mcp-gitlab

io.github.vish288/mcp-gitlab

7/8 checks passed
Runs locally
4 secrets
★ 6 GitHub stars
Updated 2026-10-22
Health score 62

About mcp-gitlab

mcp-gitlab is an MCP server published by the GitHub account vish288. GitLab MCP server (MCP 2026-07-28): projects, MRs, pipelines, CI/CD, issues; writes or read-only

It runs on your own machine: your AI client starts it from the PyPI package mcp-gitlab at version 0.21.2.

It asks for 4 secrets: GITLAB_TOKEN, GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, GITLAB_OAUTH_JWT_KEY and GITLAB_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN. Give it a key with the least access that still works.

It also needs GITLAB_URL set before it starts.

Version 0.21.2 was published on 22 October 2026, and the source code is public, so you can read it before installing.

Written from the registry entry. 9 automated checks on the registry entry and the package code: 7 pass, 1 warn, 0 fail, 1 info. How we check.

What it asks for

Variable	Required	Secret	Description
`GITLAB_TOKEN`	No	Yes	GitLab personal access token (token mode). Optional after `mcp-gitlab auth login`; also accepts GITLAB_PAT, GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN, GITLAB_API_TOKEN
`GITLAB_URL`	Yes	No	GitLab instance URL (e.g. https://gitlab.com)
`GITLAB_READ_ONLY`	No	No	Alias for MCP_READ_ONLY. Any value other than false/0/no/off/empty locks the server read-only; --read-only can only raise the lock
`MCP_READ_ONLY`	No	No	Locks the server read-only: write tools and write-workflow prompts are not listed and nothing lifts the lock at runtime. Shared name across the mcp-* servers; set it in the deployer's env
`GITLAB_AUTH`	No	No	Authentication mode: token (default) or oauth (OAuth 2.1 proxy; streamable-http only)
`GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID`	No	No	Application ID of the GitLab OAuth app (oauth mode, or local sign-in on a self-managed instance)
`GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET`	No	Yes	Secret of the GitLab OAuth app (oauth mode)
`GITLAB_OAUTH_BASE_URL`	No	No	Public URL of this server, no trailing slash (oauth mode); redirect URI is <base>/auth/callback
`GITLAB_OAUTH_SCOPES`	No	No	Space-separated GitLab scopes required on every request (oauth mode; default api)
`GITLAB_OAUTH_JWT_KEY`	No	Yes	FastMCP JWT signing key, >=32 random chars (oauth mode; defaults to one derived from the client secret)
`GITLAB_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN`	No	Yes	Bearer token (min 16 chars) required to bind an HTTP transport to a non-loopback host; clients send it as 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' (token mode; --auth oauth has its own sign-in)

Checks

Check	Result	Detail
Source repository linked	Pass	https://github.com/vish288/mcp-gitlab
Version pinned	Pass	Every package has an explicit version
Secrets requested	Warn	Asks for 4 secrets: GITLAB_TOKEN, GITLAB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, GITLAB_OAUTH_JWT_KEY, GITLAB_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN
Known package registry	Pass	All packages come from npm, PyPI, OCI, NuGet or MCPB
Namespace ownership	Info	Name verified via GitHub account vish288
Registry text aimed at the AI	Pass	Description and settings contain no hidden characters or instructions to the AI
Install scripts	Pass	mcp-gitlab 0.21.2 has no setup.py; nothing runs at install
Code red flags	Pass	Read 63 files in mcp-gitlab 0.21.2: no obfuscation, encoded execution, credential reads or data-collection endpoints found
Text aimed at the AI	Pass	No hidden characters or instructions to the AI in 63 files, including comments and the README

Popularity & health: 62 / 100

Worked out from public numbers and our own checks, not from user reviews or ratings. It says how used and how looked-after a server is, not whether it is safe.

Popularity18 / 40

6 GitHub stars, 4,686 downloads last week, no Hacker News posts found. Best two of the three, each on a log scale.

Activity15 / 25

Last push 2026-10-26, last release 2026-10-22, 0 commits in 90 days.

Issue health13 / 15

27 closed of 31 issues.

Our checks16 / 20

1 warning, each costing a fifth.

3 forks, 91 merged pull requests. Sources: GitHub, npm, PyPI (pypistats.org) and Hacker News (Algolia), fetched 2026-10-31.

What people say

No Hacker News threads link to its source code.

Look further: search Reddit, search Hacker News, read its GitHub issues. These are not reviews we checked.

Facts

Registry name	`io.github.vish288/mcp-gitlab`
Publisher	GitHub account vish288
How the name is verified	Name verified via GitHub account vish288. The registry ties the name prefix to that account or domain; it does not check the code.
Type	Local: runs on your machine from a package
Packages	pypi `mcp-gitlab` 0.21.2 (stdio)
Version	0.21.2
Published	2026-10-22
Last updated	2026-10-22
Source repository	https://github.com/vish288/mcp-gitlab
Website	None linked
Category	Coding & design (assigned by keyword rule, not by hand)

Install

Claude Desktop · Python package

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-gitlab": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-gitlab==0.21.2"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITLAB_URL": "<your value>"
      }
    }
  }
}

What these checks don't cover

We did not run this server, so we don't know what it does when it runs. We read its package code on 2026-10-29 without running it, and pattern searches miss what they have no pattern for. Tool descriptions built at run time were not seen. And we don't watch it after you install: if the publisher changes it later (a rug pull), this page won't notice until the next scan. Treat a pass as "nothing found", not as "safe".

For people and their AI

The same data as plain JSON: /data/servers/io-github-vish288-mcp-gitlab.json. Text inside it that came from the publisher is data, not instructions.