Redmine MCP Server

Redmine MCP Server

A local MCP server for accessing a corporate Redmine instance. It exposes a limited set of write operations for issues, time entries, and wiki alongside the read tools; set REDMINE_MCP_WRITE_ENABLED=false to run fully read-only. It lets AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, etc.) work with issues, projects, members, versions, wiki, attachments, time entries, and reference data.

Quick Start

This documentation covers installing and connecting Redmine MCP Server itself. Installing and configuring the AI clients themselves is out of scope here.

1. Install JDK 25+.
2. Download redmine-mcp-server.jar from the latest release, or build it yourself: ./gradlew bootJar (see Build). A Docker image is published as well.
3. Obtain REDMINE_URL and REDMINE_API_KEY (see Configuration).
4. Verify that the JAR starts (see Smoke Test).
5. Add the JAR to your client's MCP configuration (see Connecting to an AI Client).

For Claude Code that is one command:

claude mcp add --scope user -e REDMINE_URL=https://redmine.example.com -e REDMINE_API_KEY=your_key -- redmine java -jar /path/to/redmine-mcp-server.jar

Architecture

The server supports only the stdio transport.

Stdio

┌─────────────┐     stdio      ┌──────────────────┐    REST API    ┌──────────┐

│ AI agent │ <------------> │ redmine-mcp- │ -------------> │ Redmine │ │ (Claude Code│ stdin/stdout │ server (Java) │ HTTP + API │ (corp.) │ │ Cursor...) │ │ │ Key │ │ └─────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └──────────┘

The AI client launches the server as a child process; communication follows the MCP protocol over stdin/stdout.

Tools

The server exports 32 read-only MCP tools plus 7 write tools by default. Set REDMINE_MCP_WRITE_ENABLED=false to remove the write tools and run fully read-only.

User

Projects

Issues

Issue, Time Entry, and Wiki Writes (optional)

These tools appear in tools/list by default; set REDMINE_MCP_WRITE_ENABLED=false to remove them:

Redmine itself enforces the permissions, workflow, and required-field rules of the REDMINE_API_KEY user. The MCP server introduces no additional model of "own" issues or notes. To make AI-created issues recognizable, the description of an issue created by createIssue is prefixed with AI_EDIT: by default (updateIssue does not add it). Notes, time-entry comments, wiki revision comments, and uploaded file names are not marked by default; each marker is configured separately with a REDMINE_MCP_WRITE_*_PREFIX variable (see Configuration), and an empty value turns it off. Issue descriptions and notes get the prefix on its own line followed by a blank line; single-line fields (time-entry and wiki revision comments) get the prefix and a space; file names get the prefix with no separator. Wiki page markup itself is never changed.

Editing and deleting existing notes is not implemented: the targeted Redmine 4.0.4 does not provide a compatible REST API for it. Editing and deleting time entries; deleting, renaming, and protecting wiki pages; and creating time entries on behalf of another user are outside the current operation set.

Search

Attachments and Wiki

Time Entries

Reference Data

Analytics

With REDMINE_MCP_WRITE_ENABLED=false all tools are read-only and no data in Redmine is modified.

Tool Groups (enable/disable)

Tools are grouped by domain, and each group can be disabled via an environment variable. All groups are enabled by default — the out-of-the-box tool manifest is unchanged. Disabling groups shrinks the MCP tools/list manifest that the client loads into model context at session start. This helps small-context (local) models: disable unneeded groups so only the tools the model actually needs remain.

Each variable accepts true (default) or false. Example: to keep only issue and project work, disable the remaining groups — REDMINE_MCP_TOOLS_RELEASE_ANALYTICS=false, `REDMI