15 Meta-Tools
Grouped tools for optimal LLM tool selection, or 98 granular tools for full control.
Portainer MCP Server
Connect AI assistants to your Portainer instance — manage containers, stacks, Kubernetes, and more through natural language.
What is Portainer MCP?
Section titled “What is Portainer MCP?”Portainer MCP is a Model Context Protocol server that connects AI assistants — like Claude Desktop, VS Code Copilot, and Cursor — to your Portainer instance. It exposes 98 tools covering the complete Portainer API, enabling natural language management of your container infrastructure.
Key Features
Section titled “Key Features”Complete API Coverage
Environments, stacks, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, users, teams, registries, edge computing, backups, and more.
Read-Only Mode
Restrict to observation-only operations for safe monitoring.
MCP Annotations
Every tool includes readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, and openWorldHint for safe AI operation.
Version-Pinned
Validated against specific Portainer versions to prevent API mismatches.
Zero Dependencies
Single static binary, no runtime requirements.
How It Works
Section titled “How It Works”┌─────────────────────┐ MCP Protocol ┌─────────────────────┐ HTTPS ┌───────────────┐│ AI Assistant │ ◄──── (stdio/JSON-RPC) ──►│ Portainer MCP │ ◄──────────────► │ Portainer ││ Claude / Copilot │ │ Server │ │ API ││ Cursor / etc. │ │ (15 meta-tools) │ │ v2.39.1 │└─────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────┘ └───────────────┘Quick Example
Section titled “Quick Example”Ask your AI assistant:
“List all environments and show me the Docker dashboard for the local one”
The assistant will call manage_environments with action: list_environments, then manage_docker with action: get_docker_dashboard — all handled automatically.
Compatibility
Section titled “Compatibility”| MCP Server Version | Supported Portainer |
|---|---|
| v0.7.x | 2.39.1 |
| v0.6.x | 2.31.2 |
| v0.5.x | 2.30.0 |
| v0.4.x | 2.27.4 |