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MCP server

simply gitlab mcp

Section titled “simply gitlab mcp”

Serve the GitLab MCP tools over stdio.

Flags

  • --allow-writes — Also register the tools that change data.
  • -e, --env-file <value> — Path to a .env file holding connection settings.
  • --list — Print the tools that would be registered, then exit without serving.

Runs a Model Context Protocol server exposing GitLab as tools, for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, VS Code, or any other MCP client. It speaks the protocol on stdout, so it is meant to be launched by a client rather than run by hand — at a terminal it will simply appear to hang, waiting for a client that is not there.

Point a client at it with “command”: “simply”, “args”: [“gitlab”, “mcp”]. The plugin installs itself on first use, so nothing needs installing beyond the simply CLI.

Only read tools are registered unless —allow-writes is passed, and GITLAB_READ_ONLY still refuses every write even then.

Examples

Register only the read tools, taking settings from the environment

Terminal window
simply gitlab mcp

Allow writes, with settings from a file

Terminal window
simply gitlab mcp --allow-writes --env-file ~/gitlab.env

List the tools this server would register, without starting it

Terminal window
simply gitlab mcp --list