IBM Code Engine MCP Server

IBM Code Engine MCP Server

MCP server for IBM Code Engine — build, push, and deploy containers from Cursor, Copilot, Claude, and Cline using natural language.

Current release: v1.7.8 — 28 tools instead of 112 (one tool per resource with an action field, same capability, old names still work), a shared local HTTP server for the VS Code extension, a web admin UI with a *Remote client* tab (test tools, logging, users and API keys, events), MCP Remote Config inside VS Code, and a check that the server you point at really is a code-engine MCP server. See CHANGELOG.md and the tool reference.

Search terms: code-engine-mcp · ibm-code-engine · ibm-cloud · ibm-container-registry · mcp-server · model-context-protocol · cursor · github-copilot · claude-desktop · cline · docker · podman · serverless · container-deployment · typescript · npx · ai-agents · devops · cloud-native · watsonx-orchestrate

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Author: Markus van Kempen | markus.van.kempen@gmail.com · markusvankempen.github.io *No bug too small, no syntax too weird.*

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How It Works

flowchart TD

A([AI Assistant\nCopilot / Claude / Cline / Bob]) -->|MCP JSON-RPC| B[Code Engine MCP Server]

B --> C{Tool Category}

C -->|Container Tools| D[Docker / Podman] C -->|Registry Tools| E[IBM Container Registry\nus.icr.io] C -->|Code Engine Tools| F[IBM Code Engine\nREST API] C -->|Procedures| G[Multi-step Workflows]

D -->|build / push / validate| E E -->|image reference| F

G -->|proc_build_push_deploy| D G -->|proc_apply_manifest| F

F --> H[(Projects\nApps\nBuilds\nJobs\nSecrets\nDomains)]

H -->|ready| I([Live App\nhttps://app.region.codeengine.appdomain.cloud])

style A fill:#1261FE,color:#fff style B fill:#0f3460,color:#fff style G fill:#7b2d8b,color:#fff style I fill:#198038,color:#fff

✨ What You Get

• 28 tools, one per resource. ce_app, ce_job, ce_secret, … each take an action (list, get, create, delete, …). Every earlier capability is still there; see the tool reference.
• Container workflow tools for Docker or Podman (local_container, dockerfile)
• IBM Container Registry (icr) and the whole Code Engine surface: projects, apps, jobs, builds, secrets, config maps, domains, bindings, functions, fleets
• Multi-step procedures: build, push and deploy in one call (proc_build_push_deploy), custom domains, declarative manifests
• One server, many clients. Run it over stdio, or as an HTTP server that your IDE, assistants, the web UI and the VS Code extension all share
• Web admin UI (/admin): overview, activity, users, API keys, runtime settings, and a *Remote client* tab that tests the tools and configures the server (logging, users and keys, events)
• MCP-ready setup for GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cline, Bob, Windsurf, Antigravity, Claude Desktop, and the VS Code extension in vscode-extension/ (including *MCP Remote Config*)
• MCP Activity Dashboard — live timeline of tool calls, session grouping, deploy outcome highlights, and a Deployments inventory tab
• Live activity logging — optional JSONL event stream for every MCP tool call (MCP_ACTIVITY_* env vars)

🚀 Quick Start

# 1) Install dependencies

npm install

2) Build the server

npm run build

3) Run once to verify

node build/index.js

Then configure your MCP client using one of the examples in the Configuration section below.

🤖 The Agentic Experience (No Docker/Code Engine Lingo Needed)

The true power of this MCP server is that you don't need to know Docker or Code Engine commands. You can simply state your goal, and the LLM will discover the environment, run the pipeline, and fix issues autonomously.

Here is an example interaction from a real session:

User:

"I have an app in the developer-splash folder. Deploy it to my Code Engine project."

Assistant's Autonomous Thought Process:

1. *Discovery:* "Let me check what projects and namespaces exist... Found project my-project and namespace my-namespace."
2. *Prerequisites:* "No pull secret in this project yet. I'll get the API key from the .env file and create the secret icr-pull-secret."
3. *Execution:* "Now I'll run the full pipeline: build → push → deploy → wait."
4. *Validation:* "It's deployed but stuck at 'deploying'. Let me check the logs... The container is running but the readiness probe is failing."
5. *Self-Correction:* "Ah, the sed pattern in the Dockerfile didn't match nginx alpine's default config format for port 80. I'll fix the Dockerfile with a regex-safe sed and rebuild."
6. *Completion:* "App is live! 🎉 Status: ready."

Assistant Response to User:

"Your app is deployed and live at: https://developer-splash. . .codeengine.appdomain.cloud. I had to fix a minor port configuration issue in your Dockerfile, but it is successfully running now!"

With this MCP server, the AI acts as an expert DevOps engineer pairing with you.

📊 MCP Activity Dashboard (v1.4.0)

See what your AI assistant is doing in real time — tool calls, idle gaps between steps, deploy outcomes, and live app URLs.

flowchart LR

A[MCP tool call] -->|MCP_ACTIVITY_ENABLED| B[events.jsonl] B --> C{Dashboard} C -->|VS Code extension| D[Activity tab] C -->|Browser| E[localhost:8767] D --> F[Deployments tab\ninventory + actions]

Activity logging (on by default)

Since v1.6.0 the server logs every tool start/finish to ~/.code-engine-mcp/activity/events.jsonl — input summaries, pipeline sub-steps (proc_build_push_deploy), result highlights, and optional HTTP smoke-test labels. API keys, passwords, TLS keys, env var values, and secret payloads are redacted. The file rotates at 5 MB.

Optional env in your MCP client config:

"MCP_ACTIVITY_ENABLED": "false",

"MCP_ACTIVITY_EVENTS_PATH": "/custom/path/events.jsonl", "MCP_ACTIVITY_SESSION_ID": "session:my-chat-001", "MCP_ACTIVITY_CHAT_LABEL": "Deploy Star Wars splash"

In the VS Code extension, turn logging off with codeEngineMcp.activityEnabled. Restart the MCP server after changing env.

See .env.example for all MCP_ACTIVITY_* variables.

Open the dashboard

The Activity tab shows a session timeline with tool duration, idle gaps, and a task-outcome banner (status, image, live URL). The Deployments tab lists projects and apps from Code Engine and supports get-details, redeploy, and delete via MCP tools.

Example chat prompt:

*"I have a Star Wars splash page in examples/starwars-splash. Deploy it to Code Engine using only MCP tools — build for linux/amd64, push to my ICR namespace, and deploy to my Code Engine project. Show me the live URL when ready."*

Open the Activity Dashboard while the assistant runs to watch proc_build_push_deploy progress step by step.

Deploy Your First App

This walks through deploying the included Star Wars splash page example — a static nginx container — entirely through the MCP server.

Apple Silicon users: always build with --platform linux/amd64. Code Engine runs amd64 only.

Step 1 — Build and push the image

cd examples/starwars-splash

podman build --platform linux/amd64 -t us.icr.io/ /starwars-splash:v1.0.0 . podman push us.icr.io/ /starwars-splash:v1.0.0

Or ask your assistant:

Build examples/starwars-splash as us.icr.io/my-namespace/starwars-splash:v1.0.0 for linux/amd64 and push it

MCP response — `build_container_image`:

{

"success": true, "command": "podman build --platform linux/amd64 -t us.icr.io/my-namespace/starwars-splash:v1.0.0 ...", "build_output": "STEP 1/5: FROM nginx:alpine\nSTEP 2/5: COPY index.html /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html\nSTEP 3/5: RUN sed -i 's/listen 80;/listen 8080;/g' /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf\nSTEP 4/5: EXPOSE 8080\nSTEP 5/5: CMD [\"nginx\", \"-g\", \"daemon off;\"]\nSuccessfully tagged us.icr.io/my-namespace/starwars-splash:v1.0.0" }

Note: Container runtimes (Podman/Docker) write build progress to stderr. The build_output field combines stdout and stderr so you see the full build log.

MCP response — `push_container_image`:

{

"success": true, "command": "podman push us.icr.io/my-namespace/starwars-splash:v1.0.0", "output": "Getting image source signatures\nCopying blobs...\nWriting manifest to image destination" }

Step 2 — Create a registry pull secret

Ask your assistant (once per project):

Create a registry secret called icr-pull-secret in project <project-id> for us.icr.io using my IBM Cloud API key

Or use the ce_create_secret tool directly:

{

"project_id": " ", "name": "icr-pull-secret", "format": "registry", "data": { "username": "iamapikey", "password": " ", "server": "us.icr.io", "email": "user@example.com" } }

MCP response — `ce_create_secret`:

{

"name": "icr-pull-secret", "format": "registry", "resource_type": "secret_registry_v2", "created_at": "2026-05-08T22:10:00Z", "project_id": " " }

Step 3 — Deploy the application

Ask your assistant:

Deploy us.icr.io/my-namespace/starwars-splash:v1.0.0 to Code Engine project <project-id>

as app "starwars-splash" using pull secret icr-pull-secret, min 1 instance

Or use the ce_create_application tool:

{

"project_id