GitLab MCP Server

gitlabdevopsci-cdcode-reviewissues

Summary

GitLab's own MCP server — issues, merge requests, CI/CD pipelines, job logs, wikis and semantic code search over an OAuth-authorised HTTP endpoint.

Features

Create and read issues, work items and threaded notes
Full merge-request surface: create, list, diffs, commits, pipelines and discussion
Retrieve CI/CD job logs and manage pipelines (create, retry, cancel, delete)
Instance-wide search plus semantic_code_search for relevant snippets
Wiki page listing and label search
OAuth 2.0 Dynamic Client Registration — no personal access token to manage

Installation

Set up this MCP server in your favorite AI agent — copy a ready-made configuration below.

Any MCP-compatible agent

Most agents (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, and more) read a standard mcpServers configuration.

Open your agent's MCP configuration file.
Merge the snippet below into it.
Restart the agent — the "GitLab MCP Server" tools will be available.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add the server with a single CLI command.

claude mcp add gitlab -- npx -y mcp-remote https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp

Claude Desktop

Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Cursor also supports the endpoint natively as an HTTP MCP server: {"type": "http", "url": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp"}

{
  "command": "npx",
  "args": [
    "-y",
    "mcp-remote",
    "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp"
  ]
}

Claude Code — add over HTTP, then run /mcp and authorise in the browser.

{
  "command": "claude",
  "args": [
    "mcp",
    "add",
    "--transport",
    "http",
    "GitLab",
    "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/mcp"
  ]
}

Description

GitLab ships an MCP server as part of the platform itself rather than as a side project, exposed at https://<your-gitlab-host>/api/v4/mcp. Because it is built into the instance, there is no container to run and no personal access token to mint and rotate: the server advertises OAuth 2.0 Dynamic Client Registration, so a compatible client registers itself and the user authorises in a browser on first connect.

What agents can actually do with it. Twenty-three tools spanning the parts of GitLab that matter during day-to-day work. Issues and work items: create and read issues, add and read notes, and link work items with typed relationships. Merge requests: create, read, list and filter, plus commits, diffs, pipelines and threaded discussion notes. CI/CD: list pipeline jobs, pull a job's full trace when it fails, and manage pipelines (list, create, retry, cancel, delete). Discovery: instance-wide search with scope filters, label search, wiki page listing, and semantic_code_search for retrieving relevant snippets from a project. There is also attach_scan_profile for wiring a security scan profile to projects or groups.

The combination of job-log retrieval and pipeline management is the useful one in practice: an agent can notice a red pipeline, read the failing job's trace, propose a fix on the merge request, and retry the pipeline without a human relaying output between windows.

Requirements. GitLab 18.6 or later (the feature moved from experiment to beta in 18.6 and remains beta as of 19.2). Available on Free, Premium and Ultimate. The instance or group must have GitLab Duo availability set to always-on or on-by-default, beta features enabled, and MCP server access permitted. HTTP transport is recommended; mcp-remote bridges it to stdio-only clients on Node.js 20+.

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