Which integrations are available for this server?

Provides tools for managing KVM/QEMU virtual machines via libvirt, including inspection, lifecycle control, snapshots, and domain management operations.

How do I use libvirt-mcp?

1. Click on "Deploy 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., "@libvirt-mcp list all running virtual machines" 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.

libvirt-mcp

by rzippert

Overview Schema Source Related Servers Discussions Admin

Python

Local

libvirt-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing KVM/QEMU virtual machines on remote libvirt hosts. Talks libvirt RPC over SSH — no agent on the hypervisor, no need to install anything on the target host beyond the standard libvirtd.

Functionally a "virt-manager for LLMs": inspect, start/stop, snapshot, clone, and delete KVM/QEMU domains through 13 MCP tools.

Tools

Group	Tools
Inspection	`list_domains`, `domain_info`, `snapshot_list`, `screenshot`
Lifecycle	`start_domain`, `shutdown_domain` (ACPI + poll), `reboot_domain`, `force_destroy_domain`
Snapshots	`snapshot_create`, `snapshot_revert`, `snapshot_delete`
Management	`clone_from_template` (linked clone), `delete_domain` (with optional `wipe_disks`)

Destructive operations (force_destroy_domain, snapshot_revert, snapshot_delete, delete_domain) require an explicit confirm=True argument so an LLM can't fire them by accident.

Related MCP server: libvirt-mcp-server

Architecture

┌──────────────┐                          ┌──────────────────────┐
│ MCP client   │  ── stdio (JSON-RPC) ──▶ │ libvirt-mcp          │
│ Claude Code, │                          │ (Docker container)   │
│ Desktop, …   │                          │  • libvirt-python    │
└──────────────┘                          │  • mcp SDK           │
                                          └──────────┬───────────┘
                                                     │
                                                     │ qemu+ssh://user@host/system
                                                     │ (uses host's ~/.ssh/)
                                                     ▼
                                          ┌──────────────────────┐
                                          │ Hypervisor           │
                                          │  • libvirtd          │
                                          │  • qemu-kvm          │
                                          └──────────────────────┘

The MCP server runs inside a Docker container (so libvirt-dev headers don't need to be installed on your machine). It bind-mounts your ~/.ssh read-only and uses standard libvirt SSH transport, inheriting ~/.ssh/config, agent forwarding, jump hosts, etc.

Setup

1. Pull the image

The container image is published as ghcr.io/rzippert/libvirt-mcp (public — no auth required, even though the source repo is private):

docker pull ghcr.io/rzippert/libvirt-mcp:latest

Tags published:

latest — head of main
X.Y.Z and X.Y — from git tags vX.Y.Z (the v prefix is dropped per Docker convention)
main, sha-<short> — for traceability

2. Create your config

mkdir -p ~/.config/libvirt-mcp
cat > ~/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml <<'EOF'
default_profile = "primary"

[profiles.primary]
uri = "qemu+ssh://user@hypervisor.example.com/system"
description = "Primary KVM hypervisor"
EOF
$EDITOR ~/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml

The libvirt URI is standard. SSH keys come from your host's ~/.ssh/. Make sure you can already connect:

ssh user@hypervisor.example.com virsh -c qemu:///system list --all

3. Wire it up to an MCP client

Claude Code

claude mcp add libvirt --scope user -- \
  docker run -i --rm \
    -v "$HOME/.ssh:/home/ubuntu/.ssh:ro" \
    -v "$HOME/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:ro" \
    --network host \
    -e LIBVIRT_MCP_CONFIG=/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml \
    ghcr.io/rzippert/libvirt-mcp:latest

Verify with claude mcp list. Remove with claude mcp remove libvirt --scope user.

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "libvirt": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-v", "/Users/youruser/.ssh:/home/ubuntu/.ssh:ro",
        "-v", "/Users/youruser/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:ro",
        "--network", "host",
        "-e", "LIBVIRT_MCP_CONFIG=/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml",
        "ghcr.io/rzippert/libvirt-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /Users/youruser with your home directory. On Windows use forward slashes or double-escape backslashes. Restart Claude Desktop after editing.

VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat MCP)

Create .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace (project-scoped) or add to user settings:

{
  "servers": {
    "libvirt": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-v", "${userHome}/.ssh:/home/ubuntu/.ssh:ro",
        "-v", "${userHome}/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml:ro",
        "--network", "host",
        "-e", "LIBVIRT_MCP_CONFIG=/etc/libvirt-mcp/config.toml",
        "ghcr.io/rzippert/libvirt-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code expands ${userHome} and ${workspaceFolder}. Open the Copilot Chat panel → MCP servers → enable libvirt.

Configuration reference

~/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml (or override with LIBVIRT_MCP_CONFIG):

default_profile = "primary"   # used when a tool is called without `profile=`

[profiles.<name>]
uri = "qemu+ssh://user@host/system"   # standard libvirt URI
description = "Free-form description for humans"

Config search order:

$LIBVIRT_MCP_CONFIG env var
~/.config/libvirt-mcp/config.toml
./config.dev.toml
./config.toml

Safety model

Allow-list validation on domain names (^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]{0,30}$), bridge names, and absolute paths (no .. segments).
Inspection tools open read-only libvirt connections; state-changing tools open read-write connections only when invoked.
Confirmation gates on destructive operations: force_destroy_domain, snapshot_revert, snapshot_delete, delete_domain all require confirm=True.
No subprocess on the hypervisor: every operation is pure libvirt RPC (no qemu-img, no virt-install, no virsh shell-out). Disk volumes are created and deleted through libvirt's storage volume API, reusing any active dir-pool that covers the target path or transparently creating a transient one.

Development

git clone git@github.com:rzippert/libvirt-mcp.git
cd libvirt-mcp
cp config.example.toml config.dev.toml && $EDITOR config.dev.toml
docker compose build
docker compose run --rm dev bash

Inside the dev container, source on the host (bind-mounted at /workspace) shadows the installed package via PYTHONPATH, so edits take effect immediately. Exercise tools directly:

python -c "from libvirt_mcp.tools.readonly import list_domains; \
           import json; print(json.dumps(list_domains(), indent=2))"

Project layout:

libvirt_mcp/
├── __main__.py        # python -m libvirt_mcp → mcp.run() (stdio)
├── server.py          # FastMCP instance
├── connections.py     # config loader + connect() context manager
├── states.py          # VIR_DOMAIN_* → string
└── tools/
    ├── readonly.py    # inspection
    ├── lifecycle.py   # start/shutdown/reboot/force_destroy
    ├── snapshot.py    # snapshot CRUD (revert/delete gated)
    └── management.py  # clone_from_template, delete_domain

Publishing happens automatically via .github/workflows/publish.yml on push to main and on v* tags (multi-arch: linux/amd64, linux/arm64).

License

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). See LICENSE.

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Maintenance

ActivityInactive

ResponsivenessNo issues

Resources

GitHub Repository

Need Help?

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libvirt-mcp

Tools

Architecture

Setup

1. Pull the image

2. Create your config

3. Wire it up to an MCP client

Claude Code

Claude Desktop

VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat MCP)

Configuration reference

Safety model

Development

License

Maintenance

Resources

Related MCP Connectors

Related MCP Servers

Proxmox MCP Server

libvirt-mcp-server

boxes-mcp

taproot-mcp