DigitalOcean MCP server for AI agents

The DigitalOcean MCP server provides a protocol interface that lets AI assistants manage your DigitalOcean cloud infrastructure through various services like apps, droplets, databases, and more. It leverages the DigitalOcean API to enable simplified cloud resource management.

Prerequisites

Before installing the MCP server, ensure you have:

Node.js (v18 or later)
NPM (v8 or later)

You can verify your installation with:

node --version
npm --version

Quick Test

To verify the MCP server works correctly, run:

npx @digitalocean/mcp --services apps

Installation Options

Claude Code Integration

To add the DigitalOcean MCP server to Claude Code:

claude mcp add digitalocean-mcp \
  -e DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN=YOUR_DO_API_TOKEN \
  -- npx @digitalocean/mcp --services apps,databases

This will:

Add the server under the local scope (available only in current folder)
Register it as digitalocean-mcp
Enable the apps and databases services
Pass your DigitalOcean API token securely

Claude Code Commands

Verify installation:

claude mcp list

Check server details:

claude mcp get digitalocean-mcp

Remove the server:

claude mcp remove digitalocean-mcp

Global User Scope Installation

To make the server available across all projects:

claude mcp add -s user digitalocean-mcp-user-scope \
  -e DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN=YOUR_DO_API_TOKEN \
  -- npx @digitalocean/mcp --services apps,databases

Remove global installation:

claude mcp remove -s user digitalocean-mcp-user-scope

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "digitalocean": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@digitalocean/mcp", "--services apps"],
      "env": {
        "DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor Integration

Add this to your Cursor settings file (~/.cursor/config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "digitalocean": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@digitalocean/mcp", "--services apps"],
      "env": {
        "DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code Integration

Add this to your VS Code MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcp": {
    "inputs": [],
    "servers": {
      "mcpDigitalOcean": {
        "command": "npx",
        "args": [
          "@digitalocean/mcp",
          "--services",
          "apps"
        ],
        "env": {
          "DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

It's recommended to only enable the services you need to reduce context size and improve accuracy:

npx @digitalocean/mcp --services apps,droplets

Supported Services

The MCP DigitalOcean Integration supports these services:

apps: Manage App Platform applications, deployments, and configurations
droplets: Create, manage, and monitor virtual machines
accounts: Access account information, billing, and SSH keys
networking: Manage domains, DNS, certificates, firewalls, and VPCs
insights: Monitor resources, endpoints, and set up alerts
spaces: Manage S3-compatible object storage
databases: Provision and manage database clusters
marketplace: Discover and manage Marketplace applications
doks: Manage Kubernetes clusters and node pools

Example Tools

Here are some of the available tools:

Deploy an app from GitHub: create-app-from-spec
Resize a droplet: droplet-resize
Add a new SSH key: key-create
Create a new domain: domain-create
Enable droplet backups: droplet-enable-backups
Flush a CDN cache: cdn-flush-cache
Manage VPC peering: vpc-peering-create, vpc-peering-delete

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 "digitalocean" '{"command":"npx","args":["@digitalocean/mcp-digitalocean","--services","apps"],"env":{"DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN":"YOUR_API_TOKEN"}}'

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": {
        "digitalocean": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@digitalocean/mcp-digitalocean",
                "--services",
                "apps"
            ],
            "env": {
                "DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "digitalocean": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "@digitalocean/mcp-digitalocean",
                "--services",
                "apps"
            ],
            "env": {
                "DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect