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GitLab MCP

GitLab MCP is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. GitLab MCP server for projects, merge requests, issues, pipelines, wiki, releases, and more. It has 2,027 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @zereight/mcp-gitlab.

github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp (opens in a new tab)

View on GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Install GitLab MCP

Generated from the server's MCP registry entry. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@zereight/mcp-gitlab"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-value --env GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN=your-value --env GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH=your-value --transport stdio gitlab-mcp -- npx -y @zereight/mcp-gitlab

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@zereight/mcp-gitlab"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "gitlab_personal_access_token",
      "description": "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "gitlab_job_token",
      "description": "GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "gitlab_auth_cookie_path",
      "description": "GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "gitlab-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@zereight/mcp-gitlab"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${input:gitlab_personal_access_token}",
        "GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN": "${input:gitlab_job_token}",
        "GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH": "${input:gitlab_auth_cookie_path}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

Environment variables

Variables the server reads at startup.

NameRequiredDescription
GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKENsecretYesGitLab personal access token for local stdio use. Create a token with the GitLab scopes needed by the tools you plan to use, such as api or read_api.
GITLAB_JOB_TOKENsecretNoOptional GitLab CI job token to use instead of a personal access token when running inside GitLab CI.
GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATHsecretNoOptional path to a GitLab authentication cookie file for cookie-based authentication.
GITLAB_API_URLNoGitLab API base URL. Use https://gitlab.com/api/v4 for GitLab.com or your self-managed GitLab API URL.
GITLAB_ALLOWED_PROJECT_IDSNoOptional comma-separated list of GitLab project IDs that this server is allowed to access.
GITLAB_READ_ONLY_MODENoSet to true to expose only read-only tools and block write operations.
USE_GITLAB_WIKINoSet to true to enable GitLab wiki tools.
GITLAB_TOOLSETSNoOptional comma-separated list of toolsets to enable, such as projects, issues, merge_requests, pipelines, releases, users, groups, wiki, or search.
GITLAB_TOOLSNoOptional comma-separated list of individual tool names to add on top of enabled toolsets.
GITLAB_DENIED_TOOLS_REGEXNoOptional regular expression used to hide matching tools from the server.
GITLAB_TOOL_POLICY_APPROVENoOptional comma-separated list of tool names that require explicit approval before execution.
GITLAB_TOOL_POLICY_HIDDENNoOptional comma-separated list of tool names to hide from tools/list.
NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZEDNoSet to 0 only when you intentionally need to connect to a GitLab instance with invalid or self-signed TLS certificates.
GITLAB_CA_CERT_PATHNoOptional path to a custom CA certificate file for self-managed GitLab instances.
GITLAB_MASKING_ENABLEDNoSet to true to mask text tool results and returned errors using built-in or configured rules.
GITLAB_MASKING_CONFIGNoOptional path to a response-masking JSON configuration file.
GITLAB_MASKING_POLICY_FILENoOptional protected server-owned JSON file containing managed masking policies.
GITLAB_MASKING_WORKSPACE_DIRNoDirectory used to resolve response-masking configuration paths.

About GitLab MCP

📖 Documentation → Setup guides, environment variables, and the full tool reference live on the hosted docs site. Agent-workflow-optimized GitLab MCP — manage projects, merge requests, issues, pipelines, wiki, releases, tags, milestones, and more through stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP.

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FAQ

GitLab MCP FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What is GitLab MCP?

GitLab MCP is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. GitLab MCP server for projects, merge requests, issues, pipelines, wiki, releases, and more. It has 2,027 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @zereight/mcp-gitlab. The source code is at github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.

How do I install the GitLab MCP MCP server?

Add the command npx -y @zereight/mcp-gitlab to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is GitLab MCP free?

The server is open source under the MIT license, so running it is free. It needs credentials (GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN, GITLAB_JOB_TOKEN and GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH) for the service it connects to, which may require a paid account.

Is GitLab MCP actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Oct 6, 2026. The latest release is v2.1.69, published Oct 3, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months and re-checks every server daily.