What is the CircleCI MCP server?

CircleCI is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server profile on explainx.ai. MCP lets AI hosts (e.g. Claude Desktop, Cursor) call tools and resources through a standard interface; this page summarizes categories, install hints, and community ratings.

How do MCP servers relate to agent skills?

Skills are reusable instruction packages (often SKILL.md); MCP servers expose live capabilities. Teams frequently combine both—skills for workflows, MCP for APIs and data. See explainx.ai/skills and explainx.ai/mcp-servers for parallel directories.

How are reviews shown for CircleCI?

This profile displays 10 aggregated ratings (sample rows for discoverability plus signed-in user reviews). Average score is about 4.5 out of 5—verify behavior in your own environment before production use.

developer-tools

CircleCI▌

by circleci-public

Connect seamlessly with CircleCI to fetch build failure logs, troubleshoot issues, and streamline your CI/CD workflow.

Enables agents to talk to CircleCI. Fetch build failure logs to fix issues.

github stars

★ 80

GitHub npm

Works directly in your IDENatural language queries to CircleCI9+ specialized tools for CI/CD workflows

best for

/ Developers debugging failed CI/CD builds
/ DevOps teams monitoring pipeline health
/ Engineers investigating test failures

capabilities

/ Fetch build failure logs and error details
/ Identify flaky tests across pipeline runs
/ Check latest pipeline status for branches
/ Retrieve test results and metadata from jobs
/ Validate CircleCI configuration files
/ Trigger new pipelines and rollbacks

what it does

Connects to your CircleCI account to fetch build logs, pipeline status, and test results directly from your IDE or AI assistant.

about

CircleCI is an official MCP server published by circleci-public that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Connect seamlessly with CircleCI to fetch build failure logs, troubleshoot issues, and streamline your CI/CD workflow. It is categorized under developer tools.

how to install

You can install CircleCI in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.

license

NOASSERTION

CircleCI is released under the NOASSERTION license.

readme

CircleCI MCP Server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a new, standardized protocol for managing context between large language models (LLMs) and external systems. In this repository, we provide an MCP Server for CircleCI.

Use Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, Claude, or any MCP-compatible client to interact with CircleCI using natural language — without leaving your IDE.

Tools

Tool	Description
`get_build_failure_logs`	Retrieve detailed failure logs from CircleCI builds
`find_flaky_tests`	Identify flaky tests by analyzing test execution history
`get_latest_pipeline_status`	Get the status of the latest pipeline for a branch
`get_job_test_results`	Retrieve test metadata and results for CircleCI jobs
`config_helper`	Validate and get guidance for your CircleCI configuration
`create_prompt_template`	Generate structured prompt templates for AI applications
`recommend_prompt_template_tests`	Generate test cases for prompt templates
`list_followed_projects`	List all CircleCI projects you're following
`run_pipeline`	Trigger a pipeline to run
`run_rollback_pipeline`	Trigger a rollback for a project
`rerun_workflow`	Rerun a workflow from start or from the failed job
`analyze_diff`	Analyze git diffs against cursor rules for violations
`list_component_versions`	List all versions for a CircleCI component
`download_usage_api_data`	Download usage data from the CircleCI Usage API
`find_underused_resource_classes`	Find jobs with underused compute resources

Installation

<details> <summary>Cursor</summary>

Prerequisites:

CircleCI Personal API token (learn more)
NPX: Node.js >= v18 and pnpm
Docker: Docker

Using NPX in a local MCP Server

Add the following to your Cursor MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@circleci/mcp-server-circleci@latest"],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "your-circleci-token",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "https://circleci.com",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH": "50000"
      }
    }
  }
}

CIRCLECI_BASE_URL is optional — required for on-prem customers only. MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH is optional — maximum output length for MCP responses (default: 50000).

Using Docker in a local MCP Server

Add the following to your Cursor MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL",
        "-e",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH",
        "circleci/mcp-server-circleci"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "your-circleci-token",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "https://circleci.com",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH": "50000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using a Self-Managed Remote MCP Server

Add the following to your Cursor MCP config:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "circleci-token",
      "description": "CircleCI API Token",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server-remote": {
      "url": "http://your-circleci-remote-mcp-server-endpoint:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>VS Code</summary>

Prerequisites:

CircleCI Personal API token (learn more)
NPX: Node.js >= v18 and pnpm
Docker: Docker

Using NPX in a local MCP Server

Add the following to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "circleci-token",
      "description": "CircleCI API Token",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "circleci-base-url",
      "description": "CircleCI Base URL",
      "default": "https://circleci.com"
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@circleci/mcp-server-circleci@latest"],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "${input:circleci-token}",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "${input:circleci-base-url}"
      }
    }
  }
}

💡 Inputs are prompted on first server start, then stored securely by VS Code.

Using Docker in a local MCP Server

Add the following to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "circleci-token",
      "description": "CircleCI API Token",
      "password": true
    },
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "circleci-base-url",
      "description": "CircleCI Base URL",
      "default": "https://circleci.com"
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL",
        "circleci/mcp-server-circleci"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "${input:circleci-token}",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "${input:circleci-base-url}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using a Self-Managed Remote MCP Server

Add the following to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server-remote": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://your-circleci-remote-mcp-server-endpoint:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Claude Desktop</summary>

Prerequisites:

CircleCI Personal API token (learn more)
NPX: Node.js >= v18 and pnpm
Docker: Docker

Using NPX in a local MCP Server

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@circleci/mcp-server-circleci@latest"],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "your-circleci-token",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "https://circleci.com",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH": "50000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Docker in a local MCP Server

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "circleci-mcp-server": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN",
        "-e",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL",
        "-e",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH",
        "circleci/mcp-server-circleci"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CIRCLECI_TOKEN": "your-circleci-token",
        "CIRCLECI_BASE_URL": "https://circleci.com",
        "MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_LENGTH": "50000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using a Self-Managed Remote MCP Server

Create a wrapper script (e.g. circleci-remote-mcp.sh):

#!/bin/bash
export CIRCLECI_TOKEN="your-circleci-token"
npx mcp-remote http://your-circleci-remote-mcp-server-endpoint:8000/mcp --allow-http

Make it executable:

chmod +x circleci-remote-mcp.sh

Then add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "circleci-remote-mcp-server": {
      "command": "/full/path/to/circleci-remote-mcp.sh"
    }
  }
}

To find or create your config file, open Claude Desktop settings, click Developer in the left sidebar, then click Edit Config. The config file is located at:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

For more information: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user

</details> <details> <summary>Claude Code</summary>

Prerequisites:

CircleCI Personal API token (learn more)
NPX: Node.js >= v18 and pnpm
Docker: Docker

Using NPX in a local MCP Server

claude mcp add circleci-mcp-server -e CIRCLECI_TOKEN=your-circleci-token -- npx -y @circleci/mcp-server-circleci@latest

Using Docker in a local MCP Server

claude mcp add circleci-mcp-server -e CIRCLECI_TOKEN=your-circleci-token -e CIRCLECI_BASE_URL=https://circleci.com -- docker run --rm -i -e CIRCLECI_TOKEN -e CIRCLECI_BASE_URL circleci/mcp-server-circleci

Using a Self-Managed Remote MCP Server

claude mcp add circleci-mcp-server 

---

FAQ

What is the CircleCI MCP server?: CircleCI is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server profile on explainx.ai. MCP lets AI hosts (e.g. Claude Desktop, Cursor) call tools and resources through a standard interface; this page summarizes categories, install hints, and community ratings.
How do MCP servers relate to agent skills?: Skills are reusable instruction packages (often SKILL.md); MCP servers expose live capabilities. Teams frequently combine both—skills for workflows, MCP for APIs and data. See explainx.ai/skills and explainx.ai/mcp-servers for parallel directories.
How are reviews shown for CircleCI?: This profile displays 10 aggregated ratings (sample rows for discoverability plus signed-in user reviews). Average score is about 4.5 out of 5—verify behavior in your own environment before production use.

MCP server reviews

Ratings

4.5★★★★★10 reviews

★★★★★Shikha Mishra· Oct 10, 2024
CircleCI is among the better-indexed MCP projects we tried; the explainx.ai summary tracks the official description.
★★★★★Piyush G· Sep 9, 2024
We evaluated CircleCI against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
★★★★★Chaitanya Patil· Aug 8, 2024
Useful MCP listing: CircleCI is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
★★★★★Sakshi Patil· Jul 7, 2024
CircleCI reduced integration guesswork — categories and install configs on the listing matched the upstream repo.
★★★★★Ganesh Mohane· Jun 6, 2024
I recommend CircleCI for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
★★★★★Oshnikdeep· May 5, 2024
Strong directory entry: CircleCI surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
★★★★★Dhruvi Jain· Apr 4, 2024
CircleCI has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
★★★★★Rahul Santra· Mar 3, 2024
According to our notes, CircleCI benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
★★★★★Pratham Ware· Feb 2, 2024
We wired CircleCI into a staging workspace; the listing’s GitHub and npm pointers saved time versus hunting across READMEs.
★★★★★Yash Thakker· Jan 1, 2024
CircleCI is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.