Set up GitLab MCP in VS Code
Access the GitLab API to manage repositories, merge requests, issues, pipelines, and CI/CD workflows from your AI editor.
1
Locate the config file
VS Code reads MCP server configuration from the following file:
.vscode/settings.json → mcp sectionCreate this file if it does not already exist. For VS Code, this is inside your workspace .vscode/settings.json file under the mcp section.
2
Add the configuration
Add the following to your VS Code config file:
json
{
"servers": {
"gitlab-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@modelcontextprotocol/server-gitlab"
],
"env": {
"GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "YOUR_GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
"GITLAB_API_URL": "YOUR_GITLAB_API_URL"
}
}
}
}3
Set up environment variables
GitLab MCP requires the following environment variables:
GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKENRequiredGitLab personal access token
GITLAB_API_URLOptionalGitLab API URL (defaults to gitlab.com)
4
Verify it works
Restart VS Code. GitLab MCP should appear in your MCP server list with 18 tools available.
This server adds approximately 9,270 tokens to your context window for tool definitions.