devops-mcp 1.0.0

An MCP server for interacting with Azure DevOps

devops-mcp

An MCP server that exposes Azure DevOps as tools for LLMs — pipelines, repositories, pull requests, and work items. Built with FastMCP over stdio transport.

Communicates over stdio and works with GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and any MCP-compatible client.

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Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

uv sync

2. Configure — add to your MCP client config (see MCP Client Setup below).

3. Run the server

uv run devops-mcp

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Installation

Prerequisites

• Python >=3.10
• uv (recommended)
• A Microsoft Entra ID identity with access to Azure DevOps

Install dependencies

uv sync

Build the package

uv run python -m build

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Configuration

All configuration is driven by environment variables — no secrets in code, no hardcoded org names or tenant IDs.

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
AZDO_AUTH_TYPE	No	default	Authentication method. One of: default, azure_cli, interactive, client_secret, managed_identity. default tries all credential sources in order (environment variables, Azure CLI, managed identity) and is the right choice for local development. See Authentication.
AZDO_ORGANIZATION	No	—	Default Azure DevOps organization name. Can be overridden per tool call. Required if not supplied per call.
AZDO_PROJECT	No	—	Default Azure DevOps project name. Can be overridden per tool call. Required if not supplied per call.
AZDO_TENANT_ID	Conditional	—	Microsoft Entra ID tenant ID. Required for client_secret. Recommended for interactive to constrain sign-in to the correct tenant.
AZDO_CLIENT_ID	client_secret only	—	Service principal client ID.
AZDO_CLIENT_SECRET	client_secret only	—	Service principal client secret.
AZDO_LOG_LEVEL	No	INFO	Log verbosity: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR. All logs go to stderr; stdout is reserved for MCP stdio transport.
AZDO_ALLOW_WRITE	No	off	Set true to register create, update, tag, link, and comment (write) tools. When unset the server is read-only — write tools are not visible to the agent at all.
AZDO_ALLOW_DELETE	No	off	Set true to register delete tools. When unset, delete tools are not visible to the agent.
AZDO_EPHEMERAL_TOKEN	No	false	Interactive auth only. When false (the default), the MSAL token cache is persisted to disk via the OS secret store (Windows DPAPI, macOS Keychain, Linux libsecret), and an AuthenticationRecord sidecar is written to ~/.devops-mcp/auth-record.json so subsequent server restarts authenticate silently without a new browser prompt. Set true, 1, or yes to use an in-memory-only cache (no disk cache, no sidecar) — re-prompts on every restart. Invalid values fall back to false with a logged warning. Has no effect on any auth type other than interactive.
AZDO_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE	No	—	Interactive auth only. A filename-safe suffix ([A-Za-z0-9_-]) appended to the MSAL cache name and the AuthenticationRecord sidecar so two server instances signed in to different tenants/accounts on the same host keep separate caches instead of overwriting each other's pinned account. Omit (or leave empty) for a single-tenant setup — the original shared filenames are used. Characters outside [A-Za-z0-9_-] raise an error rather than being silently dropped (sanitizing could collapse two distinct profiles into one shared cache).
AZDO_AUTH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	No	30	Maximum seconds to wait for credential acquisition before failing with an auth error. Applies to all auth types. Invalid or non-positive values fall back to 30. Increase this in slow-network or MFA-heavy environments.

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Authentication

The server uses Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) OAuth 2.0 via the azure-identity library. Set AZDO_AUTH_TYPE to select a method.

AZDO_AUTH_TYPE	Description	Best for
default (default)	DefaultAzureCredential — tries environment variables, Azure CLI session, managed identity, and other sources in order. Does not prompt in-process.	Recommended — works everywhere
azure_cli	Uses the active Azure CLI session (az login). Does not prompt in-process.	Local development with an existing CLI session
interactive	Opens a browser for interactive sign-in. Supports MFA and multi-account use. Benefits from the persistent token cache (on by default; disable with AZDO_EPHEMERAL_TOKEN=true): the first launch prompts; subsequent restarts reuse the cached refresh token silently while it remains valid.	Local development without a CLI session
client_secret	Service principal with client secret. Requires AZDO_TENANT_ID, AZDO_CLIENT_ID, and AZDO_CLIENT_SECRET.	CI/CD, unattended automation
managed_identity	Azure Managed Identity. No credentials to manage.	Azure-hosted workloads (VMs, Functions, Container Apps)

For default / local dev: run az login once — DefaultAzureCredential will pick it up automatically.

For interactive: a browser window opens on first use. Set AZDO_TENANT_ID to constrain sign-in to a specific Entra ID tenant (recommended when multiple accounts are in use). The persistent token cache is on by default, so subsequent restarts are silent; set AZDO_EPHEMERAL_TOKEN=true to opt out.

For client_secret: also set AZDO_TENANT_ID, AZDO_CLIENT_ID, and AZDO_CLIENT_SECRET.

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Security

Safe-by-default write and delete gates

Write and delete tools are not registered by default — they do not appear to the agent at all until explicitly enabled. The server is read-only until AZDO_ALLOW_WRITE=true and/or AZDO_ALLOW_DELETE=true are set. Each flag is independent; set only the ones you need.

Env-driven configuration

All configuration is supplied via environment variables. No secrets, org names, project names, or tenant IDs are hardcoded. .vscode/mcp.json is gitignored because it may contain credentials.

Stdout reserved for MCP transport

Stdout is exclusively reserved for MCP stdio transport messages. All server logs (including auth events) go to stderr via the Python logging module. Never redirect stdout to a log file.

Token cache caveats (interactive auth)

By default the MSAL token cache is encrypted at rest using the OS secret store (Windows DPAPI, macOS Keychain, Linux libsecret). The AuthenticationRecord sidecar stored at ~/.devops-mcp/auth-record.json contains only account metadata (home account ID, tenant, authority, username) — no tokens or client secrets.

On headless Linux without a secret store (e.g., no GNOME Keyring / libsecret installed), the OS-encrypted cache may be unavailable. The server logs an actionable warning and falls back to an in-memory-only cache. Set AZDO_EPHEMERAL_TOKEN=true to suppress the warning and always use in-memory cache on such hosts.

Multiple tenants/accounts on one host (interactive auth)

The default cache and sidecar filenames (devops-mcp.cache, ~/.devops-mcp/auth-record.json) are shared per host, so two interactive sessions signed in to different tenants/accounts would overwrite each other's pinned account. Give each session a distinct AZDO_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE (e.g. prod, dev) to keep their caches and AuthenticationRecord sidecars separate. The profile is a tenant-wide cache key: each entry signs in once (its own browser prompt) and then restarts silently as its own account, while tools still receive the specific organization/project per call. The profiles never collide.

Register two server entries, each with its own profile and (recommended) matching AZDO_TENANT_ID:

{
  "servers": {
    "devops-mcp-prod": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "devops-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AZDO_AUTH_TYPE": "interactive",
        "AZDO_TENANT_ID": "<prod-tenant-id>",
        "AZDO_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE": "prod"
      }
    },
    "devops-mcp-dev": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "devops-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AZDO_AUTH_TYPE": "interactive",
        "AZDO_TENANT_ID": "<dev-tenant-id>",
        "AZDO_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE": "dev"
      }
    }
  }
}

Resilience behavior

These behaviors are built in and require no configuration:

• Automatic retries — requests that receive 429 (throttling) or transient gateway errors (502, 503, 504) are retried automatically with back-off and Retry-After header honoring. Non-idempotent writes (POST, PATCH) are not retried on 5xx — a gateway error on a write may arrive after the server has already committed the operation; only 429 (which guarantees the request was rejected before processing) is safe to retry on all methods.
• Response size cap — responses larger than 5 MB are replaced with an error asking the agent to narrow the query. For large pipeline logs use devops_get_run_log_content's start_line/end_line parameters to slice the content at the API level.
• Auth timeout — credential acquisition is bounded by AZDO_AUTH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default 30 s). A slow or hung auth call releases the per-scope lock so subsequent callers are not serialized indefinitely.

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MCP Client Setup

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project root. Note: .vscode/mcp.json is gitignored because it may contain secrets.

Default / local dev (recommended):

{
  "servers": {
    "devops-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "devops-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AZDO_ORGANIZATION": "<your-org>",
        "AZDO_PROJECT": "<your-project>"
      }
    }
  }
}

With write tools enabled:

{
  "servers": {
    "devops-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "devops-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AZDO_ORGANIZATION": "<your-org>",
        "AZDO_PROJECT": "<your-project>",
        "AZDO_ALLOW_WRITE": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Service principal (CI/CD):

{
  "servers": {
    "devops-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "devops-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AZDO_AUTH_TYPE": "client_secret",
        "AZDO_TENANT_ID": "<your-tenant-id>",
        "AZDO_CLIENT_ID": "<your-client-id>",
        "AZDO_CLIENT_SECRET": "<your-client-secret>",
        "AZDO_ORGANIZATION": "<your-org>",
        "AZDO_PROJECT": "<your-project>"
      }
    }
  }
}

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Tools

31 tools across 4 domains. Tools marked with a gate are only registered when the corresponding env flag is set.

Gate	Meaning
default	Always registered (reads and safe queries).
write	Registered only when AZDO_ALLOW_WRITE=true.
delete	Registered only when AZDO_ALLOW_DELETE=true.

Pipelines (7 tools)

Tool	Gate	Description
devops_list_pipelines	default	List pipelines defined in a project
devops_list_pipeline_runs	default	List runs for a specific pipeline
devops_get_pipeline_run	default	Get details of a specific pipeline run
devops_get_build	default	Get build details by buildId (resolves a build URL to pipeline info)
devops_list_run_logs	default	List log metadata for a build by buildId
devops_get_run_log_content	default	Get plain-text content of a specific log; use start_line/end_line to slice large logs
devops_list_build_artifacts	default	List artifacts produced by a build

Repositories (3 tools)

Tool	Gate	Description
devops_list_repositories	default	List Git repositories in a project
devops_get_repository	default	Get details of a specific repository
devops_list_branches	default	List branches in a repository

Pull Requests (14 tools)

Tool	Gate	Description
devops_get_pull_request	default	Get details of a specific pull request
devops_list_pull_requests	default	List pull requests with optional filters (status, branch, creator, reviewer, labels)
devops_create_pull_request	write	Create a new pull request, optionally linking work items
devops_update_pull_request	write	Update title, description, status, draft state, target branch, auto-complete, or completion options
devops_tag_pull_request	write	Add labels/tags to a pull request
devops_link_work_items_to_pull_request	write	Link Azure Boards work items to a pull request
devops_list_pull_request_threads	default	List comment threads on a pull request
devops_get_pull_request_thread	default	Get a single comment thread with its comments
devops_create_pull_request_thread	write	Start a comment thread — general, or inline on a file/line via thread context
devops_set_pull_request_thread_status	write	Set a thread's status (active, fixed, wontFix, closed, byDesign, pending)
devops_add_pull_request_comment	write	Reply to an existing comment thread
devops_update_pull_request_comment	write	Edit the text of an existing comment
devops_list_pull_request_iterations	default	List a pull request's iterations (push history)
devops_get_pull_request_changes	default	List changed files for a PR iteration (path + change type)

Work Items (7 tools)

Tool	Gate	Description
devops_get_work_item	default	Get a single work item by ID
devops_list_work_items	default	Bulk-fetch up to 200 work items by ID
devops_query_work_items	default	Query work items with WIQL, auto-fetching full details
devops_create_work_item	write	Create a new work item
devops_update_work_item	write	Update fields on an existing work item
devops_add_work_item_comment	write	Add a comment to a work item
devops_update_work_item_comment	write	Update an existing work item comment

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API Reference

All tools use the Azure DevOps REST API. Pipeline, repository, work item read tools, and the PR comment-thread and diff tools use v7.1. The remaining pull request tools (get/list/create/update/tag/link) and work item write operations use v7.2-preview.

Note: run_id and build_id share the same numeric value — a Pipelines API run_id is identical to the Build API buildId for the same run. This enables cross-API calls (e.g., use devops_list_run_logs to get log IDs, then devops_get_run_log_content with the same build_id).