Cloudera AI Workbench MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Cloudera AI workbench built with FastMCP, enabling LLMs to interact with Cloudera AI Workbench APIs.

Features

Cloudera AI Integration

• File Management: Upload files and folders with directory structure preservation

• Job Management: Create, run, monitor, and delete jobs

• Model Lifecycle: Build, deploy, and manage ML models

• Experiment Tracking: Log metrics, parameters, and manage experiment runs

• Project Operations: Project discovery, file listing, and metadata management

• Application Management: Create, update, and manage applications

Transport Modes

1. STDIO (Recommended): Secure subprocess communication for local/Claude Desktop use

2. HTTP: Simple HTTP API for development/testing (no authentication)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+

• A Cloudera AI instance and API key

• uv / uvx (install uv)

See SETUP.md for full installation options (Agent Studio, Cursor, local venv, Docker).

Architecture

All API tools use the official cmlapi Python SDK (CMLServiceApi) rather than raw HTTP requests. A shared setup_client() in http_helpers.py creates a configured client; each tool function is a thin wrapper around the corresponding SDK method. This eliminates URL construction bugs, provides typed request/response objects, and ensures correct endpoint paths (e.g. :restart vs /restart).

Quick Start

Use uvx with --with to install cmlapi from your Cloudera AI instance at runtime. This works in Agent Studio, Cursor, and other MCP clients — no Docker required.

Replace ml-xxxx.cloudera.site, your-api-key, and your-project-id with your values:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cloudera-ai": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/cloudera/CAI_Workbench_MCP_Server.git",
        "--with",
        "https://ml-xxxx.cloudera.site/api/v2/python.tar.gz",
        "cai-workbench-mcp-stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CAI_WORKBENCH_HOST": "https://ml-xxxx.cloudera.site",
        "CAI_WORKBENCH_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "CAI_WORKBENCH_PROJECT_ID": "your-project-id"
      }
    }
  }
}

The --with argument is required — without it, API tools fail with No module named 'cmlapi'.

For local venv, Docker, branch pinning, Cursor config, and troubleshooting, see SETUP.md.

Usage

STDIO mode (via uvx above) is recommended for Agent Studio, Cursor, and Claude Desktop. For local venv, Docker, and running from a checkout, see SETUP.md.

HTTP Mode (Development Only)

⚠️ Warning: HTTP mode runs without authentication - use only for local development!

# Start HTTP server on port 8000
uv run -m cai_workbench_mcp_server.http_server

# Or use the shortcut
uvx --from . cai-workbench-mcp-http

Available Endpoints

1. MCP Protocol Endpoint: /mcp-api (simplified MCP protocol)

   # List tools
   curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/mcp-api \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "tools/list", "params": {}}'
   
   # Call a tool
   curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/mcp-api \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "jsonrpc": "2.0", 
       "id": "2", 
       "method": "tools/call",
       "params": {
         "name": "list_projects_tool",
         "arguments": {}
       }
     }'

2. Debug Endpoints (bypass MCP protocol):

   # Test server status
   curl http://localhost:8000/test
   
   # List all tools
   curl http://localhost:8000/debug/tools
   
   # Call any tool directly
   curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/debug/call \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"tool": "list_projects_tool", "params": {}}'

Client Connection Examples

Using MCP clients:

# FastMCP client
cloudera-mcp chat http-stateless http://localhost:8000/mcp-api

# Python client
from fastmcp import Client
client = Client("http://localhost:8000/mcp-api")

Available Tools (105 total)

The server exposes 105 tools. The authoritative list is whatever the running server returns from MCP tools/list or GET /debug/tools. Below is a grouped overview (not every tool is listed).

Project management

• list_projects_tool, get_project_id_tool, update_project_tool

• create_project_tool, get_project_tool, delete_project_tool, list_project_names_tool, list_teams_tool

• list_project_collaborators_tool, add_project_collaborator_tool, delete_project_collaborator_tool

File operations

• upload_file_tool, upload_folder_tool, list_project_files_tool, delete_project_file_tool, update_project_file_metadata_tool, download_project_file_tool

Jobs

• create_job_tool, list_jobs_tool, get_job_tool, update_job_tool, delete_job_tool, delete_all_jobs_tool

• create_job_run_tool, list_job_runs_tool, get_job_run_tool, stop_job_run_tool

• Workspace-wide: list_all_jobs_tool

Models (deployments & builds)

• list_models_tool, get_model_tool, delete_model_tool, create_model_tool, update_model_tool

• create_model_build_tool, list_model_builds_tool, get_model_build_tool, delete_model_build_tool

• create_model_deployment_tool, list_model_deployments_tool, get_model_deployment_tool, stop_model_deployment_tool, restart_model_deployment_tool

• Workspace-wide: list_all_models_tool

Model registry (MLflow-linked)

• list_registered_models_tool, create_registered_model_tool, get_registered_model_tool, update_registered_model_tool, delete_registered_model_tool

• update_registered_model_version_tool, get_registered_model_version_tool, delete_registered_model_version_tool

Experiments

• Per-project: create_experiment_tool, list_experiments_tool, get_experiment_tool, update_experiment_tool, delete_experiment_tool

• Runs: create_experiment_run_tool, get_experiment_run_tool, update_experiment_run_tool, delete_experiment_run_tool, delete_experiment_run_batch_tool, log_experiment_run_batch_tool

• Workspace-wide: list_all_experiments_tool, list_experiment_runs_tool, get_experiment_run_metrics_tool

Applications

• create_application_tool, list_applications_tool, get_application_tool, update_application_tool, restart_application_tool, stop_application_tool, delete_application_tool

Runtimes, repos, Docker, API keys

• get_runtimes_tool, list_runtimes_tool, list_runtime_addons_tool, list_runtime_repos_tool, create_runtime_repo_tool, delete_runtime_repo_tool, update_runtime_repo_tool

• register_custom_runtime_tool, update_runtime_status_tool, update_runtime_addon_status_tool

• list_docker_credentials_tool, create_docker_credential_tool, delete_docker_credential_tool, set_docker_credential_tool

• list_v2_keys_tool, create_v2_key_tool, delete_v2_key_tool, delete_v2_keys_tool, validate_api_key_tool

Quotas, workload, platform

• list_cpu_profiles_tool, list_groups_quota_tool, list_users_quota_tool, list_teams_accelerator_quota_tool, list_users_accelerator_quota_tool, list_usage_tool

• get_default_quota_tool, get_default_quotas_tool, list_all_resource_groups_tool, list_all_accelerator_node_labels_tool

• list_news_feeds_tool, list_ml_serving_apps_tool, list_workload_executions_tool, list_workload_status_tool, list_workload_types_tool

Examples

Upload and Run a Job

# 1. Upload your script
upload_file_tool(
    file_path="train.py",
    target_dir="scripts/"
)

# 2. Create a job
create_job_tool(
    name="Model Training",
    script="scripts/train.py",
    cpu=2,
    memory=4,
    runtime_identifier="python3.9-standard"
)

# 3. Run the job
create_job_run_tool(
    project_id="your-project-id",
    job_id="created-job-id"
)

Deploy a Model

# 1. Create model build
create_model_build_tool(
    project_id="your-project-id",
    model_id="your-model-id",
    file_path="model.py",
    function_name="predict"
)

# 2. Deploy the model
create_model_deployment_tool(
    project_id="your-project-id",
    model_id="your-model-id", 
    build_id="created-build-id",
    name="Production Deployment"
)

Troubleshooting

See SETUP.md — Common issues for cmlapi, SSL, Docker, and authentication problems.

Security Notes

• STDIO Mode: Secure - credentials in environment variables

• HTTP Mode: No authentication - development only!

• Production: Always use STDIO mode or deploy with proper security

Related Resources

• Cloudera AI Workbench - Cloudera AI documentation

• FastMCP - The MCP framework

• Model Context Protocol - MCP specification

Legal Notice

IMPORTANT: Please read the following before proceeding.

Cloudera, Inc. ("Cloudera") makes available to you this optional software, which may include accelerators for machine learning projects ("AMPs"), Hugging Face Spaces, or AI models, constitutes reference machine learning projects ("Reference Projects"). By configuring and launching this Reference Project, you acknowledge and assume the risk that using Reference Projects may (i) cause third party software, such as third-party large language models, to be downloaded directly into your environment and/or (ii) enable third-party services, such as third-party AI services, and transmission of data and metadata to such third-party services providers. Any such third-party software is not validated or maintained by Cloudera. Any support provided for Reference Projects is at Cloudera's sole discretion. You agree to comply with any applicable license terms or terms of use, including any third-party license terms, for Reference Projects.

If you do not wish to download and install the third party software packages, do not configure, launch or otherwise use this Reference Project. By configuring, launching or otherwise using the Reference Project, you acknowledge the foregoing statement and agree that Cloudera is not responsible or liable in any way for any third party software packages.

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