feat: add mcp server by rokroskar · Pull Request #1341 · SwissDataScienceCenter/renku-data-services

rokroskar · 2026-06-03T16:25:50Z

Adds an MCP server. The server runs as a separate container alongside data-services.

/deploy renku=000-add-mcp-server extra-values=mcpServer.enabled=true

AI use disclosure: The skeleton and usability guidelines were developed and written by me; claude code wrote the code, which I reviewed and tested.

Questions about the implementation:

there is a safety mechanism to prevent all admin users from using the mcp server. It's implemented as a part of the _api wrapper - I'm not sure this is a good way to do it, my initial instinct was to have a decorator do that job.
I don't know if you would like to have DependencyManager use consistently throughout, here the much simpler MCPDependencies is used

How to test

Claude:

$ claude mcp add --transport http --client-id renku-mcp --callback-port 8484 renku https://renku-ci-ds-1341.dev.renku.ch/mcp

When you start claude it should automatically try to log you in to the CI deployment.

Pi:

Add this as .pi/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "renku": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://renku-ci-ds-1341.dev.renku.ch/mcp",
      "oauth": {
        "clientId": "renku-mcp",
        "redirectUri": "http://localhost:8484"
      }
    }
  }
}

Launch Pi and do:

> /mcp-auth

select renku and connect - it should log you in and get your token.

Codex

Add this to .codex/config.toml:

mcp_oauth_callback_port = 8484
mcp_oauth_callback_url = "http://localhost:8484/callback"

[mcp_servers.renku]
url = "https://renku-ci-ds-1341.dev.renku.ch/mcp"
enabled = true

[mcp_servers.renku.oauth]
client_id = "renku-mcp"

Run codex mcp login renku.

Using the tools

Just prompt something like

Make me a renku project with this repository: https://github.com/rokroskar/renku-demo-air-quality-analysis and a session launcher.

Related PR: SwissDataScienceCenter/renku#4473

RenkuBot · 2026-06-03T16:39:30Z

You can access the deployment of this PR at https://renku-ci-ds-1341.dev.renku.ch

…ements

…ity fixes - Integration tests against the real Sanic/DB/SpiceDB stack via SanicMCPDependencies - Regression test: launcher_create without launcher_type must not fail (old API compat) - launcher_type=None treated as interactive for backwards compatibility - launcher_type optional in launcher_create, only sent when explicitly set

…dit B110/B112)

coveralls · 2026-06-08T16:51:56Z

Coverage Report for CI Build 27170576504

Coverage decreased (-0.4%) to 85.986%

Details

Coverage decreased (-0.4%) from the base build.
Patch coverage: 203 uncovered changes across 3 files (322 of 525 lines covered, 61.33%).
18 coverage regressions across 9 files.

Uncovered Changes

File	Changed	Covered	%
bases/renku_data_services/mcp_api/server.py	385	229	59.48%
bases/renku_data_services/mcp_api/main.py	111	65	58.56%
bases/renku_data_services/mcp_api/dependencies.py	29	28	96.55%

Coverage Regressions

18 previously-covered lines in 9 files lost coverage.

File	Lines Losing Coverage	Coverage
components/renku_data_services/notifications/core.py	9	30.95%
components/renku_data_services/crc/core.py	2	79.64%
components/renku_data_services/base_api/error_handler.py	1	90.72%
components/renku_data_services/users/db.py	1	90.36%
components/renku_data_services/connected_services/db.py	1	71.98%
components/renku_data_services/base_api/pagination.py	1	88.16%
components/renku_data_services/data_connectors/blueprints.py	1	81.68%
components/renku_data_services/session/models.py	1	94.19%
components/renku_data_services/resource_usage/core.py	1	53.33%

Coverage Stats


Relevant Lines:	31718
Covered Lines:	27273
Line Coverage:	85.99%
Coverage Strength:	1.49 hits per line

💛 - Coveralls

…idation - Remove legacy credential file paths (_creds_candidates) - Remove JWT validation from _load_rnk_token (issuer/expiry without signature verification is security theater; the data API validates) - Replace bare except Exception with specific types (bandit B110/B112) - Add tests for _load_rnk_token and _resolve_token

leafty · 2026-06-09T06:43:50Z

+        base_url = os.environ.get("RENKU_BASE_URL", "https://renkulab.io").rstrip("/")
+        return cls(base_url=base_url)
+
+    async def api(


It's weird to have an api() method defined on a dependency manager. It should be defined on a http_client. This should be changed to be something like:

def get_renku_httpx_client() -> httpx.AsyncClient: """Returns an async httpx client to use the backend API.""" return httpx.AsyncClient() # with a token injector.

do you mean here a renaming to make it clearer what is what or are you suggesting a deeper refactoring?

No human software engineer would put this api() here inside the dependency manager. The dependency manager would have a factory method (e.g. get_renku_httpx_client()) which creates a client configured to call the API.

The code found here is not necessary, you can achieve most of what it does with just:

headers: dict[str, str] = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {token}", "Content-Type": "application/json", "Accept": "application/json", } api_client = httpx.AsyncClient(headers=headers)

Oh and you can also have:

prefix_url=f"{base_url}/api/data" httpx.AsyncClient(url=prefix_url, headers=headers)

And then you can provide just the path part when calling .get(), etc.

leafty · 2026-06-09T06:48:11Z

+[tool.poetry.scripts]
+renku-mcp = "renku_data_services.mcp_api.main:main"


This is not wrong, but unusual for this repository. Python scripts to start a server are just called as the entrypoint.

Instead of:

ENTRYPOINT ["tini", "-g", "--", "env/bin/renku-mcp"]

we tend to have:

ENTRYPOINT ["tini", "-g", "--", "env/bin/python", "-m", "renku_data_services.data_api.main", <other options>]

a bit less noise if defined as a script, but sure makes sense to follow the same pattern

leafty · 2026-06-09T06:52:14Z

+The server discovers your token automatically from the `rnk` CLI token file — no `RENKU_ACCESS_TOKEN`
+needed after `rnk login`.


Uuhhh can we delay this until there is no more clear text token file?

this is only for spinning up the server locally - in practice I expect this to only be used for testing. In production the token is handled by the agent harness via oauth.

sgaist · 2026-06-09T12:55:30Z

+    Set RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN=1 in the server environment to override.
+    """
+
+    if os.environ.get("RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN"):


Since it's a security related check, I would do an explicit check against 1 as documented in the function docstring.

Suggested change

if os.environ.get("RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN"):

if os.environ.get("RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN") == "1":

sgaist · 2026-06-09T12:57:10Z

+    try:
+        ts = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(wda.replace("Z", "+00:00")).timestamp()
+        return ts < time.time()
+    except Exception:


It's usually frown upon to have such a wide reaching except statement.

Co-authored-by: Samuel Gaist <samuel.gaist@idiap.ch>

leafty · 2026-06-23T10:30:22Z

+        ts = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(wda.replace("Z", "+00:00")).timestamp()
+        return ts < time.time()


Weird parsing and comparison to "now".

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:23:29Z

+        project_id: Annotated[str, Field(description="Project ID")],
+    ) -> dict[str, Any]:
+        """Link an existing data connector to a project."""
+        return await _deps(ctx).api(


Why use _deps(ctx).api instead of _api ? _api has require_non_admin is there a good reason for this ?

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:27:53Z

+        project: Annotated[str, Field(description="Project ID or namespace/slug (e.g. 'myuser/my-project')")],
+    ) -> dict[str, Any]:
+        """Get a Renku project by ID or namespace/slug."""
+        return await _api(ctx, "GET", _project_path(project), _token(ctx))


Is there a good reason to pass _token as the body argument of the _api function ? also _api injects the token in the call. is there any need to pass it there ?

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:28:43Z

+        - Hibernated or paused sessions: warn the user that unsaved work inside those
+          sessions will be lost, and ask for explicit confirmation before stopping them.
+        """
+        proj = await _api(ctx, "GET", _project_path(project), _token(ctx))


same as above. is there any need to pass _token there ?

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:31:15Z

+
+def _project_path(ident: str) -> str:
+    """Turn a project ID or namespace/slug into an API path segment."""
+    import urllib.parse


why not import this at the top level ?

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:34:16Z

+
+
+# Cache admin status per token so we only call /user once per session/request.
+_admin_cache: dict[str, bool] = {}


no ttl for a cache ? don't we risk having this grow too much/become stale ? admittedly there shouldn't be too much admins but still.

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:35:58Z

+                _api(ctx, "GET", f"/sessions/{session_id}/logs"),
+                return_exceptions=True,
+            )
+            if isinstance(session, BaseException):


isn't BaseException a bit broad ?

SalimKayal · 2026-06-23T12:38:49Z

+        if extra_headers:
+            headers.update(extra_headers)
+
+        async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:


this is called every API call. is this really what we want here ?

…tale_session

…atform bug

…on compatibility

…e jobs); add job_command_override and job_args_override

…onfiguration

…ate docstring

…ENKU_BASE_URL_PATH

…environments

…on error

…ution are not silently swallowed

rokroskar force-pushed the 000-add-mcp-server branch 2 times, most recently from c3779cc to 294e594 Compare June 3, 2026 22:07

leafty reviewed Jun 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread projects/renku_mcp_server/pyproject.toml Outdated

rokroskar mentioned this pull request Jun 4, 2026

feat: add mcp server deployment SwissDataScienceCenter/renku#4473

Open

rokroskar marked this pull request as ready for review June 5, 2026 11:46

rokroskar requested review from a team, SalimKayal and sgaist as code owners June 5, 2026 11:46

rokroskar added 5 commits June 5, 2026 15:50

feat: add MCP server

a82bf16

feat: improve MCP tools — admin check, agent guidance, quality improv…

a0c07f5

…ements

feat: deployment — Dockerfile, Helm chart, project tools, README

f055a54

feat: OAuth for remote MCP access — metadata endpoints, Keycloak client

abab9b6

fix: API updates, token handling, auth improvements, test coverage

023c281

rokroskar force-pushed the 000-add-mcp-server branch from 8c844c4 to 023c281 Compare June 5, 2026 13:57

rokroskar force-pushed the 000-add-mcp-server branch from b48904e to 578da49 Compare June 8, 2026 15:26

rokroskar added 4 commits June 8, 2026 17:35

chore: formatting

df1ccbf

fix: resolve all ruff style issues in mcp_api

d52213f

fix: remove unused imports in test_mcp_server

35c4b5f

fix: replace bare except Exception with specific exception types (ban…

5f0015d

…dit B110/B112)

rokroskar force-pushed the 000-add-mcp-server branch from 36141b9 to 93ae613 Compare June 8, 2026 22:18

leafty reviewed Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

sgaist requested changes Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

Apply suggestions from code review

574b67e

Co-authored-by: Samuel Gaist <samuel.gaist@idiap.ch>

leafty reviewed Jun 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

SalimKayal requested changes Jun 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

fix: fail closed on admin check; narrow except to ValueError in _is_s…

e2b60a9

…tale_session

rokroskar and others added 11 commits June 25, 2026 13:40

refactor: remove stale session filter — workaround for a now-fixed pl…

19c609d

…atform bug

fix: normalise launcher_type hyphen/underscore variants for API versi…

70b7cc7

…on compatibility

fix: add submission_id to job_run (required by API for non-interactiv…

95c4ea6

…e jobs); add job_command_override and job_args_override

feat: document RENKU_BASE_URL_PATH and session env vars for web app c…

252abce

…onfiguration

feat: document session env vars and web app base path in launcher_cre…

dc0c36c

…ate docstring

docs: add strip_path_prefix as fallback for web apps that can't use R…

6d85df4

…ENKU_BASE_URL_PATH

feat: guide agents to detect buildable repos and suggest image build …

d50f83a

…environments

fix: missing Path() wrapper in _rnk_token_paths caused str/str divisi…

fb23342

…on error

fix: introduce TokenNotFoundError so unexpected errors in token resol…

c0a361a

…ution are not silently swallowed

Merge branch 'main' into 000-add-mcp-server

7e7bbca

chore: poetry lock

ac0c90f

		[tool.poetry.scripts]
		renku-mcp = "renku_data_services.mcp_api.main:main"

		The server discovers your token automatically from the `rnk` CLI token file — no `RENKU_ACCESS_TOKEN`
		needed after `rnk login`.

	if os.environ.get("RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN"):
	if os.environ.get("RENKU_MCP_ALLOW_ADMIN") == "1":

		ts = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(wda.replace("Z", "+00:00")).timestamp()
		return ts < time.time()



		# Cache admin status per token so we only call /user once per session/request.
		_admin_cache: dict[str, bool] = {}

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rokroskar commented Jun 3, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Questions about the implementation:

How to test

Claude:

Pi:

Codex

Using the tools

Uh oh!

RenkuBot commented Jun 3, 2026

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coveralls commented Jun 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Coverage Report for CI Build 27170576504

Coverage decreased (-0.4%) to 85.986%

Details

Uncovered Changes

Coverage Regressions

Coverage Stats

💛 - Coveralls

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rokroskar commented Jun 3, 2026 •

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