MCP for DevOps – Sequence Opener and MCP Structure Intro
You will have undoubtedly heard about Anthropic’s MCP (Mannequin Context Protocol) open supply venture. When you haven’t, I hope your trip on a distant island with out web entry was beautiful!
As a die-hard YouTube Premium fan, I’m inundated with video suggestions with themes like “What’s MCP?” “OMG, This Adjustments Every little thing,” and my favourite, “Goodbye Builders, MCP is Right here to Keep.” Significantly? Whereas it’s a unbelievable venture, it isn’t right here to switch us.
Over the following a number of weeks, I’ll delve into these subjects:
MCP—Why Ought to You Care?: This can present a quick overview of MCP from a communication, discovery, and interplay perspective. We’ll then discover what it seems like on the wire and the way it capabilities as a shopper/server structure, adopted by numerous use instances. I gained’t cowl the historical past of MCP or different important data, as numerous glorious sources can be found on YouTube, dev.to, Medium, and elsewhere.
MCP for DevOps: I’ll focus on a collection of use instances that work nicely for DevOps, NetOps, and SecOps roles.
MCP How-to: That is the place issues get thrilling. I’ll current a number of demos and walk-throughs for the next use instances:
- Cursor with GitHub: Use Cursor as an MCP shopper to programmatically work together with an MCP server that integrates with GitHub for a Cisco DevOps workflow
- Cursor with Argo CD: Use Cursor as an MCP shopper to programmatically work together with an MCP server that employs Argo CD for a Cisco DevOps workflow
- Claude Desktop & DevOps Workflows: We’ll swap issues up by utilizing Claude Desktop as an alternative of Cursor to show flexibility on the MCP shopper facet
On the finish of the sequence, I’ll tie all of this collectively to indicate how Cursor, with a number of MCP shoppers, can drive adjustments to Ansible playbooks in a GitHub repository, triggering actions within the Argo CD workflow. In the end, we are going to use the Ansible playbook to change configuration settings on Cisco options equivalent to Cisco ISE (Id Providers Engine) and different Cisco merchandise.
I hope you be a part of me on this journey.
Let’s get began with discussing the MCP structure and why it’s best to care about it.
MCP Intro—Why Ought to You Care?
Welcome to the primary submit in our three-part technical sequence on Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP), a brand new, centered protocol constructed to assist AI purposes and brokers work together with instruments, APIs, recordsdata, and databases persistently and programmatically.
When you’re in DevOps and experimenting with AI-driven automation, MCP deserves your consideration—not as a silver bullet however as a sensible step towards cleaner integration between AI methods and your operational stack. That mentioned, it’s early days. MCP is new and transferring quick, and whereas it already solves a variety of real-world issues, there are nonetheless corners to shine and edge instances it doesn’t but cowl.
What’s MCP, and Why Does It Matter?
As illustrated in Determine 1, Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) is a protocol that gives a uniform option to plug in an AI mannequin into instruments and providers.
Determine 1. MCP with LLMs and Instruments
It’s:
- A light-weight communication protocol designed particularly for AI brokers and purposes.
- Constructed to attach these brokers to instruments, APIs, databases, and file methods.
- Structured as a shopper/server structure—easy and predictable.
- Plumbing
It’s not:
- A messaging protocol for agent-to-agent communication.
- An LLM, database, AI assistant or agent.
- A general-purpose integration platform.
- A alternative to your current APIs or knowledge bus.
MCP’s job is tightly scoped: give an AI agent a clear, standardized option to uncover, request, and invoke capabilities on current tool-based infrastructure. In case your LLM-powered bot must name a REST API, checklist recordsdata, or question a database—MCP offers the glue.
MCP issues as a result of it reduces and, in lots of instances, removes the toil for AI purposes and brokers to search out, connect with, and leverage exterior instruments and providers equivalent to APIs, knowledge sources, and different non-AI native device units. For Dev/Web/SecOps workers, it may well deliver rapid worth so that you can leverage an AI agent to hook up with your current knowledge sources and APIs in order that an operationally-focused agent can extra precisely full duties.
We’ll focus on use instances within the subsequent weblog, however think about it’s worthwhile to create a workflow that works with Ansible Playbooks, NetBox, and GitHub and automate configurations in opposition to your infrastructure.
An instance workflow might appear like this:
- You manually create a Jinja2 template for Ansible and host it on GitHub.
- Collect knowledge out of your NetBox deployment.
- You employ Python + Jinja2 to populate the playbook template with knowledge from NetBox after which invoke Ansible through a Python module, CLI, runner, and many others.
- Ideally, you employ a CI/CD device to auto-run this workflow.
Quick ahead from the nice ’ole days; you or somebody in your group be taught concerning the energy of AI Brokers and create a sequence of AI brokers that may faucet into every device and knowledge supply with out writing any code. They’ll leverage MCP to hook up with every useful resource as MCP servers and work together with them natively—no particular script code. No scouring the web for SDKs or some mysterious script somebody recommends that you simply don’t perceive. To me, that is one in all many value-add use instances of MCP.
Overview of MCP – Structure and Core Parts
MCP has a streamlined structure and there aren’t many transferring elements.
As illustrated in Determine 2 MCP makes use of a shopper/server structure. Let’s outline what the shopper and server parts do.
Determine 2. MCP Parts
Determine 2 exhibits an MCP host which is an AI software equivalent to an AI agent, IDE, coding assistant, and many others..
The MCP shopper (MCP-C) is software program that runs on MCP hosts and has one-to-one connections to MCP servers (MCP-S).
The MCP server is software program that represents particular service or device capabilities.
The MCP host makes use of the language-specific MCP SDK for shopper connections (instance: MCP Python SDK) to determine connections to MCP servers. The MCP SDK is used for each client-side and server-side code.
Instance Python MCP shopper code.
Instance Python MCP server code.
Many present MCP shoppers are full purposes or AI brokers with the MCP shopper SDK performance natively inbuilt. You may see an instance checklist right here: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/shoppers
There are quite a few sources of MCP server lists on the Web. Here’s a checklist from the MCP venture: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/examples. Some MCP shopper suppliers, equivalent to Cursor, have their very own checklist of servers: https://cursor.listing/.
Determine 2 exhibits that every MCP-C occasion has a one-to-one connection to every MCP-S occasion. Within the determine, there are two MCP shoppers working on the MCP host, an AI agent on this instance. The primary MCP shopper is connecting to a locally-hosted MCP server that gives native machine file system entry. The second MCP shopper is connecting to a remotely hosted MCP server that’s offering entry to a distant file system.
MCP shoppers trade messages with MCP servers utilizing JSON-RPC 2.0 (because the wire format). For native knowledge sources, MCP makes use of JSON-RPC over stdio (Commonplace Enter/Output) because the transport. Determine 3., illustrates how an MCP-C connects to an area MCP-S for file or DB entry utilizing stdio. The MCP-S sends JSON-RPC messages to its normal output / stdout and reads from the usual enter / stdin.
Determine 3. JSON-RPC over stdio
Right here is an instance of working an MCP filesystem server regionally in stdio mode and limiting entry to a really particular listing:
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /Customers/shmcfarl/code/mcp-testing Safe MCP Filesystem Server working on stdio Allowed directories: [ '/Users/shmcfarl/code/mcp-testing' ]
Utilizing an important check device such because the MCP Inspector you’ll be able to pair an area shopper (MCP Inspector) together with your regionally working stdio or HTTP+SSE server:
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /Customers/shmcfarl/code/mcp-testing
Beginning MCP inspector...
Proxy server listening on port 3000
MCP Inspector is up and working at http://localhost:5173
Question parameters: {
transportType: 'stdio',
command: 'npx',
args: '-y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem -y /Customers/shmcfarl/code/mcp-testing',
. . . [Output removed for clarity]
Spawned stdio transport
Related MCP shopper to backing server transport
Created internet app transport
Created internet app transport
Arrange MCP proxy
Acquired message for sessionId 697bd02d-5d67-4dfc-85b9-6a12d6a99f45
Acquired message for sessionId 697bd02d-5d67-4dfc-85b9-6a12d6a99f45
Acquired message for sessionId 697bd02d-5d67-4dfc-85b9-6a12d6a99f45
Acquired message for sessionId 697bd02d-5d67-4dfc-85b9-6a12d6a99f45
MCP helps HTTP+SSE (Server-Despatched Occasions) to ship structured requests from service backends utilizing MCP servers to MCP shoppers for native or distant connections. The 2025-03-26 specification adjustments states that MCP is transferring to a extra versatile Streamable HTTP transport. Nonetheless, HTTP+SSE transport can nonetheless be used for backward compatibility. This retains it clear, traceable, and tool-agnostic. Notice: As of the time of penning this weblog, the brand new Streaming HTTP assist will not be accomplished in every SDK.
Determine 4 illustrates the connection circulate for HTTP+SSE eventualities. Within the determine, HTTP POST is used for MCP-C -to- MCP-S messages. HTTP+SSE is used for MCP-S -to- MCP-C messages.
Determine 4. MCP-C -to- MCP-S communication utilizing HTTP+SSE
You may undergo the MCP quickstart server and shopper guides to learn to setup your individual climate shopper/server combo: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/server. Utilizing the same setup, you’ll be able to see some HTTP messages for stuff like a instruments checklist name:
POST /messages/?session_id=6ccde3779adf43cc9d3f5f661508310b HTTP/1.1
Host: 0.0.0.0:8080
Settle for: */*
Settle for-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Connection: keep-alive
Consumer-Agent: python-httpx/0.28.1
Content material-Size: 46
Content material-Sort: software/json
{"technique":"instruments/checklist","jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2}
HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
date: Tue, 08 Apr 2025 20:14:51 GMT
server: uvicorn
content-length: 8
Accepted
And a device name to get the climate forecast:
POST /messages/?session_id=6ccde3779adf43cc9d3f5f661508310b HTTP/1.1
Host: 0.0.0.0:8080
Settle for: */*
Settle for-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Connection: keep-alive
Consumer-Agent: python-httpx/0.28.1
Content material-Size: 134
Content material-Sort: software/json
{"technique":"instruments/name","params":{"title":"get_forecast","arguments":{"latitude":39.7392,"longitude":-104.9903}},"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3}
HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
date: Tue, 08 Apr 2025 20:14:54 GMT
server: uvicorn
content-length: 8
Accepted
And a response for the climate forecast immediate I entered for Denver, CO:
occasion: message
knowledge: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"outcome":{"content material":[{"type":"text","text":"nThis Afternoon:nTemperature: 74..FnWind: 12 mph WnForecast: Partly sunny. High near 74, with temperatures falling to around 72 in the afternoon. West wind around 12 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.nn---nnTonight:nTemperature: 42..FnWind: 5 to 10 mph WSWnForecast: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.nn---nnWednesday:nTemperature: 71..FnWind: 5 to 15 mph WnForecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. West wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.nn---nnWednesday Night:nTemperature: 40..FnWind: 2 to 14 mph WNWnForecast: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. West northwest wind 2 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.nn---nnThursday:nTemperature: 68..FnWind: 2 to 8 mph ESEnForecast: Sunny, with a high near 68. East southeast wind 2 to 8 mph, with gusts as high as 16 mph.n"}],"isError":false}}
Because the specification change to Streamable HTTP could be very current and never totally applied as of the writing of this weblog, I’ll forgo doing a granular rationalization of that connection sequence. I advisable that you simply learn concerning the proposed Streamable HTTP implementation right here: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-03-26/fundamental/transports#streamable-http.
Discovery
When an agent must work together with a device or service, MCP offers a useful resource discovery mechanism that lets MCP shoppers uncover out there sources. The MCP shopper can use direct sources or useful resource templates. You may learn extra concerning the useful resource discovery choices at https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/ideas/sources. However, the necessary factor to know is that the objective of useful resource discovery is to search out out the next data:
- Supported capabilities and actions
- Protocol variations
- Customized metadata
Determine 5 exhibits the MCP-C to MCP-S request/response circulate for the capabilities discovery.
Determine 5. MCP Discovery Circulate
Whereas there isn’t any MCP server registry that MCP shoppers can search to dynamically uncover all out there MCP servers and their capabilities, there are MCP server directories as was famous early within the doc. There may be an ever-growing variety of MCP directories and in lots of instances, all of them have the identical or related checklist of MCP servers. A number of of the numerous websites embody:
MCP Useful resource Discovery – Instance
Let’s have a look at an instance of useful resource discovery utilizing direct sources.
I’ve the SQLite MCP Server working on my native machine. I’m utilizing Claude Desktop as my AI software with the MCP shopper performance configured to make use of the SQLite MCP server. Here’s a snippet from my claude_desktop_config.json file:
"mcpServers": {
"sqlite": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mcp-server-sqlite", "--db-path", "/Users/shmcfarl/code/mcp-testing/sqlite/test.db"]
},
After I use Claude Desktop to device name SQLite and ask for an inventory of server sources, you’ll be able to see the message trade from the MCP shopper to MCP server.
2025-04-09T18:08:37.964Z [sqlite] [info] Message from shopper: {"technique":"sources/checklist","params":{},"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":44}
2025-04-09T18:08:37.965Z [sqlite] [info] Message from server: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":44,"outcome":{"sources":[{"uri":"memo://insights","name":"Business Insights Memo","description":"A living document of discovered business insights","mimeType":"text/plain"}]}}
Per the MCP specification you’ll be able to see the tactic utilized by the MCP shopper is sources/checklist and the MCP server responds utilizing the direct sources format:
{
uri: string; // Distinctive identifier for the useful resource
title: string; // Human-readable title
description?: string; // Non-obligatory description
mimeType?: string; // Non-obligatory MIME kind
}
Conclusion
MCP is off to a robust begin, particularly for DevOps groups experimenting with AI-driven automation.
On the identical time, it’s nonetheless a younger protocol. MCP provides you a clear basis should you’re constructing AI-enabled workflows that have to work together with infrastructure and instruments safely—however you’ll nonetheless have to assess match to your particular use case.
There may be much more introductory content material that I may cowl, however I believe this lays a basis for the remainder of the weblog sequence. For the rest of the blogs it can be crucial so that you can know:
MCP is right for:
- Brokers want to hook up with a number of knowledge sources and providers in an ordinary method
- It abstracts away the per-integration code complexity – simply use the MCP SDK
- You want it for a low toil platform or with IDE integrations
What doesn’t MCP do (no less than at present)?
- MCP will not be an agent-to-agent framework
- MCP will not be used for the creation, deployment, lifecycle administration, and safety of brokers or instruments
- MCP will not be an LLM
- MCP will not be a knowledge supply
- MCP doesn’t dynamically uncover instruments and providers the MCP server will characterize
We additionally realized how MCP shoppers and servers work together with each other and over which varieties of protocol and messaging codecs.
Let’s cease there and choose again up within the subsequent weblog on MCP for DevOps: Use Circumstances
Choose to see it in motion? Watch the complete MCP for DevOps: Structure & Parts video walkthrough right here: https://youtu.be/Qdms0EHwhOw
Subsequent within the sequence
MCP for DevOps: Use Circumstances
✅ AI Brokers Triggering DevOps Instruments Use MCP to work together with current DevOps scripts, APIs, or providers in an ordinary format an AI agent can devour.
✅ Infrastructure-Conscious LLMs Let your AI apps ask structured questions like “What kubernetes providers are working in namespace default?” or “Create a brand new database desk”—with stay solutions from methods through MCP servers.
✅ Safe Device Invocation through AI expose choose CLI instruments or automation workflows by means of an MCP server interface, permitting AI brokers to work together with them underneath managed circumstances equivalent to utilizing a Docker scout MCP to scan photos.
See you on the subsequent submit!
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