MCP for DevOps – Sequence Opener and MCP Structure Intro
You’ve gotten undoubtedly heard about Anthropic’s MCP (Mannequin Context Protocol) open supply challenge. 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 Modifications All the pieces,” and my favourite, “Goodbye Builders, MCP is Right here to Keep.” Significantly? Whereas it’s a implausible challenge, it isn’t right here to switch us.
Over the subsequent a number of weeks, I’ll delve into these matters:
MCP—Why Ought to You Care?: This can present a short overview of MCP from a communication, discovery, and interplay perspective. We are going to then discover what it appears to be like like on the wire and the way it capabilities as a consumer/server structure, adopted by numerous use instances. I gained’t cowl the historical past of MCP or different important data, as numerous wonderful sources can be found on YouTube, dev.to, Medium, and elsewhere.
MCP for DevOps: I’ll talk about a number of use instances that work properly 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 consumer 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 consumer to programmatically work together with an MCP server that employs Argo CD for a Cisco DevOps workflow
- Claude Desktop & DevOps Workflows: We are going to swap issues up by utilizing Claude Desktop as an alternative of Cursor to reveal flexibility on the MCP consumer aspect
On the finish of the collection, I’ll tie all of this collectively to point out how Cursor, with a number of MCP purchasers, can drive modifications to Ansible playbooks in a GitHub repository, triggering actions within the Argo CD workflow. Finally, we’ll use the Ansible playbook to switch configuration settings on Cisco options akin to Cisco ISE (Id Providers Engine) and different Cisco merchandise.
I hope you be 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 put up in our three-part technical collection on Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP), a brand new, targeted protocol constructed to assist AI functions 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 programs and your operational stack. That stated, it’s early days. MCP is new and transferring quick, and whereas it already solves quite a lot 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 method 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 functions.
- Constructed to attach these brokers to instruments, APIs, databases, and file programs.
- Structured as a consumer/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 substitute on your current APIs or knowledge bus.
MCP’s job is tightly scoped: give an AI agent a clear, standardized method to uncover, request, and invoke capabilities on current tool-based infrastructure. In case your LLM-powered bot must name a REST API, record recordsdata, or question a database—MCP supplies the glue.
MCP issues as a result of it reduces and, in lots of instances, removes the toil for AI functions and brokers to seek out, hook up with, and leverage exterior instruments and providers akin to APIs, knowledge sources, and different non-AI native software units. For Dev/Web/SecOps workers, it could actually carry 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 are going to talk about use instances within the subsequent weblog, however think about it is advisable to create a workflow that works with Ansible Playbooks, NetBox, and GitHub and automate configurations in opposition to your infrastructure.
An instance workflow could seem 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 by way of a Python module, CLI, runner, and so on.
- Ideally, you employ a CI/CD software 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 collection of AI brokers that may faucet into every software 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 every of 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 components.
As illustrated in Determine 2 MCP makes use of a consumer/server structure. Let’s outline what the consumer and server elements do.
Determine 2. MCP Parts
Determine 2 exhibits an MCP host which is an AI software akin to an AI agent, IDE, coding assistant, and so on..
The MCP consumer (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 software capabilities.
The MCP host makes use of the language-specific MCP SDK for consumer connections (instance: MCP Python SDK) to ascertain connections to MCP servers. The MCP SDK is used for each client-side and server-side code.
Instance Python MCP consumer code.
Instance Python MCP server code.
Many present MCP purchasers are full functions or AI brokers with the MCP consumer SDK performance natively inbuilt. You possibly can see an instance record right here: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/purchasers
There are quite a few sources of MCP server lists on the Web. Here’s a record from the MCP challenge: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/examples. Some MCP consumer suppliers, akin to Cursor, have their very own record 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 purchasers working on the MCP host, an AI agent on this instance. The primary MCP consumer is connecting to a locally-hosted MCP server that gives native machine file system entry. The second MCP consumer is connecting to a remotely hosted MCP server that’s offering entry to a distant file system.
MCP purchasers 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 (Customary Enter/Output) because the transport. Determine 3., illustrates how an MCP-C connects to a neighborhood MCP-S for file or DB entry utilizing stdio. The MCP-S sends JSON-RPC messages to its customary 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 domestically in stdio mode and proscribing 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 awesome check software such because the MCP Inspector you possibly can pair a neighborhood consumer (MCP Inspector) along with your domestically 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
Linked MCP consumer to backing server transport
Created net app transport
Created net 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 purchasers for native or distant connections. The 2025-03-26 specification modifications 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. Observe: As of the time of scripting this weblog, the brand new Streaming HTTP help shouldn’t be accomplished in every SDK.
Determine 4 illustrates the connection move for HTTP+SSE situations. 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 possibly can undergo the MCP quickstart server and consumer guides to discover ways to setup your individual climate consumer/server combo: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/server. Utilizing the same setup, you possibly can see some HTTP messages for stuff like a instruments record 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
{"methodology":"instruments/record","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 software 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
{"methodology":"instruments/name","params":{"identify":"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}}
For the reason that specification change to Streamable HTTP could be very latest and never totally applied as of the writing of this weblog, I’ll forgo doing a granular clarification of that connection sequence. I beneficial 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 software or service, MCP supplies a useful resource discovery mechanism that lets MCP purchasers uncover out there sources. The MCP consumer can use direct sources or useful resource templates. You possibly can learn extra concerning the useful resource discovery choices at https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/ideas/sources. However, the essential factor to know is that the objective of useful resource discovery is to seek out out the next data:
- Supported capabilities and actions
- Protocol variations
- Customized metadata
Determine 5 exhibits the MCP-C to MCP-S request/response move for the capabilities discovery.
Determine 5. MCP Discovery Move
Whereas there is no such thing as a MCP server registry that MCP purchasers 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 record of MCP servers. Just a few of the various websites embody:
MCP Useful resource Discovery – Instance
Let’s take 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 consumer 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"]
},
Once I use Claude Desktop to software name SQLite and ask for a listing of server sources, you possibly can see the message trade from the MCP consumer to MCP server.
2025-04-09T18:08:37.964Z [sqlite] [info] Message from consumer: {"methodology":"sources/record","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 possibly can see the strategy utilized by the MCP consumer is sources/record and the MCP server responds utilizing the direct sources format:
{
uri: string; // Distinctive identifier for the useful resource
identify: string; // Human-readable identify
description?: string; // Non-compulsory description
mimeType?: string; // Non-compulsory MIME sort
}
Conclusion
MCP is off to a powerful 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 on your particular use case.
There may be much more introductory content material that I might cowl, however I feel this lays a basis for the remainder of the weblog collection. For the rest of the blogs it is necessary so that you can know:
MCP is good for:
- Brokers want to hook up with a number of knowledge sources and providers in a typical manner
- 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 (at the very least as we speak)?
- MCP shouldn’t be an agent-to-agent framework
- MCP shouldn’t be used for the creation, deployment, lifecycle administration, and safety of brokers or instruments
- MCP shouldn’t be an LLM
- MCP shouldn’t be an information supply
- MCP doesn’t dynamically uncover instruments and providers the MCP server will characterize
We additionally realized how MCP purchasers and servers work together with each other and over which forms of protocol and messaging codecs.
Let’s cease there and choose again up within the subsequent weblog on MCP for DevOps: Use Circumstances
Favor to see it in motion? Watch the total MCP for DevOps: Structure & Parts video walkthrough right here: https://youtu.be/Qdms0EHwhOw
Subsequent within the collection
MCP for DevOps: Use Circumstances
AI Brokers Triggering DevOps Instruments Use MCP to work together with current DevOps scripts, APIs, or providers in a typical 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 reside solutions from programs by way of MCP servers.
Safe Software Invocation by way of AI expose choose CLI instruments or automation workflows via an MCP server interface, permitting AI brokers to work together with them beneath managed situations akin to utilizing a Docker scout MCP to scan pictures.
See you on the subsequent put up!
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