Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server
The Defang Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server includes built-in tools to allow users to deploy and manage cloud services through a supported IDE.
Using this MCP Server with an IDE will enable the AI coding agent (e.g. Copilot) to use Defang tools and resources to perform tasks, such as deploying a service to the cloud. This means you can now use Defang with IDE-integrated AI coding agents.
For more details about MCP architecture, visit the official MCP documentation.
This page is a guide to the Defang MCP Server detailing its installation, tools, and usage. If you are looking for an example of how you can deploy a MCP project with Defang, please instead refer to our MCP sample application.
Installation
First, make sure you have the npm package manager installed so that you can use npx commands.
Connect the Defang MCP Server with your IDE by running the following command in your terminal:
npx -y defang mcp setup --client=<your-ide>
Replace <your-ide> with the name of your preferred IDE. See our list of Supported IDEs. After setup, you can start the MCP Server with the command:
npx -y defang mcp serve
Once the MCP Server is running, you can access the Defang MCP tools directly through the AI agent chat in your IDE.
That's it! Feel free to explore our Example Prompts to get ideas on how to interact with the AI agent and make the most of the Defang MCP Server.
Supported IDEs
Cursor
npx -y defang mcp setup --client=cursor
Windsurf
npx -y defang mcp setup --client=windsurf
VS Code
npx -y defang mcp setup --client=vscode
Claude Desktop
(While this is not an IDE in the traditional sense, it can support MCP servers.)
npx -y defang mcp setup --client=claude
MCP Tools
Below are the tools available in the Defang MCP Server.
deploy
The deploy tool scans your project directory for Dockerfiles and compose.yaml files, then deploys the detected service(s) using Defang. You can monitor the deployment process in the Defang Portal.
The Defang MCP Server currently supports deployments to Defang Playground. We plan to support BYOC in future updates.
services
The services tool displays the details of all your services that are currently deployed in your project with Defang. It shows the Service Name, Deployment ID, Public URL and Service Status. If there are no services found, it will display an appropriate message.
destroy
Given a project name or directory, the destroy tool identifies any services deployed with Defang and terminates them. If no services are found, it will display an appropriate message.
Example Prompts
After connecting the Defang MCP Server to your IDE using an installation method, you can type in prompts in your chat to invoke the AI agent to use any MCP tool(s).
For example, you can ask the AI agent:
can you deploy this to defang?
please destroy this project.
what services do I have?
You can also choose to specify a project name or project directory if you do not have the project open:
deploy this with defang /Users/yourname/Documents/project1
do I have a service called project1