Golang-based MCP gateway interfacing with Kubernetes APIs

K8s MCP Server (Go)

Capabilities ⚙ Inspect with Inspector ⚙ Interact via Claude ⚙ Contribute ↗ ⚙ About MCP ↗

Key Capabilities

MCP 💬 context input 🗂️ resource interaction 🤖 automated execution

• 🗂️🤖 Context Enumeration for Kubernetes environments
• 💬🤖 Namespace Discovery for current cluster setup
• 🤖 Comprehensive API access for any K8s resource type
• Includes specialized handlers for common objects like Pods, Services, Deployments
• 🤖 Node inventory retrieval
• 💬 Pod listing functionality
• 🤖 Retrieval of diagnostic Kubernetes Events
• 🤖 Extraction of container logs from specified Pods
• 🤖 Execution of arbitrary shell commands within a running Pod container

Inspect Integration

To leverage the most recent released artifact via the Inspector client:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx @strowk/mcp-k8s

Interact With Claude

Demonstration Snippet

Below is an illustration of the workflow in Claude Desktop, where a specific cluster context is selected, and then a command is issued to examine logs for error indicators within the 'kube-system' namespace:

To integrate this MCP server with Claude Desktop (or alternative compliant clients), choose your preferred installation method.

Deployment Method	Smithery	mcp-get	NPM Package	GitHub Binary	Source Build	Docker Image
Client Setup	Automatic	Automatic	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
Dependency	Node.js	Node.js	Node.js	None	Golang Toolchain	Docker Engine

Smithery Integration

Automated setup for Claude Desktop using Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @strowk/mcp-k8s --client claude

mcp-get Utility

Automated installation for Claude Desktop via mcp-get:

npx @michaellatman/mcp-get@latest install @strowk/mcp-k8s

Manual Installation via Binaries

Pre-compiled npm Distribution

If Node Package Manager (npm) is available, use this for pre-built binaries:

npm install -g @strowk/mcp-k8s

Verify installation with mcp-k8s --version. Once confirmed, update your client configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp_k8s": {
      "command": "mcp-k8s",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, execute via npx:

npx @strowk/mcp-k8s

Configuration example for Claude:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp_k8s": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@strowk/mcp-k8s"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Binaries from GitHub Releases

Obtain the latest binary package from the GitHub releases page. Unzip the archive containing the executable named mcp-k8s-go, place it in a directory within your system's PATH, and then configure your client config file (claude_desktop_config.json) as follows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp_k8s": {
      "command": "mcp-k8s-go",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Compilation from Source Code

Requires the Golang development environment:

go get github.com/strowk/mcp-k8s-go
go install github.com/strowk/mcp-k8s-go

Then, configure the client using the installed binary name:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp_k8s_go": {
      "command": "mcp-k8s-go",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Docker Containerization

This server image is available on Docker Hub since version 0.3.1-beta.2, supporting linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 multi-arch builds.

Use the 'latest' tag, ensuring Kubeconfig volume mounting:

docker run -i -v ~/.kube/config:/home/nonroot/.kube/config --rm mcpk8s/server:latest

Note for Windows users (Git Bash): You may need to translate ~/.kube/config to a full path like //c/Users/<username>/.kube/config for volume mapping.

Client configuration example for Claude:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp_k8s_go": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "-v",
        "~/.kube/config:/home/nonroot/.kube/config",
        "--rm",
        "mcpk8s/server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables and Runtime Arguments

The MCP server respects the following environment settings:

• KUBECONFIG: Specifies the path to the Kubernetes configuration file (defaults to ~/.kube/config if unset).

The server accepts these command-line flags during invocation:

• --allowed-contexts=<list>: Limits operational scope to a comma-separated set of Kubernetes contexts (e.g., dev,prod). If omitted, all contexts are accessible.
• --readonly: Activates read-only mode, blocking any operations that modify cluster state.
• --help: Prints usage instructions.
• --version: Outputs the current version information.

Example configuration in claude_desktop_config.json to restrict context access and enforce read-only operations:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp_k8s": {
            "command": "mcp-k8s",
            "args": [
                "--allowed-contexts=dev,prod",
                "--readonly"
            ]
        }
    }
}