Advanced GitLab MCP server

Advanced GitLab MCP server — 44 tools across 18 entity types with CQRS architecture, OAuth 2.1, and multiple transport modes.

Quick Start

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@structured-world/gitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "your_gitlab_token",
        "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requirements: Node.js >= 24

Highlights

• 44 tools across 18 entity types — projects, merge requests, pipelines, work items, wiki, and more
• CQRS architecture — browse_* for queries, manage_* for commands
• Connection resilience — Bounded startup, auto-reconnect with exponential backoff, disconnected mode when GitLab is unreachable
• Multi-instance support — Connect to multiple GitLab instances with per-instance OAuth and rate limiting
• Multiple transports — stdio, SSE, StreamableHTTP
• OAuth 2.1 — Per-user authentication via Claude Custom Connector
• Read-only mode — Safe operation for production environments
• Auto-discovery — Detects GitLab config from git remotes
• Fine-grained control — Enable/disable tool groups, filter actions, customize descriptions
• Docker support — ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

Documentation

Full documentation is available at gitlab-mcp.sw.foundation

Section	Description
Installation	npm, Docker, VS Code, Codex
Configuration	Environment variables, feature flags
Multi-Instance	Connect to multiple GitLab instances
Tool Reference	All 44 tools with parameters
OAuth Setup	Team authentication with Claude
TLS/HTTPS	Production deployment with SSL
Customization	Tool descriptions, action filtering
CLI Tools	Browse and export tool documentation

Auto-generated Tool Reference

For the complete tool reference with parameters:

# View locally
yarn list-tools --detail

# Generate documentation
yarn list-tools --export --toc > docs/tools/api-reference.md

See the Full API Reference for the auto-generated tool documentation.

Docker

# HTTP mode
docker run -e PORT=3002 -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your_token -p 3333:3002 \
  ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

# stdio mode
docker run -i --rm -e GITLAB_TOKEN=your_token \
  ghcr.io/structured-world/gitlab-mcp:latest

Connection Resilience

The server handles GitLab connectivity issues gracefully:

• Bounded startup — Server starts within GITLAB_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS (default 5s) regardless of GitLab availability
• Disconnected mode — When GitLab is unreachable (disconnected/failed state), only the manage_context tool is exposed, with local actions such as whoami, switch_profile, and set_scope for diagnostics. During active reconnect (connecting state), the full tool list remains available so MCP clients don't lose their tool catalog during brief outages. MCP clients are notified of tool availability changes via tools/list_changed
• Auto-reconnect — Exponential backoff reconnection (5s → 60s) with ±10% jitter
• Error classification — Transient errors (network, 5xx, timeouts) trigger auto-reconnect. Auth/config errors at startup transition to failed state (no auto-reconnect). Runtime auth errors from tool calls are forwarded to HealthMonitor.reportError() via classifyError(); the remaining gap is token-revocation/403 detection (#370)
• Instance health monitor — Each monitored instance URL has its own XState state machine. Untracked OAuth URLs currently pass through as reachable.

Variable	Default	Description
GITLAB_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS	5000	Max time to wait for GitLab during startup
GITLAB_RECONNECT_BASE_DELAY_MS	5000	Initial reconnect delay (doubles each attempt)
GITLAB_RECONNECT_MAX_DELAY_MS	60000	Maximum reconnect delay
GITLAB_HEALTH_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS	60000	Health check interval when connected
GITLAB_FAILURE_THRESHOLD	3	Consecutive transient failures before disconnecting
GITLAB_TOOL_TIMEOUT_MS	120000	Max time for tool/bootstrap execution before timeout
GITLAB_RESPONSE_WRITE_TIMEOUT_MS	10000	Max time to flush a non-SSE response before destroying zombie connection (0 to disable; SSE uses heartbeat)

Feature Flags

Flag	Default	Tools Enabled
USE_LABELS	true	Label management
USE_MRS	true	Merge requests
USE_FILES	true	File operations
USE_VARIABLES	true	CI/CD variables
USE_WORKITEMS	true	Issues, epics, tasks
USE_WEBHOOKS	true	Webhook management
USE_SNIPPETS	true	Code snippets
USE_INTEGRATIONS	true	50+ integrations
USE_GITLAB_WIKI	true	Wiki pages
USE_MILESTONE	true	Milestones
USE_PIPELINE	true	Pipelines & CI/CD
USE_RELEASES	true	Release management
USE_REFS	true	Branch & tag management
USE_MEMBERS	true	Team members
USE_SEARCH	true	Cross-project search
USE_ITERATIONS	true	Iteration planning (sprints)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and PR guidelines.

Support the Project

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License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.

Based on zereight/gitlab-mcp (MIT). See LICENSE.MIT.