Modal MCP Server

An MCP server implementation for interacting with Modal volumes and deploying Modal applications from within Cursor.

Installation

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/smehmood/modal-mcp-server.git cd modal-mcp-server

Install dependencies using uv:

uv sync

Related MCP server: MCP Shell Server

Configuration

To use this MCP server in Cursor, add the following configuration to your ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "modal-mcp-server": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--project", "/path/to/modal-mcp-server", "run", "/path/to/modal-mcp-server/src/modal_mcp/server.py" ] } } }

Replace /path/to/modal-mcp-server with the absolute path to your cloned repository.

Requirements

Python 3.11 or higher
uv package manager
Modal CLI configured with valid credentials
For Modal deploy support:
- Project being deployed must use uv for dependency management
- Modal must be installed in the project's virtual environment

Supported Tools

Modal Volume Operations

List Modal Volumes (list_modal_volumes)
- Lists all Modal volumes in your environment
- Returns JSON-formatted volume information
- Parameters: None
List Volume Contents (list_modal_volume_contents)
- Lists files and directories in a Modal volume
- Parameters:
  - volume_name: Name of the Modal volume
  - path: Path within volume (default: "/")
Copy Files (copy_modal_volume_files)
- Copies files within a Modal volume
- Parameters:
  - volume_name: Name of the Modal volume
  - paths: List of paths where last path is destination
- Example: ["source.txt", "dest.txt"] or ["file1.txt", "file2.txt", "dest_dir/"]
Remove Files (remove_modal_volume_file)
- Deletes a file or directory from a Modal volume
- Parameters:
  - volume_name: Name of the Modal volume
  - remote_path: Path to file/directory to delete
  - recursive: Boolean flag for recursive deletion (default: false)
Upload Files (put_modal_volume_file)
- Uploads a file or directory to a Modal volume
- Parameters:
  - volume_name: Name of the Modal volume
  - local_path: Path to local file/directory to upload
  - remote_path: Path in volume to upload to (default: "/")
  - force: Boolean flag to overwrite existing files (default: false)
Download Files (get_modal_volume_file)
- Downloads files from a Modal volume
- Parameters:
  - volume_name: Name of the Modal volume
  - remote_path: Path to file/directory in volume to download
  - local_destination: Local path to save downloaded files (default: current directory)
  - force: Boolean flag to overwrite existing files (default: false)
- Note: Use "-" as local_destination to write file contents to stdout

Modal Deployment

Deploy Modal App (deploy_modal_app)
- Deploys a Modal application
- Parameters:
  - absolute_path_to_app: Absolute path to the Modal application file
- Note: The project containing the Modal app must:
  - Use uv for dependency management
  - Have the modal CLI installed in its virtual environment

Response Format

All tools return responses in a standardized format, with slight variations depending on the operation type:

# JSON operations (list volumes, list contents): { "success": True, "data": {...} # JSON data from Modal CLI } # File operations (put, get, copy, remove): { "success": True, "message": "Operation successful message", "command": "executed command string", "stdout": "command output", # if any "stderr": "error output" # if any } # Error case (all operations): { "success": False, "error": "Error message describing what went wrong", "command": "executed command string", # for file operations "stdout": "command output", # if available "stderr": "error output" # if available }