cerngitlab-mcp

Features

• 14 MCP tools for searching, browsing, and analyzing CERN GitLab repositories
• Public access — works without authentication for public repositories
• HEP-focused — dependency parsing for Python and C++ ecosystems, binary detection for .root files
• Robust — rate limiting, retries with exponential backoff, graceful error handling

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+.

Quickstart (recommended)

No installation needed — just use uvx to run directly:

uvx cerngitlab-mcp

From PyPI

pip install cerngitlab-mcp

From source

git clone https://github.com/MohamedElashri/cerngitlab-mcp
cd cerngitlab-mcp
uv sync

Configuration

All settings are configured via environment variables prefixed with CERNGITLAB_:

Variable	Default	Description
CERNGITLAB_GITLAB_URL	https://gitlab.cern.ch	GitLab instance URL
CERNGITLAB_TOKEN	(empty)	Personal access token (optional)
CERNGITLAB_TIMEOUT	30	HTTP timeout in seconds
CERNGITLAB_MAX_RETRIES	3	Max retries for failed requests
CERNGITLAB_RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE	300	API rate limit
CERNGITLAB_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Logging level

Authentication

The server works in two modes:

• Without token — Access to all public repositories. Sufficient for most HEP code discovery.
• With token — Additional access to internal/private projects, code search, and wiki pages.

To create a token:

1. Go to https://gitlab.cern.ch/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens
2. Create a token with read_api scope
3. Set CERNGITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Note: The code search (search_code) and wiki (get_wiki_pages) tools require authentication on CERN GitLab.

Usage

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cerngitlab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["cerngitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CERNGITLAB_TOKEN": "glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add cerngitlab-mcp -- uvx cerngitlab-mcp

To include authentication:

claude mcp add cerngitlab-mcp -e CERNGITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx -- uvx cerngitlab-mcp

GitHub Copilot

Add to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "cerngitlab": {
        "command": "uvx",
        "args": ["cerngitlab-mcp"],
        "env": {
          "CERNGITLAB_TOKEN": "glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Or add a .vscode/mcp.json to your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "cerngitlab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["cerngitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CERNGITLAB_TOKEN": "glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

Add to your ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cerngitlab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["cerngitlab-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CERNGITLAB_TOKEN": "glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Direct usage

# Run with uvx (no install needed)
uvx cerngitlab-mcp

# Or if installed from PyPI
cerngitlab-mcp

# Or from source
uv run cerngitlab-mcp

# With authentication
CERNGITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxx uvx cerngitlab-mcp

Tools

Tool	Description	Auth required
search_repositories	Search public repositories by keywords, topics, or language	No
get_repository_info	Get repository details (languages, stats, license)	No
list_repository_files	Browse the file tree of a repository	No
get_file_content	Retrieve file content with binary detection	No
get_repository_readme	Get the README file (tries common filenames)	No
search_code	Search for code across repositories	Yes*
get_wiki_pages	Access repository wiki pages	Yes
analyze_dependencies	Parse dependency files (Python, C++, Fortran)	No
get_ci_config	Retrieve and analyze .gitlab-ci.yml	No
get_build_config	Find build config files (CMake, Make, setuptools, etc.)	No
list_releases	List releases from a repository	No
get_release	Get details of a specific release	No
list_tags	List repository tags with optional filtering	No
test_connectivity	Test connection to the GitLab instance	No

* search_code works without auth for project-scoped search (uses fallback grep). Global search requires authentication.

For detailed parameter documentation, see dev.md.

Example Prompts

Search for repositories

"Search CERN GitLab for Python repositories related to ROOT analysis and show me the most starred ones"

Understand a project

"Get the README and file structure of the lhcb/DaVinci project on CERN GitLab"

Find fitting examples

"Search for repositories on CERN GitLab that use RooFit and show me example fitting code"

Check dependencies

"What are the dependencies of the lhcb/allen project? Show me the CMakeLists.txt and any Python requirements"

Track releases

"List the recent releases of lhcb/DaVinci and show me the release notes for the latest version"

Explore CI/CD

"Get the CI/CD configuration of the lhcb/allen project and explain the pipeline stages"

Find framework configurations

"Search for Gaudi framework configuration files on CERN GitLab and show me examples"

Development

See dev.md for development setup, project structure, testing, and release instructions.

License

AGPL-3.0