container-manager-mcp 2.0.1

Container Manager - manage Docker, Docker Swarm, and Podman containers. MCP+A2A Servers Out of the Box!

Container Manager Mcp

CLI or API | MCP | Agent

Version: 2.0.1

Documentation — Installation, deployment, usage across the API, CLI, MCP, and A2A agent interfaces, and the multi-host control plane are maintained in the official documentation.

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Overview

Container Manager Mcp is a production-grade Agent and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to interface directly with Container Manager - manage Docker, Docker Swarm, and Podman containers. MCP+A2A Servers Out of the Box!.

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Key Features

• Consolidated Action-Routed MCP Tools: Minimizes token overhead and eliminates tool bloat in LLM contexts by grouping methods into optimized, togglable tool modules.
• Enterprise-Grade Security: Comprehensive support for Eunomia policies, OIDC token delegation, and granular execution context tracking.
• Integrated Graph Agent: Built-in Pydantic AI agent supporting the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and standard Web interfaces (AG-UI).
• Native Telemetry & Tracing: Out-of-the-box OpenTelemetry exports and native Langfuse tracing.

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Multi-Host & Zero-Script Remote Docker Orchestration

container-manager-mcp allows a single master instance of the MCP server on your controller to route container and volume operations securely to remote hosts over SSH standard tunneling.

• Unified Inventory: Connection endpoints are loaded dynamically from the XDG shared inventory at ~/.config/agent-utilities/inventory.yml (.yml preferred; a legacy inventory.yaml is still read when no .yml exists).
• Zero TCP Socket Exposure: Operations route directly over the standard SSH channel securely, removing the need to expose Docker socket TCP ports.

Shared inventory: the cm_* host aliases you pass as host come from the same inventory.yml used by tunnel-manager — define your fleet once. Create and validate it with tunnel-manager inventory init / tunnel-manager inventory doctor. See tunnel-manager's Inventory guide for the full schema, template, and override options.

To configure and utilize the multi-host remote routing, see the detailed Multi-Host Architecture Guide.

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CLI or API

This agent wraps the Container Manager - manage Docker, Docker Swarm, and Podman containers. MCP+A2A Servers Out of the Box! API. You can interact with it programmatically or via its integrated execution entrypoints.

Detailed instructions on how to use the underlying API wrappers, extended schema bindings, and developer SDK references are maintained in docs/index.md.

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MCP

This server utilizes dynamic Action-Routed tools to optimize token overhead and maximize IDE compatibility.

Available MCP Tools

Auto-generated — do not edit (synced by the mcp-readme-table pre-commit hook).

Condensed action-routed tools (default — MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed)

MCP Tool	Toggle Env Var	Description
cm_compose_operations	COMPOSETOOL	Manage docker-compose or podman-compose operations.
cm_container_operations	CONTAINERTOOL	Manage container operations.
cm_image_operations	IMAGETOOL	Manage container images.
cm_info_operations	INFOTOOL	Manage container manager info operations.
cm_list_hosts	INVENTORYTOOL	List the host aliases you can pass as host to any cm_* operation
cm_network_operations	NETWORKTOOL	Manage network operations.
cm_swarm_operations	SWARMTOOL	Manage swarm operations.
cm_system_operations	SYSTEMTOOL	Manage container manager system operations.
cm_volume_operations	VOLUMETOOL	Manage volume operations.
trace_port_namespace	MISCTOOL	Locate the container actively using/mapping the specified port on the target host.

10 action-routed tool(s) (default) · 0 verbose 1:1 tool(s). Each is enabled unless its <DOMAIN>TOOL toggle is set false; MCP_TOOL_MODE selects the surface (condensed default · verbose 1:1 · both). Auto-generated — do not edit.

Detailed tool schemas, parameter shapes, and validation constraints are preserved in docs/mcp.md.

Dynamic Tool Selection & Visibility

This MCP server supports dynamic toolset selection and visibility filtering at runtime. This allows you to restrict the set of exposed tools in order to prevent blowing up the LLM's context window.

You can configure tool filtering via multiple input channels:

• CLI Arguments: Pass --tools or --toolsets (or their disabled counterparts --disabled-tools and --disabled-toolsets) during startup.
• Environment Variables: Define standard environment variables:
  • MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS / MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS
  • MCP_ENABLED_TAGS / MCP_DISABLED_TAGS
• HTTP SSE Request Headers: Pass custom headers during transport initialization:
  • x-mcp-enabled-tools / x-mcp-disabled-tools
  • x-mcp-enabled-tags / x-mcp-disabled-tags
• HTTP SSE Request Query Parameters: Append query parameters directly to your transport connection URL:
  • ?tools=tool1,tool2
  • ?tags=tag1

When query strings or parameters are supplied, an LLM-free Knowledge Graph resolution layer (using DynamicToolOrchestrator) matches query intents against known tool tags, names, or descriptions, with safe fallback and automated 24-hour background cache refreshing.

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MCP Configuration Examples

Install the slim [mcp] extra. All examples install container-manager-mcp[mcp] — the MCP-server extra that pulls only the FastMCP / FastAPI tooling (agent-utilities[mcp]). It deliberately excludes the heavy agent runtime (pydantic-ai, the epistemic-graph engine, dspy, llama-index), so uvx / container installs are far smaller. Use the full [agent] extra only when you need the integrated Pydantic AI agent.

stdio Transport (local IDEs — Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "container-manager-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "container-manager-mcp[mcp]",
        "container-manager-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "COMPOSETOOL": "True",
        "CONTAINERTOOL": "True",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_HOST": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_KUBECONTEXT": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_PODMAN_BASE_URL": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_TYPE": "docker",
        "IMAGETOOL": "True",
        "INFOTOOL": "True",
        "INVENTORYTOOL": "True",
        "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST": "",
        "MISCTOOL": "True",
        "NETWORKTOOL": "True",
        "SPECIALIST_DEPLOYMENTTOOL": "True",
        "SWARMTOOL": "True",
        "SYSTEMTOOL": "True",
        "VOLUMETOOL": "True"
      }
    }
  }
}

Streamable-HTTP Transport (networked / production)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "container-manager-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "container-manager-mcp[mcp]",
        "container-manager-mcp",
        "--transport",
        "streamable-http",
        "--port",
        "8000"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRANSPORT": "streamable-http",
        "HOST": "0.0.0.0",
        "PORT": "8000",
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "COMPOSETOOL": "True",
        "CONTAINERTOOL": "True",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_HOST": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_KUBECONTEXT": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_PODMAN_BASE_URL": "",
        "CONTAINER_MANAGER_TYPE": "docker",
        "IMAGETOOL": "True",
        "INFOTOOL": "True",
        "INVENTORYTOOL": "True",
        "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST": "",
        "MISCTOOL": "True",
        "NETWORKTOOL": "True",
        "SPECIALIST_DEPLOYMENTTOOL": "True",
        "SWARMTOOL": "True",
        "SYSTEMTOOL": "True",
        "VOLUMETOOL": "True"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, connect to a pre-deployed Streamable-HTTP instance by url:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "container-manager-mcp": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/container-manager-mcp/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Deploying the Streamable-HTTP server via Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name container-manager-mcp-mcp \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e PORT=8000 \
  -e MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed \
  -e COMPOSETOOL=True \
  -e CONTAINERTOOL=True \
  -e CONTAINER_MANAGER_HOST="" \
  -e CONTAINER_MANAGER_KUBECONTEXT="" \
  -e CONTAINER_MANAGER_PODMAN_BASE_URL="" \
  -e CONTAINER_MANAGER_TYPE=docker \
  -e IMAGETOOL=True \
  -e INFOTOOL=True \
  -e INVENTORYTOOL=True \
  -e KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST="" \
  -e MISCTOOL=True \
  -e NETWORKTOOL=True \
  -e SPECIALIST_DEPLOYMENTTOOL=True \
  -e SWARMTOOL=True \
  -e SYSTEMTOOL=True \
  -e VOLUMETOOL=True \
  knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:mcp

Auto-generated from the code-read env surface (MCP_TOOL_MODE + package vars) — do not edit.

Additional Deployment Options

container-manager-mcp can also run as a local container (Docker / Podman / uv) or be consumed from a remote deployment. The Deployment guide has full, copy-paste mcp_config.json for all four transports — stdio, streamable-http, local container / uv, and remote URL:

• Local container / uv — launch the server from mcp_config.json via uvx, docker run, or podman run, or point at a local streamable-http container by url.
• Remote URL — connect to a server deployed behind Caddy at http://container-manager-mcp.arpa/mcp using the "url" key.

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Environment Variables

Package environment variables

Variable	Example	Description
HOST	0.0.0.0
PORT	8000
TRANSPORT	stdio	options: stdio, streamable-http, sse
ENABLE_OTEL	True
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT	http://localhost:8080/api/public/otel
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PUBLIC_KEY	pk-...
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_SECRET_KEY	sk-...
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL	http/protobuf
EUNOMIA_TYPE	none	options: none, embedded, remote
EUNOMIA_POLICY_FILE	mcp_policies.json
EUNOMIA_REMOTE_URL	http://eunomia-server:8000
CONTAINER_MANAGER_TYPE	docker	options: docker, podman, swarm, kubernetes
CONTAINER_MANAGER_HOST	—	remote docker daemon host (e.g. tcp://host:2375); empty = local
CONTAINER_MANAGER_PODMAN_BASE_URL	—	podman service base URL (e.g. unix:///run/podman/podman.sock)
CONTAINER_MANAGER_KUBECONTEXT	—	kubeconfig context name; empty = current-context
KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST	—	injected by the cluster when running in-pod; leave empty
INVENTORYTOOL	True
INFOTOOL	True
IMAGETOOL	True
CONTAINERTOOL	True
VOLUMETOOL	True
NETWORKTOOL	True
SWARMTOOL	True
SYSTEMTOOL	True
COMPOSETOOL	True
MISCTOOL	True
SPECIALIST_DEPLOYMENTTOOL	True

Inherited agent-utilities variables (apply to every connector)

Variable	Example	Description
MCP_TOOL_MODE	condensed	Tool surface: condensed
MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS	—	Comma-separated tool allow-list
MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS	—	Comma-separated tool deny-list
MCP_ENABLED_TAGS	—	Comma-separated tag allow-list
MCP_DISABLED_TAGS	—	Comma-separated tag deny-list
MCP_CLIENT_AUTH	—	Outbound MCP auth (oidc-client-credentials for fleet calls)
OIDC_CLIENT_ID	—	OIDC client id (service-account auth)
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET	—	OIDC client secret (service-account auth)
DEBUG	False	Verbose logging
PYTHONUNBUFFERED	1	Unbuffered stdout (recommended in containers)
MCP_URL	http://localhost:8000/mcp	URL of the MCP server the agent connects to
PROVIDER	openai	LLM provider for the agent
MODEL_ID	gpt-4o	Model id for the agent
ENABLE_WEB_UI	True	Serve the AG-UI web interface

27 package + 14 inherited variable(s). Auto-generated from .env.example + the shared agent-utilities set — do not edit.

Every variable is listed in the auto-generated table above (package vars from .env.example + the inherited agent-utilities surface). A few pointers:

• Tool toggles — each action-routed tool can be disabled via its <DOMAIN>TOOL toggle; the tool ↔ toggle mapping is in the Available MCP Tools table above.
• Multi-host control plane — remote host endpoints load from the XDG shared inventory ~/.config/agent-utilities/inventory.yml (.yml preferred, .yaml legacy fallback), managed via tunnel-manager inventory init|doctor (see Multi-Host guide).

See .env.example for a copy-paste starting point.

Agent

This repository features a fully integrated Pydantic AI Graph Agent. It communicates over the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and interacts seamlessly with the Agent Web UI (AG-UI) and Terminal interface.

Running the Agent CLI

To start the interactive command-line agent:

# Run the agent server
container-manager-agent --provider openai --model-id gpt-4o

Docker Compose Orchestration

The following docker/agent.compose.yml configures the Agent, Web UI, and Terminal Interface together:

version: '3.8'

services:
  container-manager-mcp-mcp:
    image: knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:mcp
    container_name: container-manager-mcp-mcp
    hostname: container-manager-mcp-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 10s
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

  container-manager-mcp-agent:
    image: knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:latest
    container_name: container-manager-mcp-agent
    hostname: container-manager-mcp-agent
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - container-manager-mcp-mcp
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    command: [ "container-manager-agent" ]
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9019
      - MCP_URL=http://container-manager-mcp-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
      - ENABLE_OTEL=True
    ports:
      - "9019:9019"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:9019/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 10s
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

Detailed graph node architecture explanations, custom skill configurations, and agentic trace guides are available in docs/agent.md.

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Security & Governance

Built directly upon the enterprise-ready agent-utilities core, standard security parameters are fully supported:

Access Control & Policy Enforcement

• Eunomia Policies: Fine-grained, policy-driven tool authorization. Supports none, local embedded (mcp_policies.json), or centralized remote modes.
• OIDC Token Delegation: Compliant with RFC 8693 token exchange for flowing authenticating user credentials from Web UI / ACP → Agent → MCP.
• Scoped Credentials: Execution context runs restricted to the specific caller identity.

Runtime Security Grid

Feature	Functionality	Enablement
Tool Guard	Sensitivity inspection with human-in-the-loop validation	Enabled by default
Prompt Injection Defense	Input scanning, repetition monitoring, and recursive loop blocks	Enabled by default
Context Safety Guard	Stuck-loop detectors and contextual overflow preemptive alerts	Enabled by default

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Installation

Pick the extra that matches what you want to run:

Extra	Installs	Use when
container-manager-mcp[mcp]	Slim MCP server only (agent-utilities[mcp] — FastMCP/FastAPI)	You only run the MCP server (smallest install / image)
container-manager-mcp[agent]	Full agent runtime (agent-utilities[agent,logfire] — Pydantic AI + the epistemic-graph engine)	You run the integrated agent
container-manager-mcp[all]	Everything (mcp + agent + the docker / podman / kubernetes backends)	Development / both surfaces

# MCP server only (recommended for tool hosting — slim deps)
uv pip install "container-manager-mcp[mcp]"

# Full agent runtime (Pydantic AI + epistemic-graph engine)
uv pip install "container-manager-mcp[agent]"

# Everything (development)
uv pip install "container-manager-mcp[all]"      # or: python -m pip install "container-manager-mcp[all]"

Container images (:mcp vs :agent)

One multi-stage docker/Dockerfile builds two right-sized images, selected by --target:

Image tag	Build target	Contents	Entrypoint
knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:mcp	--target mcp	container-manager-mcp[mcp] — slim, no engine/pydantic-ai/dspy/llama-index/tree-sitter	container-manager-mcp
knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:latest	--target agent (default)	container-manager-mcp[agent] — full agent runtime + epistemic-graph engine	container-manager-agent

docker build --target mcp   -t knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:mcp    docker/   # slim MCP server
docker build --target agent -t knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:latest docker/   # full agent

docker/mcp.compose.yml runs the slim :mcp server; docker/agent.compose.yml runs the agent (:latest) with a co-located :mcp sidecar.

Knowledge-graph database (epistemic-graph)

The full agent ([agent] / :latest) embeds the epistemic-graph engine (pulled in transitively via agent-utilities[agent]). For production — or to share one knowledge graph across multiple agents — run epistemic-graph as its own database container and point the agent at it instead of embedding it. Deployment recipes (single-node + Raft HA), connection config, and the full database architecture (with diagrams) are documented in the epistemic-graph deployment guide. The slim [mcp] server does not require the database.

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Documentation

The complete documentation is published as the official documentation site and is the recommended reference for installation, deployment, and day-to-day operation.

Page	Contents
Installation	pip, source, extras, prebuilt Docker image
Deployment	run the MCP and agent servers, Compose, Caddy + Technitium, env config
Usage	the MCP tools, the DockerManager API, the CLI
Overview	ecosystem role, enterprise readiness, architecture
Multi-Host	zero-script Docker-over-SSH control plane
Concepts	concept registry (CONCEPT:CMGR-*)

AGENTS.md is the canonical contributor/agent guidance.

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Repository Owners

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Contribute

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure code quality by executing local checks before submitting pull requests:

• Format code using ruff format .
• Lint code using ruff check .
• Validate type-safety with mypy .
• Execute test suites using pytest

Deploy with agent-os-genesis

This package can be provisioned for you — skill-guided — by the agent-os-genesis universal skill (its single-package deploy mode): it picks your install method, seeds secrets to OpenBao/Vault (or .env), trusts your enterprise CA, registers the MCP server, and verifies it — the same machinery that stands up the whole Agent OS, narrowed to just this package. Ask your agent to "deploy container-manager-mcp with agent-os-genesis".

Install mode	Command
Bare-metal, prod (PyPI)	uvx container-manager-mcp · or uv tool install container-manager-mcp
Bare-metal, dev (editable)	uv pip install -e ".[all]" · or pip install -e ".[all]"
Container, prod	deploy knucklessg1/container-manager-mcp:latest via docker-compose / swarm / podman / podman-compose / kubernetes
Container, dev (editable)	deploy docker/compose.dev.yml (source-mounted at /src; edits live on restart)

Secrets are read-existing + seeded via vault_sync — you are only prompted for what's missing.