# mcp-gitlab-server > **⚠️ Development Stage Notice** > This project is currently in **development stage**. Features and APIs may change without
MCP MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on MCP directly instead of describing what you should do. # mcp-gitlab-server > ⚠️ Development Stage Notice > This project is currently in development stage. Features and APIs may change without notice. Use with caution in production environments. GitLab MCP server based on.
Once MCP is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
read_repository_code — Reads the entire repository structure and file contents with advanced filtering:read_repository_file — The read_repository_file tool exposed by this serverlist_merge_requests — The list_merge_requests tool exposed by this serverget_merge_request_analytics — The get_merge_request_analytics tool exposed by this serverBeing a remote server, there is no local install. You register the endpoint with your client, authorise it once, and the tools appear.
You will need 3 environment variables: GITLAB_TOKEN, GITLAB_URL, GITLAB_OAUTH_TOKEN. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. MCP's toolset — read_repository_code, read_repository_file, list_merge_requests and 1 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by kopiloto; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| read_repository_code | Reads the entire repository structure and file contents with advanced filtering: |
| read_repository_file | The read_repository_file tool exposed by this server. |
| list_merge_requests | The list_merge_requests tool exposed by this server. |
| get_merge_request_analytics | The get_merge_request_analytics tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"GitLab": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"gitlab-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"GITLAB_TOKEN": "<your GitLab personal access token>",
"GITLAB_URL": "https://gitlab.com"
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| GITLAB_TOKEN | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| GITLAB_URL | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Yes |
| GITLAB_OAUTH_TOKEN | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
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