How do I install MCP Proxmox?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does MCP Proxmox need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does MCP Proxmox use?

MCP Proxmox runs locally over stdio.

When was MCP Proxmox last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-12. Manage Proxmox VE clusters through AI assistants — VMs, containers, and more

MCP Proxmox MCP server

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

Log into your Proxmox web UI
Go to Datacenter > Permissions > API Tokens
Click Add and create a token for your user
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.Console — console interaction tools (screenshots, keyboard input)
- 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).

Console Interaction

Tool	Description
`vm_screenshot`	Capture a PNG screenshot of a QEMU VM's display (login prompt, boot messages, installer, GUI)
`vm_send_key`	Send a key or combination to a VM console (requires confirmation)
`vm_send_text`	Type ASCII text into a VM console (US layout; requires confirmation)

Note: Console tools do not require qemu-guest-agent and need only the VM.Console privilege. vm_screenshot opens the same VNC websocket tunnel the Proxmox web UI uses (RFB 3.8 with DES-based VNC auth) and is implemented in pure stdlib (custom WebSocket client + DES). Only QEMU VMs are supported. Text entry is layout-dependent: vm_send_text maps ASCII to a US keyboard layout (Shift-mapping for uppercase and symbols); non-ASCII input (e.g. Cyrillic) is not supported by the sendkey protocol.

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"
"Take a screenshot of VM 100 so I can see the console"
"The VM is stuck at a login prompt — type 'root' and press Enter"
"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.

`ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mcp.server.fastmcp'`

The MCP Python SDK 2.0 removed the mcp.server.fastmcp module that mcp-proxmox 1.2.1 and earlier import. Fresh installs (uvx mcp-proxmox, uv tool install, pip install) resolved mcp 2.x and failed on startup — in Claude Desktop this only shows up as "Server disconnected". Upgrade to mcp-proxmox 1.2.2 or later, which pins mcp<2. If you must stay on an older mcp-proxmox, constrain the SDK yourself: uvx --with "mcp<2" mcp-proxmox.

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