mcp-server-colab-exec

MCP server that allocates Google Colab GPU runtimes (T4/L4) and executes Python code on them. Lets any MCP-compatible AI assistant — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI, Cline, and others — run GPU-accelerated code (CUDA, PyTorch, TensorFlow) without local GPU hardware.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• A Google account with access to Google Colab
• On first run, a browser window opens for OAuth2 consent. The token is cached at ~/.config/colab-exec/token.json for subsequent runs.

Installation

pip install mcp-server-colab-exec

Or run directly with uvx:

uvx mcp-server-colab-exec

Configuration

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json or ~/.claude/.mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "colab-exec": {
      "command": "mcp-server-colab-exec"
    }
  }
}

Or via the CLI:

claude mcp add colab-exec mcp-server-colab-exec

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "colab-exec": {
      "command": "mcp-server-colab-exec"
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add colab-exec -- mcp-server-colab-exec

Tools

colab_execute

Execute inline Python code on a Colab GPU runtime.

Returns JSON with per-cell output, errors, and stderr.

colab_execute_file

Execute a local .py file on a Colab GPU runtime.

Security policy: file_path must be a .py file inside the current workspace (cwd).

colab_execute_notebook

Execute code and collect all generated artifacts (images, CSVs, models, etc.).

Artifacts are downloaded as a zip and extracted into output_dir. Zip members are validated before extraction to prevent path traversal and special-file writes.

Examples

Check GPU availability:

colab_execute(code="import torch; print(torch.cuda.is_available()); print(torch.cuda.get_device_name(0))")

Run nvidia-smi:

colab_execute(code="import subprocess; print(subprocess.run(['nvidia-smi'], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout)")

Train a model and download weights:

colab_execute_notebook(
    code="import torch; model = torch.nn.Linear(10, 1); torch.save(model.state_dict(), '/tmp/model.pt')",
    output_dir="./outputs"
)

Authentication

On first use, the server opens a browser window for Google OAuth2 consent. The access token and refresh token are cached at ~/.config/colab-exec/token.json. Subsequent runs use the cached token and refresh it automatically.

The OAuth2 client credentials are the same ones used by the official Google Colab VS Code

... View full README on GitHub