlab-mcp/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Deploying the Streamable-HTTP server via Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name gitlab-mcp-mcp \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e PORT=8000 \
  -e MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed \
  -e BRANCHESTOOL=True \
  -e COMMITSTOOL=True \
  -e CUSTOM_APITOOL=True \
  -e DEPLOY_TOKENSTOOL=True \
  -e ENVIRONMENTSTOOL=True \
  -e EPICSTOOL=True \
  -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your_gitlab_token_here \
  -e GITLAB_URL=https://gitlab.example.com \
  -e GRAPHQLTOOL=True \
  -e GRAPHQL_OPSTOOL=True \
  -e GROUPSTOOL=True \
  -e ISSUESTOOL=True \
  -e JOBSTOOL=True \
  -e LABELSTOOL=True \
  -e MEMBERSTOOL=True \
  -e MERGE_REQUESTSTOOL=True \
  -e MERGE_RULESTOOL=True \
  -e MILESTONESTOOL=True \
  -e MISCTOOL=True \
  -e NAMESPACESTOOL=True \
  -e NOTESTOOL=True \
  -e PACKAGESTOOL=True \
  -e PIPELINESTOOL=True \
  -e PIPELINE_SCHEDULESTOOL=True \
  -e PROJECTSTOOL=True \
  -e PROTECTED_BRANCHESTOOL=True \
  -e RELEASESTOOL=True \
  -e RUNNERSTOOL=True \
  -e SNIPPETSTOOL=True \
  -e TAGSTOOL=True \
  -e USERSTOOL=True \
  -e VULNERABILITIESTOOL=True \
  -e WIKITOOL=True \
  knucklessg1/gitlab-api:mcp

Auto-generated from the code-read env surface (MCP_TOOL_MODE + package vars) — do not edit.

Additional Deployment Options

gitlab-api can also run as a local container (Docker / Podman / uv) or be consumed from a remote deployment. The Deployment guide has full, copy-paste mcp_config.json for all four transports — stdio, streamable-http, local container / uv, and remote URL:

• Local container / uv — launch the server from mcp_config.json via uvx, docker run, or podman run, or point at a local streamable-http container by url.
• Remote URL — connect to a server deployed behind Caddy at http://gitlab-mcp.arpa/mcp using the "url" key.

Environment Variables

Package environment variables

Inherited agent-utilities variables (apply to every connector)

45 package + 14 inherited variable(s). Auto-generated from .env.example + the shared agent-utilities set — do not edit.

Every variable the server reads.

Connection & Credentials

The connector is single-host by default and multi-tenant when gitlab_instances is configured (see Multi-Tenancy). When no instances are configured, it falls back to the single-host GITLAB_* values below.

Multiple instances are declared once under gitlab_instances in the shared agent-utilities XDG config (~/.config/agent-utilities/config.json) — each entry has name, url, token, and verify_ssl. Target a tenant by name from the client factory; an unset instance resolves to the first configured one (else GITLAB_URL / GITLAB_TOKEN).

MCP server / transport

Tool toggles

Each action-routed tool can be disabled individually via its toggle env var (set to false). The full list is in the Available MCP Tools table above (e.g. PROJECTSTOOL, MERGE_REQUESTSTOOL, PIPELINESTOOL, GRAPHQLTOOL, CUSTOM_APITOOL).

Telemetry & governance

Agent CLI (full [agent] runtime only)

See .env.example for a copy-paste starting point.

Agent

This repository features a fully integrated Pydantic AI Graph Agent. It communicates over the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and interacts seamlessly with the Agent Web UI (AG-UI) and Terminal interface.

Running the Agent CLI

To start the interactive command-line agent:

# Set credentials
export GITLAB_URL="your_value"
export GITLAB_TOKEN="your_value"

# Run the agent server
gitlab-agent --provider openai --model-id gpt-4o

Docker Compose Orchestration

The following docker/agent.compose.yml configures the Agent, Web UI, and Terminal Interface together:

version: '3.8'

services:
  gitlab-api-mcp:
    image: knucklessg1/gitlab-api:mcp
    container_name: gitlab-api-mcp
    hostname: gitlab-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 10s
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"