mcp-proxmox

MCP server for managing Proxmox VE clusters through AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and Cline.

Provision, manage, and monitor your entire Proxmox infrastructure through natural language. Create VMs and containers, manage snapshots, browse storage, and more.

Quick Start

# Run directly with uvx (no install needed)
uvx mcp-proxmox

# Or install with pip
pip install mcp-proxmox

Configuration

Set these environment variables (or create a .env file):

PROXMOX_HOST=192.168.1.100          # Your Proxmox VE host
PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID=user@pam!mcp       # API token ID
PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx  # API token secret

Optional:

PROXMOX_PORT=8006                   # Default: 8006
PROXMOX_VERIFY_SSL=false            # Default: false

Creating a Proxmox API Token

1. Log into your Proxmox web UI
2. Go to Datacenter > Permissions > API Tokens
3. Click Add and create a token for your user
4. Uncheck "Privilege Separation" for full access, or assign specific permissions:
   • VM.Audit — read VM/CT status and config
   • VM.PowerMgmt — start/stop/shutdown/reboot
   • VM.Snapshot — create/rollback/delete snapshots
   • VM.Allocate — create/delete/clone VMs and containers
   • VM.Clone — clone operations
   • Datastore.Audit — list storages and browse content
   • Datastore.AllocateSpace — allocate disk space for new VMs/CTs
   • Sys.Audit — read node status and tasks
   • VM.Config.Disk — resize disks
   • VM.Config.CPU — change CPU allocation
   • VM.Config.Memory — change memory allocation
   • VM.Monitor — access QEMU monitor (for metrics)
   • VM.Migrate — migrate VMs/CTs between nodes
   • Sys.Modify — manage firewall rules
   • VM.Config.Cloudinit — configure cloud-init parameters

Integration

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/.claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proxmox": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-proxmox"],
      "env": {
        "PROXMOX_HOST": "192.168.1.100",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID": "user@pam!mcp",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET": "your-token-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to .claude/settings.json or ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proxmox": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-proxmox"],
      "env": {
        "PROXMOX_HOST": "192.168.1.100",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID": "user@pam!mcp",
        "PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET": "your-token-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to Cursor Settings > MCP with the same configuration as above.

Available Tools

Discovery

Tool	Description
list_nodes	List all cluster nodes with CPU, memory, and uptime
get_node_status	Detailed node info: CPU model, memory, disk, versions
list_vms	List QEMU VMs (filter by node or status)
list_containers	List LXC containers (filter by node or status)
get_guest_status	Detailed VM/CT status by VMID (auto-detects type and node)

Lifecycle

Tool	Description
start_guest	Start a stopped VM or container
stop_guest	Force-stop (requires confirmation)
shutdown_guest	Graceful ACPI/init shutdown
reboot_guest	Reboot (requires confirmation)

Storage

Tool	Description
list_storages	List storage pools with capacity and usage (filter by node)
list_storage_content	Browse ISOs, templates, backups, and disk images

Provisioning

Tool	Description
create_vm	Create a QEMU VM with configurable CPU, memory, disk, ISO, and network
create_container	Create an LXC container from a template
clone_guest	Clone a VM or CT (full or linked clone, cross-node support)
delete_guest	Permanently delete a stopped VM or CT (requires confirmation)

Backup & Restore

Tool	Description
list_backups	List backup files (filter by node, storage, or VMID)
create_backup	Create a vzdump backup (snapshot/suspend/stop modes, zstd/lzo/gzip)
restore_backup	Restore a VM or CT from a backup file (requires confirmation)

Command Execution

Tool	Description
exec_command	Run a command inside a QEMU VM via guest agent

Note: exec_command requires qemu-guest-agent installed and running inside the VM. Not supported for LXC containers (Proxmox API limitation).

Snapshots

Tool	Description
list_snapshots	List all snapshots for a VM/CT
create_snapshot	Create a new snapshot
rollback_snapshot	Rollback to a snapshot (requires confirmation)
delete_snapshot	Delete a snapshot (requires confirmation)

Network

Tool	Description
list_networks	List bridges, bonds, and physical interfaces on a node

Resize

Tool	Description
resize_guest	Resize CPU, memory, and/or disk of a VM or container (requires confirmation)

Monitoring

Tool	Description
get_guest_metrics	CPU, memory, network, disk I/O over time
list_tasks	Recent tasks on a node (backups, migrations, etc.)

Firewall

Tool	Description
list_firewall_rules	List firewall rules for a VM/CT, node, or the cluster
add_firewall_rule	Add a firewall rule (action, direction, protocol, port, source/dest)
delete_firewall_rule	Delete a firewall rule by position (requires confirmation)

Migration

Tool	Description
migrate_guest	Live or offline migrate a VM/CT to another node (requires confirmation)

Templates & Cloud-init

Tool	Description
list_templates	List all VM templates available for cloning
create_template	Convert a stopped VM into a template (requires confirmation, irreversible)
configure_cloud_init	Set user, password, SSH keys, IP config, and DNS on a VM

Safety

Destructive operations (stop_guest, reboot_guest, rollback_snapshot, delete_snapshot, delete_guest, resize_guest, restore_backup, delete_firewall_rule, migrate_guest, create_template) require explicit confirm=true. The first call returns a warning describing the impact; only a second call with confirmation executes the action.

Examples

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant:

• "List all my VMs and their status"
• "How much memory is VM 100 using?"
• "Shut down container 105"
• "Create a snapshot of VM 200 called before-upgrade"
• "Show me the CPU usage of VM 100 over the last day"
• "What tasks ran on node pve recently?"
• "Which VMs are stopped?"
• "What storage pools do I have and how full are they?"
• "Show me available ISO images"
• "Create a new Ubuntu VM with 4 cores and 8GB RAM"
• "Clone VM 100 as a test environment"
• "Create a Debian container from template"
• "Delete the old test VM 999"
• "Back up VM 100 to the zfs-backup-storage"
• "Show me all backups for VM 200"
• "Restore the latest backup of container 101"
• "Run 'df -h' on VM 100"
• "Check if nginx is running on VM 200"
• "Show me the network bridges on node pve"
• "Give VM 100 more CPU — bump it to 8 cores"
• "Add 50GB of disk to container 101"
• "Show me the firewall rules on VM 100"
• "Allow TCP port 443 on container 101"
• "Migrate VM 200 to node pve2"
• "List all templates in the cluster"
• "Convert VM 102 into a template"
• "Set cloud-init on VM 100: user admin, IP dhcp, DNS 8.8.8.8"

Troubleshooting

Missing required environment variables

This error means one or more required connection settings are not available to the server process. Copy .env.example to .env, then set PROXMOX_HOST, PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID, and PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET. If you configure an MCP client directly, make sure the same variables are present in that client's env block.

403 Permission check failed

A 403 usually means the API token is valid but does not have enough Proxmox privileges for the requested operation. Revisit Creating a Proxmox API Token and either uncheck "Privilege Separation" for full access or assign the specific privileges listed there, such as VM.Audit, VM.PowerMgmt, VM.Snapshot, or storage permissions for datastore operations.

exec_command fails for guest-agent or LXC reasons

exec_command only works for QEMU VMs with qemu-guest-agent installed and running inside the guest. If the tool reports that the QEMU guest agent is not responding, start or install the agent in the VM and retry. LXC containers are not supported by this Proxmox API path, so use another container access method instead.

Self-signed certificate or connection errors

Proxmox commonly runs on port 8006, so check that PROXMOX_HOST and PROXMOX_PORT point to the same endpoint you use for the Proxmox web UI. For homelab clusters with self-signed certificates, leave PROXMOX_VERIFY_SSL=false or set it explicitly. Use PROXMOX_VERIFY_SSL=true only when the Proxmox certificate chains to a CA trusted by your runtime.

Development

git clone https://github.com/antonio-mello-ai/mcp-proxmox.git
cd mcp-proxmox
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format src/ tests/

# Type check
mypy src/

License

MIT