What is Consul Mcp Server

The consul-mcp-server is a Model Control Protocol (MCP) server designed for interacting with HashiCorp Consul for service discovery and service mesh management. It allows AI models to analyze microservices architectures and provide insights through natural language.

Use cases

Use cases for consul-mcp-server include monitoring service health, optimizing resource allocation, generating architecture diagrams for better visualization, and facilitating natural language interactions for service management.

How to use

To use consul-mcp-server, clone the repository, install dependencies using npm or yarn, and configure the server by creating a .env file with the necessary variables. You can also integrate it with Cursor IDE for easier access.

Key features

Key features include listing and analyzing services registered in Consul, diagnosing health check failures, generating service mesh architecture diagrams, detecting service connection issues, and providing AI-driven insights on load balancing and resource utilization.

Where to use

Consul-mcp-server is used in environments that utilize HashiCorp Consul for service discovery and service mesh, particularly in microservices architectures where AI insights can enhance operational efficiency.

Consul MCP Server

A Model Control Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with HashiCorp Consul service discovery and service mesh. This implementation follows Anthropic’s MCP specification and allows Claude to analyze your microservices architecture, create diagrams, identify issues, and provide recommendations through natural language interaction.

What is Model Control Protocol?

Model Control Protocol (MCP) is a specification developed by Anthropic that enables AI models like Claude to interact with external tools and APIs. This implementation connects AI Agents to your Consul infrastructure, allowing you to manage and analyze your services using natural language.

Features

• List and analyze services registered in Consul
• Identify and diagnose failing health checks
• Generate service mesh architecture diagrams
• Detect service connection issues and provide recommendations
• Get AI insights on service load balancing and resource utilization

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn
• A running Consul instance (local or remote)
• Claude Desktop or Cursor IDE with Claude integration

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/3loka/consul-mcp-server.git
cd consul-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Configuration

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR=http://localhost:8500
CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN=your-consul-token
PORT=3000
USE_HTTP=true

• CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR: Address of your Consul server
• CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN: ACL token of your Consul server
• PORT: Port for the HTTP server
• USE_HTTP: Set to “true” for HTTP mode, omit for stdio mode

Installation

Installing in Cursor

To install and use this MCP server in Cursor:

1. In Cursor, open Settings (⌘+,) and navigate to the “MCP” tab.

2. Click “+ Add new MCP server.”

3. Enter the following:

   • Name: consul-assistant
   • Type: command
   • Command: npx -y consul-mcp-server

4. Click “Add” then scroll to the server and click “Disabled” to enable the server.

5. Restart Cursor, if needed, to ensure the MCP server is properly loaded.

Installing in Claude Desktop

To install and use this MCP server in Claude Desktop:

1. In Claude Desktop, open Settings (⌘+,) and navigate to the “Developer” tab.

2. Click “Edit Config” at the bottom of the window.

3. Edit the file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) to add the following code, then Save the file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "consul-assistant": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "consul-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

if the server is not local host or ACL is enabled, use below configuration instead

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "consul-assistant": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "consul-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR": "http://<host/ip>:8500",
        "CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN": "<ACL Token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Restart Claude Desktop to ensure the MCP server is properly loaded.

Example Prompts

Once connected, try these prompts with Claude:

• “Show me all services registered in Consul”
• “Which services have failing health checks?”
• “Create a diagram of my service mesh connections”
• “Analyze which services are having connectivity issues”
• “What’s the overall health of my microservices architecture?”
• “Show me services with high error rates in their connections”

Available MCP Actions

This server implements the following MCP actions:

Action	Description
consul/get_services	Get a list of all services in Consul
consul/get_health_checks	Get health checks, optionally filtering for failing checks
consul/get_service_connections	Get service connections and their status
consul/create_service_diagram	Create a Mermaid diagram of service relationships
consul/analyze_service	Analyze a specific service to identify issues
consul/get_service_metrics	Get detailed metrics for a specific service

Running a Demo Environment

For testing purposes, you can set up a local demo environment with multiple microservices registered in Consul:

# Run the setup script (requires Docker and Docker Compose)
chmod +x ./demo/setup-demo.sh
./demo/setup-demo.sh

This will start:

• A Consul server
• Several demo microservices
• Register the services in Consul
• Set up some service mesh connections and health checks

Demo Walkthrough

1. Start the demo environment:

   ./scripts/setup-demo.sh
   

2. Start the MCP server:

   npm start
   

3. Connect Claude Desktop or Cursor to your MCP server

4. Try these demo scenarios:

   a. Get a service overview:

   Show me all the services registered in my Consul instance.
   

   b. Check for failing health checks:

   Are any services experiencing health issues? What might be causing them?
   

   c. Create a service mesh diagram:

   Create a diagram showing the connections between my services.
   

   d. Analyze connection issues:

   Which services are having trouble connecting to each other?
   

   e. Get recommendations:

   Based on my service mesh setup, what improvements would you recommend?
   

Development

Project Structure

• src/index.ts: Main entry point
• src/resources/: Consul API interaction code
• src/tools/: Helper functionality like diagram generation
• src/server/: MCP server components
• src/mcp/: MCP action definitions and handlers
• src/prompts/: Template management for AI interactions
• src/tests/: Test suites

Running Tests

npm test

Building

npm run build

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request.

License

MIT