Connect your AI assistant to GitLab so it can review merge requests, triage pipelines, manage issues, and draft releases — in plain language. 1000+ tools over the full REST + GraphQL API.
GitLab MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server that enables AI assistants to interact with GitLab through natural language. Ask your AI to create issues, review merge requests, analyze pipelines, and much more — all without leaving your editor.
It exposes over 1,000 GitLab operations as MCP tools — 847 on Community Edition and up to 1071 on GitLab.com — across three tool modes: a low-token dynamic surface (2 tools), 32 domain meta-tools, or one tool per operation. It ships as a single Go binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and runs locally over stdio or as a shared HTTP service. Free and open source under the MIT license.
GitLab MCP Server lets your AI assistant run GitLab tasks for you — querying, creating, and updating resources straight from a chat prompt. Instead of switching between your editor and GitLab’s web UI, just ask:
Show me all open merge requests in my-project that need review
Why did the pipeline fail on branch feature/auth? Summarize the error and suggest a fix
Create an issue titled "Refactor auth module" with priority label and assign it to me
The server translates these requests into GitLab API calls, executes them, and returns structured results your AI assistant can understand and act upon.
Default 2-tool low-token mode: find canonical actions with exact schemas, then execute canonical GitLab actions
Meta-Tools
Optional domain mode with 32 base tools, 49 on self-managed Enterprise/Premium, and 50 on GitLab.com Enterprise/Premium with Orbit, covering projects, issues, MRs, pipelines, CI/CD, and more
45 MCP Resources
Read-only data endpoints for project info, user profiles, workflow guides, and the surface-aware gitlab://tools manifest
37 MCP Prompts
Pre-built prompt templates for reports, audits, Git workflow quality, cross-project analysis, and team workflows
Multi-User HTTP Mode
Deploy as a shared server with per-token isolation for team environments
GitLab CE & EE
Compatible with both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition, including self-hosted instances
The N+1 fix changed the query to return all results without applying the default pagination limit.
Suggested fix: Add .Limit(defaultPageSize) to the query in user_repository.go:87.
graph LR
A[You] -->|natural language| B[AI Client]
B -->|MCP protocol| C[GitLab MCP Server]
C -->|REST v4 + GraphQL| D[GitLab Instance]
D -->|JSON response| C
C -->|structured result| B
B -->|formatted answer| A
The server acts as a bridge: your AI client sends tool calls over the MCP protocol, the server translates them into GitLab REST API v4 or GraphQL requests, and returns the results in both structured JSON (for the AI) and formatted Markdown (for you).
GitLab MCP Server is a free, open-source Model Context Protocol server that lets AI assistants interact with GitLab through natural language. It exposes the GitLab REST v4 and GraphQL APIs as MCP tools, so an assistant can review merge requests, triage pipelines, manage issues, and draft releases on your behalf. It ships as a single Go binary and runs locally over stdio or remotely over HTTP.
Any MCP-compatible client works — including VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Claude Code, plus any other client that speaks the Model Context Protocol over stdio or HTTP transport. Configuration is a small JSON snippet per client.
Yes. GitLab MCP Server is free and open source under the MIT license, with the full source on GitHub. There is no paid tier of the server itself; GitLab Premium or Ultimate features are gated only by your own GitLab instance license, not by the MCP server.
Does it work with self-hosted GitLab and Community Edition?
Yes. It works with GitLab.com and self-hosted instances, and with both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition. Point it at any GitLab URL with a personal access token. Premium and Ultimate tools register only when the connected instance is licensed for them.
