How do I use Foreman MCP Server?

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Foreman MCP Server show me the report of hosts pending security updates" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

foreman-mcp-server

How to run

Using VSCode with Copilot

Start the server via uv

uv run foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://foreman.example.com \ --foreman-username $FOREMAN_USERNAME \ --foreman-password $FOREMAN_PASSWORD \ --log-level debug \ --host localhost \ --port 8080 \ --transport stdio \ --no-verify-ssl

Default values if not provided:

--foreman-url https://$hostname --log-level INFO --host '127.0.0.1' --port 8080 --transport streamable-http --verify-ssl

Using custom CA certificates

If your Foreman instance uses a custom CA certificate, you have several options:

Use the --ca-bundle option or FOREMAN_CA_BUNDLE environment variable:

uv run foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://foreman.example.com \ --foreman-username $FOREMAN_USERNAME \ --foreman-password $FOREMAN_PASSWORD \ --ca-bundle /path/to/ca-bundle.pem

Place your CA certificate as ./ca.pem in the working directory (automatically detected):

cp /path/to/ca-bundle.pem ./ca.pem uv run foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://foreman.example.com \ --foreman-username $FOREMAN_USERNAME \ --foreman-password $FOREMAN_PASSWORD

Start the server via podman

First, build the container:

podman build -t foreman-mcp-server .

Now run the container:

podman run -it -p 8080:8080 foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://my-foreman-instance.something.somewhere \ --log-level debug \ --host localhost \ --port 8080 \ --transport streamable-http

Using custom CA certificates with containers

To use custom CA certificates with the container, you can either mount your CA bundle to the default ca.pem location (automatically detected) or specify a custom path:

Option 1: Mount to default location (recommended)

# Standard container - mount to /app/ca.pem podman run -it -p 8080:8080 \ -v /path/to/your-ca-bundle.pem:/app/ca.pem:ro,Z \ foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://my-foreman-instance.something.somewhere \ --transport streamable-http # UBI9 image - mount to /opt/app-root/src/ca.pem podman run -it -p 8080:8080 \ -v /path/to/your-ca-bundle.pem:/opt/app-root/src/ca.pem:ro,Z \ foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://my-foreman-instance.something.somewhere \ --transport streamable-http

Option 2: Mount to custom location

podman run -it -p 8080:8080 \ -v /path/to/your-ca-bundle.pem:/custom/ca.pem:ro,Z \ foreman-mcp-server \ --foreman-url https://my-foreman-instance.something.somewhere \ --ca-bundle /custom/ca.pem \ --transport streamable-http

Configure VSCode

# settings.json { "mcp": { "servers": { "foreman": { "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp/sse", "type": "http", "headers": { "FOREMAN_USERNAME": "login", "FOREMAN_TOKEN": "token" } } } }, }

Run VSCode client

Press Ctrl+Shift+P
Select MCP: List Servers command
Select foreman
Press Start Server

Using in Copilot Chat

Press Ctrl+Alt+I to open the chat
In Configure Tools select the MCP tools only
Prompts can be listed in the chat, e.g. /mcp.foreman.basic_hosts_pending_sec_updates_static_report
Resources can be attached via Add Context... > MCP Resources > resource

Using MCP Inspector

For use with mcp inspector

Start the inspector with npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
Open http://localhost:6274 in your browser
Set Type to Streamable HTTP and URL to http://localhost:8080/mcp
Click connect

Using Claude Desktop on Linux

Note: this is highly experimental. Tested in a virtual machine running CentOS Stream 9.

Installation

Follow installation steps https://github.com/bsneed/claude-desktop-fedora?tab=readme-ov-file#1-fedora-package-new
If it doesn't launch, try `npm i -g electron

Configuration

# ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json { "mcpServers": { "foreman": { "command": "uv", "args": ["--directory", "/home/$USER/foreman-mcp-server", "run","foreman-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio", "--foreman-username", "login", "--foreman-password", "password/token"], } } }

To use custom CA certificates with Claude Desktop:

Run Claude client

This will launch UI application, log in into your account. It will start and connect to the MCP server automatically.

claude-desktop

Click + button > Add from foreman: > Select any of Prompts and Resources from the server
Click Configuration button to select Tools from the server

Foreman MCP Server