Migration Notice

This repo has been migrated to aws-samples. New repo path is https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-mcp-server-automation . This repo is archived.

MCP Server Automation CLI

A powerful CLI tool that automates the process of transforming Model Context Protocol (MCP) stdio servers into Docker images deployed on AWS ECS using mcp-proxy. This tool bridges the gap between local MCP servers and remote HTTP-based deployments.

🚀 Features

• 🔄 Automatic Build: Fetch MCP servers from GitHub, build Docker images, and push to ECR
• ☁️ One-Click Deploy: Generate CloudFormation templates and deploy complete ECS infrastructure
• 🔍 Smart Detection: Automatically detect MCP server commands from README files
• 🐳 Multi-Architecture: Support for Python, Node.js, and hybrid MCP servers
• 🔧 Debug Support: Built-in debug logging for troubleshooting
• 📝 Config Generation: Generate MCP client configurations for Claude Desktop, Cline, etc.

📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• Docker (with daemon running)
• AWS CLI configured with appropriate permissions
• AWS ECR repository (created if using ECR push)
• AWS ECS cluster (created if deploying)

Install uv

# On macOS and Linux.
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# On Windows.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

📖 Quick Start

Using uvx (Recommended)

The easiest way to use this tool is with uvx, which handles dependencies automatically:

# Install from a Git repository
uvx --from git+https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-mcp-server-automation mcp-server-automation --config your-config.yaml

Local Development Setup

# Clone and setup
git clone <repository-url>
cd mcp-convert-automate

# Create virtual environment and install dependencies
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Install in development mode (optional - for local CLI usage)
pip install -e .

⚙️ Configuration

The tool uses a unified YAML configuration file with build and deploy sections.

Unified Configuration

build:
  # Required: GitHub repository URL
  github_url: "https://github.com/awslabs/mcp"

  # Optional: Subfolder if MCP server is not in root
  subfolder: "src/aws-documentation-mcp-server"

  # Optional: Git branch to build from (default: main)
  branch: "main"

  # Required for deployment: Must be true to enable ECR push and deployment
  push_to_ecr: true

  # Optional: Custom Docker image configuration
  # If not specified, auto-generated when push_to_ecr=true
  # image:
  #   repository: "123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mcp-servers/my-mcp-server"
  #   tag: "v1.0"  # Optional, defaults to dynamic git-based tag

  # Optional: AWS region (default: from AWS profile, fallback to us-east-1)
  # aws_region: "us-west-2"

  # Optional: Custom Dockerfile path
  # dockerfile_path: "./custom.Dockerfile"

  # Optional: Override auto-detected MCP server command
  # Required when README only contains Docker commands or no suitable command is found
  # command_override:
  #   - "python"
  #   - "-m"
  #   - "my_server_module"
  #   - "--verbose"

  # Optional: Set environment variables in the container
  # environment_variables:
  #   LOG_LEVEL: "debug"
  #   AWS_REGION: "us-east-1"
  #   MCP_SERVER_NAME: "custom-server"

deploy:
  # Required: Enable deployment (only works when push_to_ecr=true)
  enabled: true

  # Required: ECS service name
  service_name: "my-mcp-service"

  # Required: ECS cluster name
  cluster_name: "my-ecs-cluster"

  # Required: VPC ID where resources will be created
  vpc_id: "vpc-12345678"

  # Required: Subnet configuration
  alb_subnet_ids:    # Public subnets for ALB (minimum 2 in different AZs)
    - "subnet-public-1"
    - "subnet-public-2"
  ecs_subnet_ids:    # Private subnets for ECS tasks (minimum 1, should resides in AZ of alb_subnet_ids)
    - "subnet-private-1"
    - "subnet-private-2"

  # Optional: Container port (default: 8000)
  port: 8000

  # Optional: Task CPU units (default: 256)
  cpu: 256

  # Optional: Task memory in MB (default: 512)
  memory: 512

  # Optional: SSL certificate ARN for HTTPS
  certificate_arn: "arn:aws:acm:us-east-1:123456789012:certificate/12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012"

  # Optional: Save MCP client configuration to file
  save_config: "./mcp-config.json"

🏗️ Architecture

Build Process Flow

1. Repository Analysis: Downloads GitHub repos and detects MCP server configuration from README files
2. Command Detection: Parses JSON blocks in README files to extract MCP server start commands, prioritizing NPX/uvx over Docker commands
3. Dockerfile Generation: Uses Jinja2 templates to create multi-stage Docker builds with mcp-proxy CLI integration
4. Image Building: Creates hybrid Node.js + Python containers with proper dependency management

Deployment Architecture

GitHub Repo → Docker Build → ECR → ECS Fargate ← ALB ← Internet
     ↓              ↓           ↓         ↓        ↓
MCP Server → mcp-proxy + MCP → Image → Service → HTTP/SSE Endpoints

Key Technical Details

• mcp-proxy Integration: Uses TypeScript/Node.js CLI tool for HTTP transport with debug logging enabled
• Container Architecture: Multi-stage builds with node:24-bullseye base image, includes netcat for health checks
• Command Format: mcp-proxy --debug --port 8000 --shell <command> [-- <args>] for proper argument ordering
• Transport Protocol: Converts MCP stdio to HTTP with /mcp endpoint for Streamable HTTP transport
• Dynamic Tagging: Images tagged with git commit hash and timestamp (e.g., a1b2c3d4-develop-20231222-143055)
• Branch Support: Can build from specific git branches, defaults to 'main'
• Health Checks: Container uses netcat port checking, ALB health checks /mcp endpoint expecting HTTP 400
• MCP Config Generation: Automatically generates and prints MCP client configuration after deployment
• Infrastructure: Complete CloudFormation stack with VPC, ALB, ECS Fargate, security groups, and IAM roles

🔧 Advanced Usage

Custom Dockerfile

build:
  github_url: "https://github.com/my-org/custom-mcp-server"
  dockerfile_path: "./custom/Dockerfile"
  push_to_ecr: true
deploy:
  enabled: true
  # ... deployment configuration

Command Detection and Override

The tool automatically detects MCP server startup commands from:

1. README files - JSON configuration blocks with mcpServers
2. pyproject.toml - Console scripts or main modules
3. setup.py - Entry points and scripts

Command Override Required When:

• README only contains Docker commands (not suitable for containerization)
• No suitable startup command can be detected
• You want to specify exact startup parameters

Example:

build:
  github_url: "https://github.com/my-org/custom-mcp-server"
  command_override:
    - "python"
    - "-m"
    - "my_server_module"
    - "--verbose"
    - "--port"
    - "3000"
  push_to_ecr: true

Error Example: If your MCP server README only shows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "myserver": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "myserver:latest"]
    }
  }
}

You'll get an error requiring command_override to specify the direct startup command.

Environment Variables in Container

Set custom environment variables that will be available to the MCP server at runtime:

build:
  github_url: "https://github.com/my-org/custom-mcp-server"
  environment_variables:
    LOG_LEVEL: "debug"
    AWS_REGION: "us-east-1"
    MCP_SERVER_NAME: "custom-server"
    PYTHONPATH: "/app/mcp-server:/custom/path"
  push_to_ecr: true

System Environment Variables

Set environment variables to override default AWS settings:

export AWS_REGION=us-west-2
export ECS_CLUSTER_NAME=my-production-cluster

🐛 Troubleshooting

Docker Build Issues

• Ensure Docker daemon is running
• Check that the MCP server has proper dependency files (requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, etc.)
• Verify GitHub repository URL is accessible

ECR Push Issues

• Ensure AWS credentials have ECR permissions
• Verify ECR repository exists and is accessible
• Check that Docker is authenticated with ECR

CloudFormation Deployment Issues

• Ensure AWS credentials have sufficient permissions
• Check that the ECS cluster exists
• Verify AWS region is correct
• Review CloudFormation events in AWS Console for detailed error messages

MCP Server Connection Issues

• Check container logs: docker logs <container-id>
• Verify health check endpoint: curl http://<alb-url>/mcp (expects HTTP 400)
• Test direct connection: curl http://<alb-url>/mcp
• Use debug mode for detailed logging

🔐 AWS Permissions Required

The AWS credentials used must have the following permissions:

ECR Permissions

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ecr:BatchCheckLayerAvailability",
        "ecr:GetDownloadUrlForLayer",
        "ecr:BatchGetImage",
        "ecr:GetAuthorizationToken",
        "ecr:PutImage",
        "ecr:InitiateLayerUpload",
        "ecr:UploadLayerPart",
        "ecr:CompleteLayerUpload"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

ECS and CloudFormation Permissions

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ecs:*",
        "cloudformation:*",
        "ec2:*",
        "elasticloadbalancing:*",
        "iam:CreateRole",
        "iam:AttachRolePolicy",
        "iam:PassRole",
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

📝 MCP Client Configuration

After deployment, the tool generates configuration for MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-mcp-server": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://<ALB address>/sse"
    }
  }
}

Testing MCP Connection

# Install mcp-proxy client
npm install -g mcp-proxy

# Test connection
mcp-proxy https://your-alb-url.amazonaws.com/mcp

Security

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

License

This library is licensed under the MIT-0 License. See the LICENSE file.

🆘 Support

• Check the troubleshooting section for common issues
• Review CloudFormation events in AWS Console for deployment issues
• Use debug mode for detailed logging
• Open an issue for bugs or feature requests