ovn-kubernetes/ovn-kubernetes-mcp

ovn-kubernetes-mcp

Repo hosting the Model Context Protocol Server for troubleshooting OVN-Kubernetes

How to connect to the MCP Server

For connecting to the MCP server, the following steps are required:

make build

The server supports 3 operating modes:

• live-cluster (default): Connect to a live Kubernetes cluster for real-time debugging
• offline: Offline troubleshooting without requiring cluster access
• both: In this mode, tools from both live-cluster and offline modes will be available.

The server currently supports 2 transport modes: stdio and http.

Live Cluster Mode

For stdio mode, the server can be run and connected to by using the following configuration in an MCP host (Cursor, Claude, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ovn-kubernetes": {
      "command": "/PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server",
      "args": [
        "--kubeconfig",
        "/PATH-TO-THE-KUBECONFIG-FILE"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For http mode, the server should be started separately:

./PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server --transport http --kubeconfig /PATH-TO-THE-KUBECONFIG-FILE

The following configuration should be used in an MCP host (Cursor, Claude, etc.) to connect to the server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ovn-kubernetes": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8080"
    }
  }
}

Offline Mode

For offline troubleshooting (e.g., analyzing sosreports, must-gathers), use --mode offline:

For stdio mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ovn-kubernetes": {
      "command": "/PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server",
      "args": ["--mode", "offline"]
    }
  }
}

For http mode:

./PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server --transport http --mode offline

NOTE: For must-gather tools to be added, availability of omc binary is mandatory. Otherwise, the must-gather tools will not be added to the MCP server. Additionally, if ovsdb-tool binary is not available, then some of the must-gather tools, which use ovsdb-tool binary, will not be added to the MCP server.

Both Mode

For using both live-cluster (needs kubeconfig) and offline tools, use --mode both:

For stdio mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ovn-kubernetes": {
      "command": "/PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server",
      "args": [
        "--mode",
        "both",
        "--kubeconfig",
        "/PATH-TO-THE-KUBECONFIG-FILE"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For http mode:

./PATH-TO-THE-LOCAL-GIT-REPO/_output/ovnk-mcp-server --transport http --mode both --kubeconfig /PATH-TO-THE-KUBECONFIG-FILE