What is Mcp Nats

mcp-nats is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed for integration with the NATS messaging system. It enables AI models and applications to interact with NATS through a standardized interface, providing tools for communication and management of NATS servers.

Use cases

Use cases for mcp-nats include monitoring NATS server health, inspecting NATS streams, retrieving messages, and integrating AI applications with NATS for enhanced communication capabilities.

How to use

To use mcp-nats, install it via Go by running ‘go install github.com/sinadarbouy/mcp-nats/cmd/mcp-nats@latest’. Ensure you have a NATS server accessible via URL and valid NATS credentials for authentication. After installation, you can interact with NATS servers and perform read-only operations.

Key features

Key features of mcp-nats include server management with read-only operations, stream operations for inspecting and querying NATS streams, multi-account support for handling multiple NATS accounts, and MCP integration for standardized interaction with AI applications.

Where to use

mcp-nats is suitable for AI-powered applications that require integration with messaging systems, particularly in environments where large language models (LLMs) need to interact with NATS for data exchange and communication.

mcp-nats

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for NATS messaging system integration

This MCP server is certified by MCP Review.

Overview

This project provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for NATS, enabling AI models and applications to interact with NATS messaging systems through a standardized interface. It exposes a comprehensive set of tools for interacting with NATS servers, making it ideal for AI-powered applications that need to work with messaging systems.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to Large Language Models (LLMs). This server implements the MCP specification to provide NATS messaging capabilities to LLMs and AI applications, allowing them to:

• Interact with NATS messaging systems in a standardized way
• Safely inspect and monitor NATS servers and streams
• Perform read-only operations through a secure interface
• Integrate with other MCP-compatible clients and hosts

Features

• Server Management (Read-only Operations)
  • List and inspect NATS servers
  • Server health monitoring and ping
  • Server information retrieval
  • Round-trip time (RTT) measurement
• Stream Operations (Read-only Operations)
  • View and inspect NATS streams
  • Stream state and information queries
  • Message viewing and retrieval
  • Subject inspection
• Object Store Operations
  • Create and manage object store buckets
  • Put and get files from object stores
  • List buckets and their contents
  • Delete objects and buckets
  • Watch buckets for changes
  • Seal buckets to prevent updates
• Key-Value Operations
  • Create and manage KV buckets
  • Store and retrieve key-value pairs
  • Watch for KV updates
  • Delete keys and buckets
• Publish Operations
  • Publish messages to NATS subjects
  • Support for different message formats
  • Asynchronous message publishing
• Account Operations
  • View account information and metrics
  • Generate account reports (connections and statistics)
  • Create and restore account backups
  • Inspect TLS chain for connected servers
• Multi-Account Support
  • Handle multiple NATS accounts simultaneously
  • Secure credential management
• MCP Integration
  • Implements MCP server specification
  • Compatible with MCP clients like Claude Desktop
  • Standardized tool definitions for LLM interaction
  • Safe, read-only operations for AI interaction with NATS

Requirements

• Go 1.24 or later
• NATS server (accessible via URL)
• NATS credentials for authentication
• MCP-compatible client (e.g., Claude Desktop, or other MCP clients)

Installation

Using Go

go install github.com/sinadarbouy/mcp-nats/cmd/mcp-nats@latest

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/sinadarbouy/mcp-nats.git
cd mcp-nats
go build -o mcp-nats ./cmd/mcp-nats

Configuration

Environment Variables

• NATS_URL: The URL of your NATS server (e.g., localhost:4222)
• NATS_<ACCOUNT>_CREDS: Base64 encoded NATS credentials for each account
  • Example: NATS_SYS_CREDS, NATS_A_CREDS

Command Line Flags

• --transport: Transport type (stdio or sse), default: stdio
• --sse-address: Address for SSE server to listen on, default: 0.0.0.0:8000
• --log-level: Log level (debug, info, warn, error), default: info
• --json-logs: Output logs in JSON format, default: false

Example Usage

# Run with SSE transport and debug logging
./mcp-nats --transport sse --log-level debug

# Run with JSON logging
./mcp-nats --json-logs

# Run with custom SSE address
./mcp-nats --transport sse --sse-address localhost:9000

Using VSCode with remote MCP server

Make sure your .vscode/settings.json includes:

or
cursor

If using the binary:

if using docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nats": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--init",
        "-e",
        "NATS_URL",
        "-e",
        "NATS_SYS_CREDS",
        "cnadb/mcp-nats",
        "--transport",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NATS_SYS_CREDS": "<base64 of SYS account creds>",
        "NATS_URL": "<nats url>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24+
• Docker (optional)
• NATS CLI
• Understanding of MCP specification

Available Make Commands

make help      # Print help message
make build     # Build the binary
make run       # Run in stdio mode
make run-sse   # Run with SSE transport
make lint      # Run linters

Testing with stdio Transport

For detailed instructions on how to test the MCP server using stdio transport, please refer to our Stdio Example Guide.

Resources

• Model Context Protocol Documentation
• MCP Specification
• Example MCP Servers