cdash-mcp

An MCP server for Kitware CDash — the CI/CD dashboard for projects built with CMake/CTest. Browse dashboards, find failing tests, inspect build errors, check coverage, and triage CI failures, all through natural language. Works with OpenAI Codex, Claude Desktop/Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client.

Provides 11 tools for navigating CDash builds, tests, coverage, and dynamic analysis.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+

• A CDash instance (defaults to my.cdash.org)

Installation

# Install from GitHub with uv (recommended)
uv tool install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp

# Or with pip
pip install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp

OpenAI Codex

Add the server to Codex with the CLI:

codex mcp add cdash \
  --env CDASH_URL=https://my.cdash.org \
  --env CDASH_TOKEN=your-token-here \
  -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp cdash-mcp

# Confirm that Codex stored the configuration
codex mcp list

The Codex CLI, IDE extension, and ChatGPT desktop app share this MCP configuration. Omit the CDASH_TOKEN option for public instances. Start a new Codex session after adding the server, then use /mcp to inspect its tools.

For project-scoped configuration, export your credentials and add this to .codex/config.toml in a trusted repository:

export CDASH_URL=https://my.cdash.org
export CDASH_TOKEN=your-token-here

[mcp_servers.cdash]
command = "uvx"
args = ["--from", "git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp", "cdash-mcp"]
env_vars = ["CDASH_URL", "CDASH_TOKEN"]

See the Codex MCP documentation for additional configuration and tool-policy options.

Claude Code

claude mcp add cdash \
  -e CDASH_URL=https://my.cdash.org \
  -e CDASH_TOKEN=your-token-here \
  -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp cdash-mcp

Use --scope user for global access, --scope project to share via .mcp.json in your repo, or omit --scope for local (current project only).

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cdash": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp", "cdash-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CDASH_URL": "https://my.cdash.org",
        "CDASH_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running from Source

git clone https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp.git
cd cdash-mcp
uv sync

# Run the server
uv run cdash-mcp

Related MCP server: blacksmith-mcp

Configuration

Note: Project names in CDash are case-sensitive (e.g. "thor" and "THOR" are different projects).

Tools (11)

Dashboard & Overview

Test Triage

Build Inspection

Coverage & Analysis

Troubleshooting

401 Authentication errors:

• Verify your token is valid in CDash under My Profile > Authentication Token.

• For Codex, check ~/.codex/config.toml (or .codex/config.toml for a trusted project), then start a new session and inspect /mcp.

• Make sure the env block is in the right config file. For Claude Code, MCP servers must be defined in ~/.claude.json — putting them in ~/.claude/settings.json will silently ignore the env vars.

• After changing config, restart the MCP server (/mcp in Codex or Claude Code, or restart the application).

Project not found / empty dashboard:

• CDash project names are case-sensitive. Check the exact name in your CDash instance.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests (some tests hit a live CDash instance)
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

# Run the server locally
uv run cdash-mcp

License

MIT