Cyclops MCP (Model Context Protocol)

Cyclops MCP allows your favorite AI agent to manage your Kubernetes applications. Cyclops MCP servers provide tools for agents to create and update existing applications safely.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0c675c33-1e36-4fdb-bf8c-2fd7fb491e6b

This means it can check all of your existing templates and the schema of those templates to create accurate and production-ready applications. Your agent now has much less room to make a misconfiguration since it creates high-level resources (Cyclops Modules) instead of touching every line of your Kubernetes resources (Deployments, Services, and Ingresses).

It allows you to move fast and ensure no uncaught misconfigurations are hitting your production.

With Cyclops and our MCP, you can now abstract Kubernetes complexity from your developers AND your AI agents

Install via UI

The easiest way to install the Cyclops MCP server is through the Cyclops UI. Below are instructions on how to install it via binary and kubectl, but the recommended way of installing it is via the UI.

⚠️ To install Cyclops MCP through the UI, you should run Cyclops on a version v0.20.1 or greater

1. Install the Cyclops MCP by going to sidebar “Addon” > "MCP server". You can now click "Install Cyclops MCP server" and your Cyclops MCP server will be up and running in a few seconds.

1. Now that your MCP server is up running, all thats left is exposing it outside of your cluster and connecting your AI agent to it.

   To expose the MCP server on localhost you can simply port-forward it with the following command:

   kubectl port-forward -n cyclops svc/cyclops-mcp 8000:8000
   

   Your server is now available on localhost:8000.

2. To connect it to an AI agent you will just have to provide the Cyclops MCP server in its configuration. For example, to add it to Cursor, you can simply add it with the following JSON:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "cyclops-kubernetes": {
         "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
       }
     }
   }
   

You can now start a fresh conversation with your AI companion. Above is an example of how we used it with Cursor.

1. Make sure Cyclops is installed in your Kubernetes cluster

Check our docs on how it install it with a single command - https://cyclops-ui.com/docs/installation/install/manifest

2. Download MCP server

You can download the Cyclops MCP server binary with the following command:

GOBIN="$HOME/go/bin" go install github.com/cyclops-ui/mcp-cyclops/cmd/mcp-cyclops@latest

3. Add server configuration

⚠️ By default, Cyclops MCP will use the .kube/config file to connect to your cluster

Configure your MCP Cyclops server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-cyclops": {
      "command": "mcp-cyclops"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

You can configure Cyclops MCP server via env variables. Below is an example of adding the configuration for specifying the kubeconfig file the Cyclops MCP server should use when managing your Cyclops applications.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-cyclops": {
      "command": "mcp-cyclops",
      "env": {
        "KUBECONFIG": "/path/to/your/kubeconfig"
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment variables

Below is the list of environment variables used for configuring your Cyclops MCP server:

Instead of having each developer install mcp-cyclops binary, you can install the Cyclops MCP server with SSE as transport type to your Kubernetes cluster and allow all of your developers to connect to the same server.

1. Before installing, make sure Cyclops and all its CRDs are installed in your cluster:

   1. Check Cyclops pods are running:

      kubectl get pods -n cyclops
      

      Should write:

      NAME                            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
      cyclops-ctrl-676b5d9789-ntcls   1/1     Running   0          94s
      cyclops-ui-7798655f97-xdg29     1/1     Running   0          94s
      

   2. Check if CRDs are installed

      kubectl get crds | grep cyclops-ui
      

      Should write:

      modules.cyclops-ui.com             2025-04-26T15:28:18Z
      templateauthrules.cyclops-ui.com   2025-04-26T15:28:18Z
      templatestores.cyclops-ui.com      2025-04-26T15:28:18Z
      

2. Install Cyclops MCP server with the following command:

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cyclops-ui/mcp-cyclops/refs/heads/main/install/mcp-server.yaml
   

3. You can now expose the cyclops-mcp service. To test your MCP server, you can port-forward it:

   kubectl port-forward svc/cyclops-mcp -n cyclops 8000:8000
   

4. Add your Cyclops MCP server host, or in case you are testing it, the localhost address where you port-forwarded the MCP service:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "mcp-cyclops": {
         "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
       }
     }
   }
   

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