Istio MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants and developers with read-only access to Istio service mesh resources in Kubernetes clusters. This server enables intelligent querying of Istio configurations, Virtual Services, Destination Rules, service mesh hosts, and Envoy proxy configurations through a safe, non-destructive interface.

🚀 Overview

The Istio MCP Server bridges the gap between AI assistants and Istio service mesh operations by implementing the Model Context Protocol. It provides comprehensive tools for querying Istio resources including Virtual Services, Destination Rules, service mesh hosts, and proxy configurations without any risk of modifying or deleting resources.

Key Benefits:

• 🔒 100% Read-Only Operations - No destructive commands allowed
• 🤖 AI Assistant Friendly - Designed for MCP protocol integration
• 🔍 Comprehensive Istio Access - Covers all major Istio resource types
• 🛡️ Safe by Design - Zero risk of accidental resource modifications
• 🌐 Multi-Protocol Support - STDIO, SSE, and HTTP protocols
• 📊 Rich Observability - Access to Envoy proxy configurations and telemetry

✨ Features

🔧 Core Istio Resources (Read-Only)

• Virtual Services: Query specific Istio Virtual Services and routing rules by name
• Destination Rules: Query specific Istio Destination Rules and traffic policies by name
• Service Mesh Hosts: Comprehensive overview of all hosts in the service mesh

📊 Observability & Telemetry (Read-Only)

• Proxy Status: Get Envoy proxy health and status information
• Configuration Summaries: Comprehensive Istio configuration overviews
• External Dependency Checks: Verify external service accessibility

🌐 Envoy Proxy Access (Read-Only)

• Cluster Configuration: Access Envoy cluster configurations
• Listener Configuration: Access Envoy listener configurations
• Route Configuration: Access Envoy route configurations
• Endpoint Configuration: Access Envoy endpoint configurations
• Bootstrap Configuration: Access Envoy bootstrap configurations
• Full Configuration Dumps: Complete Envoy configuration snapshots

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26.3+ for building from source
• Kubernetes cluster with Istio installed
• kubectl configured with appropriate permissions
• istioctl installed (for advanced proxy configuration features)

Installation

# Install via npm (recommended)
npm install -g istio-mcp-server

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/krutsko/istio-mcp-server.git
cd istio-mcp-server
make build

Claude Desktop

Using npx

If you have npm installed, this is the fastest way to get started with istio-mcp-server on Claude Desktop.

Open your claude_desktop_config.json and add the mcp server to the list of mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "istio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "istio-mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / VS Code Insiders

Install the Istio MCP server extension in VS Code Insiders manually by running the following command:

# For VS Code
code --add-mcp '{"name":"istio","command":"npx","args":["istio-mcp-server@latest"]}'
# For VS Code Insiders
code-insiders --add-mcp '{"name":"istio","command":"npx","args":["istio-mcp-server@latest"]}'

Cursor

Install the Istio MCP server extension in Cursor by pressing the following link:

Alternatively, you can install the extension manually by editing the mcp.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "istio-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "istio-mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Goose CLI

Goose CLI is the easiest (and cheapest) way to get rolling with artificial intelligence (AI) agents.

Using npm

If you have npm installed, this is the fastest way to get started with istio-mcp-server.

Open your goose config.yaml and add the mcp server to the list of mcpServers:

extensions:
  istio:
    command: npx
    args:
      - -y
      - istio-mcp-server@latest

Basic Usage

# Run in STDIO mode (for MCP clients)
./bin/istio-mcp-server --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config

# Run SSE server on port 8080
./bin/istio-mcp-server --sse-port 8080

# Run HTTP server on port 8080
./bin/istio-mcp-server --http-port 8080

# Show all available options
./bin/istio-mcp-server --help

🛠️ Available Tools

This server is built around targeted diagnosis, not cluster browsing — every tool returns a bounded answer, never a wall of content. Start with explain-host; drill into a specific named resource only once you know what you're looking for.

🎯 Diagnose (start here)

• explain-host - The entry point. Resolves the config on the path to one host and returns a verdict: matching VirtualService/rule, DestinationRule (and whether its subsets actually select any pods), ServiceEntry if external, referenced Gateways, effective mTLS mode, and applicable AuthorizationPolicies - plus scoped istioctl analyze findings.
• get-sidecar-scope - Can a workload even see a given host? (Sidecar egress scope)
• get-proxy-stats - Filtered Envoy admin stats (circuit breaker / outlier detection / connection health) for a pod, scoped to one cluster

🌐 Networking Resources

• get-virtual-service - Get a specific VirtualService's full config (YAML)
• get-destination-rule - Get a specific DestinationRule's full config (YAML)
• get-service-entry - Get a specific ServiceEntry's full config (YAML)
• get-gateway - Get a specific Gateway's full config (YAML)
• get-sidecar - Get a specific Sidecar's full config (YAML)

🔒 Security

• get-authorization-policy - Get a specific AuthorizationPolicy's full config (YAML)
• get-peer-authentication - Get a specific PeerAuthentication's full config (YAML)
• get-request-authentication - Get a specific RequestAuthentication's full config (YAML)

🔍 Service Discovery & Analysis

• check-external-dependency-availability - Check if an external dependency is properly configured
• get-pods-by-service - Find all pods backing a specific Kubernetes service

🔍 Proxy Configuration

• get-proxy-clusters - Get Envoy cluster configuration from a pod
• get-proxy-listeners - Get Envoy listener configuration from a pod
• get-proxy-routes - Get Envoy route configuration from a pod
• get-proxy-endpoints - Get Envoy endpoint configuration from a pod
• get-proxy-bootstrap - Get Envoy bootstrap configuration from a pod
• get-proxy-status - Get proxy status information

📋 Prompts (symptom-named playbooks)

• debug-503 - Sporadic 503/UC errors: circuit breaker / outlier detection / subset mismatch
• debug-mtls-failure - mTLS connection failures: PeerAuthentication vs DestinationRule TLS mode
• debug-routing - Unexpected routing behavior: matched VirtualService, shadowed rules, egress scope
• debug-rbac-denied - Unexpected 403/RBAC denials: which AuthorizationPolicy actually applies

⚙️ Configuration

The server supports various configuration options:

| Option | Description | Default | |--------|-------------|---------| | --kubeconfig | Path to kubeconfig file | ~/.kube/config | | --sse-port | Start SSE server on specified port | Disabled | | --http-port | Start HTTP server on specified port | Disabled | | --log-level | Set logging level (0-9) | 0 | | --profile | MCP profile to use | "full" |

🔒 Security Note: This server operates in read-only mode by design. All operations are safe and non-destructive.

🏗️ Architecture

The Istio MCP Server follows clean architecture principles with clear separation of concerns:

istio-mcp-server/
├── cmd/                    # Application entrypoints and CLI commands
├── pkg/
│   ├── istio-mcp-server/  # Core application logic and CLI handling
│   ├── istio/             # Istio client and resource management
│   ├── mcp/               # MCP server implementation and tool definitions
│   ├── version/           # Version information and build metadata
│   └── output/            # Output formatting and display utilities
└── npm/                   # NPM package distribution

🧪 Development

# Install development dependencies
make deps

# Format code
make fmt

# Run linter
make lint

# Run tests
make test

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

# Build for all platforms
make build-all-platforms

# Test release process
make test-release

🔗 Related Projects

• Model Context Protocol - The protocol specification
• Istio - Service mesh platform
• Kubernetes - Container orchestration platform
• Envoy Proxy - High-performance proxy

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.