Proxmox MCP server

Simple Proxmox MCP

MCP server for managing Proxmox VE

49 tools — nodes, QEMU VMs, LXC containers, storage, cluster, snapshots.

Why this one?

• One image, multi-arch — docker run ghcr.io/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp:latest and you're done
• Just env vars — no config files, no database, no state
• Read-only by default — destructive ops are gated behind an explicit PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL
• Tiny codebase — pure stdio MCP over Proxmoxer, no HTTP server, no auth layer, no extras
• Raw JSON out — no formatting, no emoji; LLM gets clean data
• Readable failures — a 403, a dead host or a blocked tier come back as a sentence, not a stack trace

Quick start

Image: ghcr.io/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp:latest (multi-arch: amd64 + arm64).

1. Export credentials in your shell profile (~/.zprofile, ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc):

# base environment:
export PROXMOX_HOST=192.168.1.100
export PROXMOX_USER=root@pam
export PROXMOX_PASSWORD=your-password

# or use token auth (recommended):
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME=mcp
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

# optional:
export PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL=read

Reload: source ~/.zprofile (or restart the shell).

2. Add to ~/.claude/settings.json (Claude Code) or claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proxmox": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_HOST",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_USER",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_PASSWORD",
        "ghcr.io/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

or token auth:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proxmox": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_HOST",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_USER",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME",
        "-e", "PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE",
        "ghcr.io/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

docker run -e VAR without a value passes the host variable through — no secrets in the config file. Restart the client — 31 read-only Proxmox tools become available (more if you raise PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL).

For password auth, swap the token vars for PROXMOX_PASSWORD.

Note: Claude Desktop on macOS is launched via launchd and does not inherit ~/.zprofile/~/.zshrc. Either put the exports in ~/.zshenv, or fall back to an inline "env": { ... } block in the config.

Configuration

All settings are environment variables — set them in your shell profile, pass them inline to docker run -e, or declare them in your MCP client's env block.

Variable	Default	Description
PROXMOX_HOST	—	Proxmox host (IP or hostname)
PROXMOX_USER	root@pam	API user
Auth	—	token or password — see below
PROXMOX_PORT	8006	API port
PROXMOX_VERIFY_SSL	false	Verify TLS certificate
PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL	read	read / lifecycle / all

Authentication: token or password

Pick one. If both are set, the token wins.

Token (recommended) — create in Proxmox UI: Datacenter → Permissions → API Tokens → Add (uncheck Privilege Separation). Then:

export PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME=mcp
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Password (fallback):

export PROXMOX_PASSWORD=your-password

Risk levels

PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL controls which tools exist. Tools above the active level are not registered, so they never appear in the MCP client's tool list:

Level	Tools	Adds
read (default)	31	read-only tools
lifecycle	45	+ start / stop / reboot / suspend / clone / migrate / create-snapshot
all	49	+ delete-snapshot / rollback-snapshot

Each elevated call is also re-checked at call time and logged to stderr (ALLOW / DENY + tool + tier).

Tools

Nodes (10)

Tool	Description
list_nodes	List all cluster nodes with status, CPU, memory, uptime
get_node_status	Detailed node metrics (CPU, memory, disk, load, kernel)
get_node_networks	Network interfaces on a node
get_node_disks	Physical disks on a node
get_node_services	Proxmox system services and their state
get_node_updates	Pending APT package updates
get_node_rrd_data	Historical CPU/memory/disk/network metrics (RRD)
get_node_tasks	Recent tasks on a node, optionally errors only
get_task_status	Status of a specific task by UPID
get_task_log	Log output from a task

QEMU VMs (17)

Tool	Tier	Description
list_vms	read	List all VMs, optionally filter by node
get_vm_status	read	Current VM status (running/stopped, CPU, memory)
get_vm_config	read	VM configuration (hardware, disks, network)
get_vm_network_interfaces	read	IP addresses of a running VM (via QEMU guest agent)
get_vm_rrd_data	read	Historical CPU/memory/disk/network metrics (RRD)
list_vm_snapshots	read	List all snapshots of a VM
start_vm	lifecycle	Start a VM
stop_vm	lifecycle	Force-stop a VM
shutdown_vm	lifecycle	Graceful ACPI shutdown with timeout
reboot_vm	lifecycle	Reboot via ACPI
suspend_vm	lifecycle	Suspend a VM
resume_vm	lifecycle	Resume a suspended VM
clone_vm	lifecycle	Full or linked clone
migrate_vm	lifecycle	Move a VM to another node, online or offline
create_vm_snapshot	lifecycle	Create a snapshot
delete_vm_snapshot	all	Delete a snapshot
rollback_vm_snapshot	all	Rollback to a snapshot

LXC Containers (13)

Tool	Tier	Description
list_containers	read	List all LXC containers, optionally filter by node
get_container_status	read	Current container status
get_container_config	read	Container configuration
get_container_interfaces	read	IP addresses of a running container
get_container_rrd_data	read	Historical CPU/memory/disk/network metrics (RRD)
list_container_snapshots	read	List all snapshots
start_container	lifecycle	Start a container
stop_container	lifecycle	Force-stop a container
shutdown_container	lifecycle	Graceful shutdown with timeout
reboot_container	lifecycle	Reboot a container
create_container_snapshot	lifecycle	Create a snapshot
delete_container_snapshot	all	Delete a snapshot
rollback_container_snapshot	all	Rollback to a snapshot

Storage (2)

Tool	Description
list_storage	Storage pools with usage, optionally filter by node
get_storage_content	Contents of a storage pool (ISOs, backups, images, templates)

Cluster (7)

Tool	Description
get_cluster_status	Cluster health, quorum, node membership
get_cluster_resources	All resources (VMs, containers, storage, nodes)
get_cluster_backups	Configured backup jobs
get_ha_status	High-availability resources and their state
list_pools	Resource pools
get_cluster_log	Cluster-wide event log, newest first
get_next_vmid	Next available VM/container ID

Architecture

src/proxmox_mcp/
├── server.py    # MCPServer instance + entry point
├── config.py    # Pydantic Settings (PROXMOX_ prefix)
├── client.py    # Proxmoxer connection via lifespan
└── tools/       # nodes, vms, containers, storage, cluster

• Read-only by default — elevated tools gated by PROXMOX_RISK_LEVEL
• Lazy connection — the Proxmoxer client is built on first use, once, and shared; the server therefore starts cleanly even when Proxmox is unreachable
• Raw JSON output — compact, no formatting; LLM consumes data directly
• Normalized errors — Proxmox and network failures are translated into one actionable sentence instead of a requests traceback

Development

Run standalone (testing)

export PROXMOX_HOST=192.168.1.100
export PROXMOX_USER=root@pam
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME=mcp
export PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

docker run -i --rm \
  -e PROXMOX_HOST -e PROXMOX_USER \
  -e PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME -e PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE \
  ghcr.io/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp:latest

Without Docker (UV)

git clone https://github.com/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp.git && cd proxmox-mcp && uv sync

MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proxmox": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/proxmox-mcp", "python", "-m", "proxmox_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PROXMOX_HOST": "192.168.1.100",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_NAME": "mcp",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_VALUE": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/akmalovaa/proxmox-mcp.git
cd proxmox-mcp
docker build -t proxmox-mcp .

The image is multi-stage: uv builds the virtualenv in a throwaway layer, and the runtime stage carries only Python plus the venv and runs as the unprivileged mcp user (uid 10001).

Lint, type-check, test

uv sync --locked --group dev
uv run ruff check .
uv run mypy src/
uv run pytest -v

License

MIT