Redmine MCP Server

An MCP server that lets Claude find and manage your Redmine tickets, using the Redmine REST API.

Is this a real MCP server?

Yes. This is not a wrapper or mock of the interface — it's a standards-compliant MCP (Model Context Protocol) server:

• Built with the official @modelcontextprotocol/sdk (McpServer + StdioServerTransport).

• Speaks real JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio, per the MCP spec. Verified directly by sending a raw initialize request and getting back a correct MCP handshake response (protocolVersion, capabilities, serverInfo).

• Exposes proper MCP tools (list_my_issues, get_issue, update_issue, etc.) with Zod-validated input schemas, discoverable via the standard tools/list method and callable via tools/call — the same mechanism any MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or other MCP-aware apps) uses.

Related MCP server: Redmine MCP Server

Setup

1. Enable the REST API on your Redmine instance (if not already on): Administration → Settings → API → "Enable REST web service".

2. Get your API key: click your name (top right) → "My account" → "API access key" → "Show".

3. Install, build and link:

   npm install
   npm run build
   npm link

4. Save your credentials once:

   redmine-mcp-server login

   Prompts for your Redmine URL and API key (key input is hidden) and writes them to ~/.config/redmine-mcp/config.json with mode 0600. Re-run it any time to change them.

That's it — no .env, and no credentials in your MCP config.

Installing as a global command

The package ships a bin entry (redmine-mcp-server), so once built it can be linked or installed globally and run from anywhere, instead of pointing at an absolute path to dist/index.js.

From a local clone (not yet published to npm):

npm install
npm run build
npm link          # registers the `redmine-mcp-server` command globally

Run npm unlink -g redmine-mcp-server to remove it later.

If published to npm:

npm install -g redmine-mcp-server

Either way, you can now just run redmine-mcp-server from any directory.

Registering with Claude Code

After redmine-mcp-server login, registration needs no credentials at all:

claude mcp add redmine-mcp-server -- redmine-mcp-server

Or in .mcp.json — safe to commit, since it holds no secrets:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "redmine-mcp-server": {
      "command": "redmine-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

If you'd rather not link it globally, use "command": "node", "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/index.js"].

Environment variables still work and take priority over the saved config, for CI or one-off overrides:

Logging

Every action is logged as one JSON object per line: server start/stop, each tool call with its arguments, each tool result or failure, and every HTTP request/response with status and duration. The API key is never logged, and any field named like a key/token/password/secret is redacted. Nothing is ever written to stdout — that channel belongs to the MCP protocol.

The log goes to ~/.redmine-mcp.log; set REDMINE_MCP_LOG to choose another path. Tail it with:

tail -f ~/.redmine-mcp.log

There is no rotation — point REDMINE_MCP_LOG at a path covered by logrotate/newsyslog if the volume ever matters.

Tools

• list_my_issues — list issues assigned to you (status: open/closed/all).

• get_issue — full details, custom field values (with ids) and comment history for one issue.

• search_issues — filter issues by project/subject/status/assignee.

• search — full-text search across issues (and optionally wiki + news).

• list_enumerations — valid status, tracker, priority and time-entry-activity names/ids for this Redmine instance.

• update_issue — change status/% done/assignee and/or add a note.

• add_comment — add a comment without changing fields.

• create_issue — create an issue: tracker, priority, status, category, target version, assignee and custom field values.

• list_project_fields — a project's custom field ids, target versions and issue categories.

• find_user — look up user ids by name/login, to assign issues (pass a project if you are not admin).

• log_time — log hours against an issue or project.

• list_projects — list visible projects (id/identifier/name).

Example prompts

• "What are my open tickets?"

• "Show me the details and history of issue 1234."

• "Find open bugs in the web project mentioning login."

• "Create a bug in the web project: checkout page 500s on submit."

• "What custom fields does the web project have?"

• "Create that same issue in the web project, copying the custom fields from issue 1234."

• "Assign issue 1234 to Raja."

• "Log 2 hours on issue 1234 for code review."

• "Mark issue 1234 as Resolved and note that it's deployed to prod."

• "Add a comment to issue 1234 saying I'm blocked on QA."

Manual testing

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

This opens the MCP Inspector so you can invoke each tool directly against your real Redmine instance before wiring it into Claude Code.