MCP Server Operator

The MCP Server Operator manages the lifecycle of MCP (Model Context Protocol) Servers on OpenShift Clusters. It leverages a Custom Resource Definition (CRD) Called MCPServer, allowing users to specify the MCP server image and runtime arguments for a custom MCP server deployment.

Features

• Deploy and manages MCP server instances via CRDs
• Supports custom container images and runtime arguments
• Compatible with Openshift clusters
• Includes both end-to-end test and unit tests.

Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• Features
• Usage
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Running the operator locally
  • Running the operator on a cluster
  • Making an MCP Server instance
  • Uninstalling the operator and cleaning the cluster
• Developer Guide
  • Pre-requisites
  • Run tests
  • Contributing

Usage

Prerequisites

Before installation, you will need the following to run the operator:

• An OpenShift Cluster (ROSA, OSD, CRC) or compatible Kubernetes cluster
• A container engine (podman or docker)
• The OpenShift CLI tool: oc
• Sufficient permissions to install CRDs and deploy operators

Installation

Before doing any of these steps, ensure that you are logged into your cluster if using one:

oc login --token=<your user token> --server=<your openshift cluster server>

After logging into your cluster, clone the repository and then swap to the mcp-server-operator folder:

git clone https://github.com/opendatahub-io/mcp-server-operator.git

cd mcp-server-operator

Next, set the environment variables:

export IMG=<your-registry>/<username>/mcp-server-operator:<tag>

Afterward, build the image:

CONTAINER_TOOL={docker|podman} IMG=$IMG make build

Then, install the necessary CRDs:

make install

Running the Operator Locally

make run

Running the Operator on a Cluster

make deploy IMG=$IMG

Making an MCP Server Instance

The following is an example on how to create an MCPServer, ensure that the text in brackets is replaced with the appropriate information before running the command.

cat << EOF | oc create -f -
apiVersion: mcpserver.opendatahub.io/v1
kind: MCPServer
metadata:
  name: <your_name_here>
  namespace: mcp-server-operator-system
spec:
  image: <your_image_here>
  args:
    - <arg 1>
    - <arg 2>
  command:
    - <command 1>
    - <command 2>
EOF

Field Descriptions

• image: Container image for the MCP server.
• args: (Optional) List of runtime arguments to be passed to the MCP server container.
• command: (Optional) List for the entrypoint command to be passed to the MCP server container.

Uninstalling the operator and cleaning the cluster

Firstly, delete the MCPServer object from the cluster using the following command:

oc delete mcpserver -n mcp-server-operator-system [name]

Next is to uninstall the operator, which can be done by simply running the command below.

make undeploy

Developer Guide

Pre-requisites

• Go 1.23
• Kubebuilder

Run Tests

To run unit tests, run:

make test

To run end-to-end tests, run:

make test-e2e

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please refer to our contributing guidelines.