FAQ
General
What is MCTL? MCTL is an AI-native infrastructure management platform that lets you control Kubernetes infrastructure through natural language, REST APIs, or a developer portal.
Is MCTL open source? The public platform repositories are available on GitHub. Check each repository's LICENSE for its terms.
What AI clients are supported? Any client that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP): Claude.ai, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code with Copilot MCP, and others.
MCP
What can the AI do? Read platform state (services, logs, resource usage, workflows, incidents) and trigger operations (deploy, rollback, scale, create previews, manage domains, provision databases). See the Tools Reference for the catalog and discovery guidance.
What can it NOT do? The MCP interface exposes specific operations rather than a general kubectl or Vault shell. Available actions depend on your role. Destructive annotations are client hints; server-side role and policy checks enforce access.
Where do write operations go? Service deployment and configuration use workflows and GitOps. Other writes, such as domain registration and incident acknowledgements, update their own stores. Use the returned workflow name when an operation submits a workflow.
How does auth work for Claude.ai connector? Standard MCP authorization: OAuth 2.1 with PKCE. Claude registers itself, you sign in on the MCTL sign-in page, and Claude receives a token issued by MCTL. You never handle a token yourself.
Do I need to install anything? No for Claude.ai and Claude Desktop — use a custom connector. Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and Gemini CLI need a one-time MCP server config with only the server URL; they open the MCTL sign-in page themselves. MCTL sign-in from Windsurf and Copilot CLI is not enabled yet. See Connecting for setup instructions.
Do I need a GitHub token? Not for an MCP client: every supported client signs in through MCTL from the server URL alone. CI deployment uses GitHub Actions OIDC, with no stored GitHub PAT; see Scaffolding.
How many tools are available? The catalog changes by release and caller permissions. Ask your client to refresh MCP tools/list. See the Tools Reference.
Platform
What happens when I deploy a service? The API submits a workflow which builds the image and updates GitOps. ArgoCD reconciles that configuration. Track the workflow, then check service sync/health and the application endpoint.
Can I rollback a deployment? Yes. Use mctl_rollback_service with an explicit known-good image tag. The workflow records the image change in Git; it does not restore database state, secrets or other configuration. See Rollbacks.
How is tenant isolation enforced? Each tenant has its own Kubernetes namespace with RBAC policies, network policies, and resource quotas. The cluster remains shared; access follows configured policies and grants.
Documentation site
Which version of VitePress does this site use? mctl docs runs on VitePress 1.6. The decision to upgrade VitePress is tracked separately from this styling change. See ADR 0003 — VitePress 2.x upgrade strategy for the full rationale and migration checklist.