GitLab MCP server

This custom GitLab MCP server allows AI assistants to interact with GitLab repositories through the Model Context Protocol, providing capabilities like searching repositories, managing files, creating issues, and working with branches.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• GitLab Personal Access Token with appropriate scopes:
  • api for full API access
  • read_api for read-only access
  • read_repository and write_repository for repository operations

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Configure in your Claude settings file or Claude Desktop config file:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/gitlab": {
         "command": "node",
         "args": [
           "/path/to/custom-gitlab-server/index.js"
         ],
         "env": {
           "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-gitlab-token",
           "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://your-gitlab-instance/api/v4"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

Usage

The MCP server provides several tools for interacting with GitLab repositories:

Available Tools

• search_repositories: Search for GitLab projects
• get_file_contents: Get contents of a file or directory
• create_or_update_file: Create or update a single file
• push_files: Push multiple files in a single commit
• create_repository: Create a new GitLab project
• create_issue: Create a new issue
• create_merge_request: Create a new merge request
• fork_repository: Fork a project
• create_branch: Create a new branch

Using with Claude

When properly configured, Claude can use these tools to interact with your GitLab repositories. This implementation fixes schema validation issues present in the standard GitLab MCP server, particularly for the search_repositories tool.

Environment Configuration

You can customize the server behavior by setting environment variables:

• GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: Your GitLab access token
• GITLAB_API_URL: The API URL for your GitLab instance (default is the public GitLab API)

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "github-com-modelcontextprotocol-servers-tree-main-src-gitlab" '{"command":"node","args":["/path/to/custom-gitlab-server/index.js"],"env":{"GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN":"your-gitlab-token","GITLAB_API_URL":"https://your-gitlab-instance/api/v4"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/gitlab": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/custom-gitlab-server/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-gitlab-token",
                "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://your-gitlab-instance/api/v4"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/gitlab": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/custom-gitlab-server/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-gitlab-token",
                "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://your-gitlab-instance/api/v4"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect