gl-mcp

GitLab MCP server for Claude Code. Single Rust binary, 4MB, 16 tools.

Quick Start

# Build
cargo build --release

# Configure Claude Code (.mcp.json in your project root)
cat > .mcp.json << 'EOF'
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitlab": {
      "command": "/path/to/gl-mcp/target/release/gl-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com",
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "glpat-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}
EOF

Restart Claude Code. The gitlab MCP server will be available.

Tools (16)

Projects

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_projects | List accessible projects | | get_project | Project details (stars, forks, topics) | | list_members | Project members with access levels | | list_group_projects | All projects in a group (with subgroups) |

Issues

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | search_issues | Search across projects, filter by state/labels/assignee | | get_issue | Full details with description and comments | | create_issue | Create issue with labels and assignee |

Merge Requests

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_merge_requests | List MRs, filter by state/scope | | get_merge_request | Full MR details with pipeline status and comments |

CI/CD Pipelines

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_pipelines | List pipelines, filter by status/ref | | get_pipeline | Pipeline details with jobs grouped by stage |

Commits & Code Review

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_commits | Commits by branch/author/date, grouped by author | | get_commit_diff | Commit diff with smart filtering and language grouping | | get_mr_changes | MR unified diff with smart filtering | | get_file_content | File content at any branch/tag/SHA | | get_user_activity | Developer metrics: commits, MRs opened/merged/approved |

Token Compression

Diffs can be large. Three levels of compression:

# 1. Summary only (~10x smaller) - use first to scan
get_commit_diff(sha="abc123", summary_only=true)

# 2. Single file - drill into what matters
get_commit_diff(sha="abc123", file="AuthController.php")

# 3. Global compact mode - strip all markdown
GITLAB_COMPACT=1

| Mode | Response size | Use when | |------|--------------|----------| | Full diff | ~4000 chars | Reviewing 1-2 commits | | summary_only=true | ~300 chars | Scanning 10+ commits | | file="path" | ~500 chars | Drilling into specific file | | GITLAB_COMPACT=1 | ~40% smaller | Always-on token savings |

Smart Filtering

Automatically skips lockfiles and generated code:

package-lock.json, yarn.lock, composer.lock, go.sum, Cargo.lock
vendor/, node_modules/, dist/, build/
.min.js, .min.css, .map, .pb.go

Language detection for: PHP, Go, Kotlin, Java, Swift, TypeScript, JavaScript, Rust, Python, YAML/Ansible, Shell, SQL, Vue, CSS, Gradle, Docker, CI/CD.

Configuration

Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | GITLAB_URL | Yes | GitLab instance URL | | GITLAB_TOKEN | Yes | Personal access token (api or read_api scope) | | GITLAB_COMPACT | No | Strip markdown formatting (1/true/yes) | | GITLAB_READ_ONLY | No | Disable write tools (1/true/yes) | | DISABLED_TOOLS | No | Comma-separated tools to disable | | GITLAB_ALLOW_HTTP | No | Allow non-HTTPS URLs |

Multi-Instance

{
  "env": {
    "GITLAB_INSTANCES": "main,staging",
    "GITLAB_MAIN_URL": "https://gitlab.example.com",
    "GITLAB_MAIN_TOKEN": "glpat-xxx",
    "GITLAB_STAGING_URL": "https://staging.gitlab.example.com",
    "GITLAB_STAGING_TOKEN": "glpat-yyy"
  }
}

Pass instance="staging" to any tool. URLs in issue/MR identifiers auto-resolve to the correct instance.

Required Token Scopes

| Scope | Needed for | |-------|-----------| | read_api | All read tools (minimum) | | api | create_issue and other write tools | | read_user | get_user_activity | | read_repository | get_file_content, get_commit_diff |

Architecture

Mirrors yt-mcp patterns:

Frozen config from env vars, parsed once at startup
Multi-instance resolver with domain auto-detection
Analytics logging to ~/.gl-mcp/analytics.log (JSON, safe params only)
Persistent instance_id for installation tracking
Write tool filtering via GITLAB_READ_ONLY / DISABLED_TOOLS
Response size warnings on >15KB responses

Stack

rmcp 0.11 - MCP protocol
reqwest - HTTP client with connection pooling
tokio - async runtime
serde / schemars - JSON + schema generation

Build

cargo build --release
# Binary: target/release/gl-mcp (~4MB)

Cross-compile:

# Linux
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

# macOS Intel
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin

License

MIT

MCP Servers