Installation¶

Harvest MCP Server is distributed as a Docker container image, or you can build it from source.

Container Images¶

Harvest MCP Server is available as pre-built container images:

Image	Description
`ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:latest`	Stable release version
`ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:nightly`	Latest development builds

MCP Client Integration¶

Stdio Mode¶

For MCP clients like GitHub Copilot, add to your mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "harvest-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "--env", "HARVEST_TSDB_URL=http://your-prometheus:9090",
        "ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

HTTP Mode¶

For HTTP-based MCP clients, first start the server:

docker run -d \
  --name harvest-mcp-server \
  -p 8082:8082 \
  --env HARVEST_TSDB_URL=http://your-prometheus:9090 \
  ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:latest \
  start --http --port 8082

Then configure your mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "harvest-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8082"
    }
  }
}

For remote server access:

{
  "servers": {
    "harvest-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://your-server-ip:8082"
    }
  }
}

Building from Source¶

Prerequisites¶

Go(check .harvest.env in the repository root for the exact required version)
Git
Make
Docker (optional, for building Docker images)

Clone the Repository¶

First, clone the Harvest repository:

git clone https://github.com/NetApp/harvest.git
cd harvest

Build Docker Image¶

Build your own Docker image from source:

# Navigate to the mcp directory
cd mcp

# Build the Docker image using make (creates harvest-mcp:latest by default)
make docker-build

# Or specify a custom tag
make docker-build DOCKER_TAG=harvest-mcp:local

Alternatively, build directly with Docker:

# From the harvest repository root
docker build -f mcp/Dockerfile -t harvest-mcp:local .

Running the Built Docker Image¶

After building, use your local image in your MCP client configuration. See MCP Client Integration above for configuration examples - just replace ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:latest with your local image tag (e.g., harvest-mcp:local).

Build Native Binary¶

Create a standalone binary package:

# Navigate to the mcp directory
cd mcp

# build for specific platforms:
GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 make package    # Linux AMD64
GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 make package   # macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)

# Creates: dist/harvest-mcp-<version>-<release>_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz

Running the Native Binary¶

After extracting the package, configure it in mcp.json for MCP clients.

Configure in mcp.json¶

For MCP clients like GitHub Copilot, add to your mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "harvest-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/path/to/harvest-mcp/bin/harvest-mcp",
      "args": ["start"],
      "env": {
        "HARVEST_TSDB_URL": "http://your-prometheus:9090"
      }
    }
  }
}

For HTTP mode, start the server first:

# Start the server
HARVEST_TSDB_URL=http://your-prometheus:9090 /path/to/harvest-mcp/bin/harvest-mcp start --http --port 8082

Then configure your mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "harvest-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8082"
    }
  }
}

Logs¶

To view the MCP server logs:

docker logs <container-id>

Configuration¶

For complete configuration options and environment variables, run:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/netapp/harvest-mcp:latest start --help

This displays all available environment variables with descriptions, authentication options, and advanced settings.

Next Steps¶

Explore Usage Examples