MantisBT MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates the MantisBT REST API into Claude Code and other MCP-capable clients. Read, create, and update issues directly from your editor.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18
• MantisBT installation with REST API enabled (version 2.23+)
• MantisBT API token (create under My Account → API Tokens)

Installation

Via npx (recommended):

Add to ~/.claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) or your local
claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Code):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mantisbt": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@dpesch/mantisbt-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "MANTIS_BASE_URL": "https://your-mantis.example.com/api/rest",
        "MANTIS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local build:

git clone https://codeberg.org/dpesch/mantisbt-mcp-server
cd mantisbt-mcp-server
npm run init
npm run build

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mantisbt": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mantisbt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "MANTIS_BASE_URL": "https://your-mantis.example.com/api/rest",
        "MANTIS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
MANTIS_BASE_URL	✅	–	Base URL of your MantisBT installation. Both https://your-mantis.example.com and https://your-mantis.example.com/api/rest are accepted — the /api/rest suffix is normalized automatically.
MANTIS_API_KEY	✅	–	API token for authentication
MANTIS_CACHE_DIR	–	~/.cache/mantisbt-mcp	Directory for the metadata cache
MANTIS_CACHE_TTL	–	3600	Cache lifetime in seconds
TRANSPORT	–	stdio	Transport mode: stdio or http
PORT	–	3000	Port for HTTP mode
MCP_HTTP_HOST	–	127.0.0.1	Bind address for HTTP mode. Changed from 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.1 — the server now listens on localhost only by default. Set to 0.0.0.0 for Docker or remote access.
MCP_HTTP_TOKEN	–	–	When set, the /mcp endpoint requires Authorization: Bearer <token>. The /health endpoint is always public.
MANTIS_SEARCH_ENABLED	–	false	Set to true to enable semantic search
MANTIS_SEARCH_BACKEND	–	vectra	Vector store backend: vectra (pure JS) or sqlite-vec (requires manual install)
MANTIS_SEARCH_DIR	–	{MANTIS_CACHE_DIR}/search	Directory for the search index
MANTIS_SEARCH_MODEL	–	Xenova/paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2	Embedding model name (downloaded once on first use, ~80 MB)
MANTIS_SEARCH_THREADS	–	1	Number of ONNX intra-op threads for the embedding model. Default is 1 to prevent CPU saturation on multi-core machines and WSL. Increase only if index rebuild speed matters and the host is dedicated to this workload.
MANTIS_UPLOAD_DIR	–	–	Restrict upload_file to files within this directory. When set, any file_path outside the directory is rejected (path traversal attempts via ../ are blocked). Without this variable there is no restriction.

Available tools

Issues

Tool	Description
get_issue	Retrieve an issue by its numeric ID
get_issues	Retrieve multiple issues by ID in one call (1–50 IDs); missing or inaccessible IDs return null at their position instead of failing the call
list_issues	Filter issues by project, status, author, and more; optional select for field projection and status for client-side status filtering — canonical English status names (e.g. "new", "resolved") are matched by ID, making the filter language-independent on localized installations
create_issue	Create a new issue; severity and priority must be canonical English names (e.g. minor, major, normal, high) — call get_issue_enums to see all valid values and their localized labels; optional handler parameter accepts a username as alternative to handler_id (resolved against project members)
update_issue	Update an existing issue; enum fields (status, priority, severity, resolution, reproducibility) accept canonical English names, localized names, or numeric IDs — the server resolves names to IDs automatically
delete_issue	Delete an issue

Notes

Tool	Description
list_notes	List all notes of an issue
add_note	Add a note to an issue
delete_note	Delete a note

Attachments

Tool	Description
list_issue_files	List attachments of an issue
upload_file	Upload a file to an issue — preferred: local file_path (server reads and encodes automatically); fallback: Base64-encoded content + filename (use only when file_path is not available)

Relationships

Tool	Description
add_relationship	Create a relationship between two issues; optional type_name parameter accepts a string name (e.g. "related_to", "duplicate_of") as alternative to numeric type_id
remove_relationship	Remove a relationship from an issue (use the id from the relationship object, not the type)

Monitors

Tool	Description
add_monitor	Add a user as a monitor of an issue
remove_monitor	Remove a user as a monitor of an issue

Tags

Tool	Description
list_tags	List all available tags; falls back to the metadata cache when GET /tags returns 404 (run sync_metadata first to populate)
attach_tags	Attach tags to an issue
detach_tag	Remove a tag from an issue

Projects

Tool	Description
list_projects	List all accessible projects; returns normalized project data (consistent with sync_metadata cache)
get_project_versions	Get versions of a project; optional obsolete and inherit booleans to include obsolete or parent-inherited versions
get_project_categories	Get categories of a project
get_project_users	Get users of a project
find_project_member	Search project members by name, real name, or email (case-insensitive substring match); optional query and limit (default 10, max 100); cache-first

Semantic search (optional)

Instead of exact keyword matching, semantic search understands the meaning behind a query. Ask in plain language — the search engine finds conceptually related issues even when the wording doesn't match:

• "login fails after password reset" — finds issues about authentication edge cases
• "performance problems on the checkout page" — surfaces related reports regardless of the exact terminology used
• "duplicate entries in the invoice list" — catches issues described as "shown twice", "double records", etc.

The embedding model (~80 MB) runs entirely offline — no OpenAI key, no external API. It is downloaded once on first start and cached locally. Issues are indexed incrementally on every server start (only new and updated issues are re-indexed).

Activate with MANTIS_SEARCH_ENABLED=true.

Tool	Description
search_issues	Natural language search over all indexed issues — returns top-N results with cosine similarity score; optional select (comma-separated field names) enriches each result with the requested issue fields; optional highlight (boolean, default false) adds a highlights field per result with keyword-matched excerpts from summary and description (matched terms shown in **bold**)
rebuild_search_index	Build or update the search index; full: true clears and rebuilds from scratch
get_search_index_status	Return the current fill level of the search index: how many issues are indexed vs. total, and the timestamp of the last sync

Which backend to choose?

	vectra (default)	sqlite-vec
Dependencies	None (pure JS)	Requires native build tools
Install	Included	npm install sqlite-vec better-sqlite3
Best for	Up to ~10,000 issues	10,000+ issues
Performance	Fast enough for most setups	Faster for large corpora

Start with vectra. Switch to sqlite-vec if indexing or query times become noticeably slow.

npm install sqlite-vec better-sqlite3
# then set MANTIS_SEARCH_BACKEND=sqlite-vec

Metadata & system

Tool	Description
get_issue_fields	Return all field names valid for the select parameter of list_issues
get_metadata	Retrieve a compact metadata summary: project/tag counts and per-project user/version/category counts; use get_metadata_full for complete arrays
get_metadata_full	Return the full raw metadata cache as minified JSON (all projects with complete fields, users/versions/categories per project, all tags)
sync_metadata	Refresh the metadata cache
list_filters	List saved filters
get_current_user	Retrieve your own user profile
list_languages	List available languages
get_config	Show server configuration (base URL, cache TTL)
get_issue_enums	Return valid ID/name pairs for all issue enum fields (severity, status, priority, resolution, reproducibility) — use before create_issue / update_issue to look up correct values; on localized installations each entry may include a canonical_name with the standard English API name
get_mantis_version	Get MantisBT version and check for updates
get_mcp_version	Return the version of this mantisbt-mcp-server instance

Available resources

MCP Resources are URI-addressable, read-only data that clients can fetch directly without calling a tool. They are the third MCP primitive alongside Tools and Prompts. Note that Resource support is less widely implemented in MCP clients than Tools — check your client's documentation.

Resource URI	Description
mantis://me	Profile of the authenticated API user (live fetch)
mantis://projects	All accessible MantisBT projects as a compact list (cache-backed, refreshed via sync_metadata)
mantis://projects/{id}	Combined project view: project fields + users + versions + categories in one call; cache-first, list-support for enumerating all available project URIs
mantis://enums	Valid values for all issue enum fields: severity, priority, status, resolution, reproducibility (live fetch)

Available prompts

MCP prompt templates are conversation starters that instruct the LLM to collect structured input and then call the appropriate tool. They are not tools themselves — they initiate a guided workflow.

Prompt	Required args	Optional args	Description
create-bug-report	project_id, category, summary, description	steps_to_reproduce, expected, actual, environment	Guides through a structured bug report and calls create_issue
create-feature-request	project_id, category, summary, description	use_case	Guides through a feature request and calls create_issue
summarize-issue	issue_id	–	Fetches an issue via get_issue and returns a concise summary
project-status	project_id	–	Lists issues via list_issues and generates a status report grouped by severity

HTTP mode

For use as a standalone server (e.g. in remote setups):

MANTIS_BASE_URL=... MANTIS_API_KEY=... TRANSPORT=http PORT=3456 node dist/index.js

# With token authentication and explicit bind address (required for Docker/remote):
# MCP_HTTP_TOKEN=secret MANTIS_BASE_URL=... MANTIS_API_KEY=... \
#   TRANSPORT=http PORT=3456 MCP_HTTP_HOST=0.0.0.0 node dist/index.js

Health check: GET http://localhost:3456/health (always public, no token required)

Documentation

• Cookbook — tool-oriented recipes with copy-paste-ready parameter examples for all registered tools
• Usage Examples — natural language prompt examples for everyday use cases (no tool names required)

Development

npm run init         # First-time setup: install deps, git hooks, typecheck
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript → dist/
npm run typecheck    # Type check without output
npm run dev          # Watch mode for development
npm test             # Run tests (vitest)
npm run test:watch   # Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:coverage # Coverage report

License

MIT – see LICENSE

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md.
Repository: codeberg.org/dpesch/mantisbt-mcp-server