Setup

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/kencopas/GitLab-MCP
cd GitLab-MCP

Install Dependencies

Windows

uv venv  # OR python3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
uv sync  # OR pip install -r requirements.txt

Linux

uv venv  # OR python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync  # OR pip install -r requirements.txt

Setup Environment Variables

Create a .env in the root of the project in the same manner as the .env.example file. Update the following environment variables:

GITLAB_API_PAT=your_personal_access_token_here
GITLAB_URL=https://gitlab.com

To get a GitLab access token, login to your GitLab account and click your user profile icon. Then navigate to Edit profile > Access tokens > Add new token. Select the required scopes (at least the api scope but the more the merrier) and then create the token.

Register MCP Server

Go to the search bar at the top of VS Code and select > MCP: Open User Configuration to open the mcp.json file (for other IDEs find the equivalent file). Make sure the following entry is included:

Windows

{
    "servers": {
        "gitlab-mcp": {
			"type": "stdio",
			"command": "C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\your\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
			"args": [
				"C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\your\\GitLab-MCP\\main.py"
			]
		}
    }
}

Linux

{
    "servers": {
        "gitlab-mcp": {
			"type": "stdio",
			"command": "/absolute/path/to/your/venv/bin/python",
			"args": [
				"/absolute/path/to/your/GitLab-MCP/main.py"
			]
		}
    }
}

!!!_ Ensure these filepaths are absolute and Windows paths have double-escaped backslashes (\\).

Run the MCP Server

In VS Code, upon adding a server entry you should be able to click the Start text that appears above the entry.

Now GitHub Copilot should have access to the tools and resources within the server.

Podman Command

podman run --rm -it \
--security-opt label=disable \
-e GITLAB_API_PAT=glpat-yourpat \
-e GITLAB_URL=https://your-gitlab-instance.com \
gitlab-mcp:dev