mirror of
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feat: publish Coder MCP server to official MCP Registry (#21673)
## Summary
This adds the necessary configuration to publish Coder's remote MCP
server to the official MCP Registry at registry.modelcontextprotocol.io.
## Changes
- **`server.json`**: MCP server metadata for registry discovery
- **`.github/workflows/publish-mcp-registry.yaml`**: GitHub Actions
workflow to automatically publish on release
## How it works
1. When a new Coder release is published, the workflow automatically
publishes to the MCP Registry
2. MCP clients (Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, etc.) can discover Coder via
the registry
3. Users just need to provide their Coder deployment URL - OAuth handles
authentication automatically via RFC 7591 Dynamic Client Registration
## MCP Registry Entry
The server will be listed as `io.github.coder/coder` with:
- **Transport**: `streamable-http`
- **Endpoint**: `{coder_url}/api/experimental/mcp/http`
- **Auth**: OAuth2 (automatic via
`/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server`)
## Testing
After merge and next release, verify at:
```bash
curl "https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1/servers?q=io.github.coder"
```
Closes #21275
---
_Generated with `mux` • Model: `anthropic:claude-opus-4-5` • Thinking:
`medium`_
---------
Co-authored-by: Ben Potter <me@bpmct.net>
This commit is contained in:
Atif Ali
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# MCP Server
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Power users can configure [claude.ai](https://claude.ai), Claude Desktop, Cursor, or other external agents to interact with Coder in order to:
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Coder includes a built-in [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)
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(MCP) server that provides AI assistants with tools and context about your Coder
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deployment. This enables AI-powered workflows for managing workspaces,
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templates, and development environments.
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- List workspaces
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- Create/start/stop workspaces
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- Run commands on workspaces
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- Check in on agent activity
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Coder supports two MCP server modes:
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> [!NOTE]
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> See our [toolsdk](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/coder/coder/v2/codersdk/toolsdk#pkg-variables) documentation for a full list of tools included in the MCP server
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- **[Local MCP Server](#local-mcp-server)**: Runs via the Coder CLI using stdio
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transport. Ideal for local AI tools and IDE integrations.
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- **[Remote MCP Server](#remote-mcp-server)**: HTTP-based server exposed by your
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Coder deployment. Supports OAuth2 authentication and is published to the MCP
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Registry.
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In this model, any custom agent could interact with a remote Coder workspace, or Coder can be used in a remote pipeline or a larger workflow.
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## Local MCP Server
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## Local MCP server
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The local MCP server runs via the Coder CLI and uses stdio transport to
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communicate with AI tools.
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The Coder CLI has options to automatically configure MCP servers for you. On your local machine, run the following command:
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### Setup
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```sh
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# First log in to Coder.
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coder login <https://coder.example.com>
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# Configure your client with the Coder MCP
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coder exp mcp configure claude-desktop # Configure Claude Desktop to interact with Coder
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coder exp mcp configure cursor # Configure Cursor to interact with Coder
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```
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For other agents, run the MCP server with this command:
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Run the MCP server using the Coder CLI:
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```sh
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coder exp mcp server
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```
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> [!NOTE]
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> The MCP server is authenticated with the same identity as your Coder CLI and can perform any action on the user's behalf. Fine-grained permissions are in development. [Contact us](https://coder.com/contact) if this use case is important to you.
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### Client Configuration
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## Remote MCP server
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Configure your MCP client to spawn the Coder CLI:
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Coder can expose an MCP server via HTTP. This is useful for connecting web-based agents, like https://claude.ai/, to Coder. This is an experimental feature and is subject to change.
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"coder": {
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"command": "coder",
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"args": ["exp", "mcp", "server"]
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}
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}
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}
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```
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To enable this feature, activate the `oauth2` and `mcp-server-http` experiments using an environment variable or a CLI flag:
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The CLI automatically uses your existing Coder authentication (from `coder login`).
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### Claude Desktop Example
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Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:
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<div class="tabs">
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#### macOS
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Edit `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`:
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"coder": {
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"command": "coder",
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"args": ["exp", "mcp", "server"]
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}
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}
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}
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```
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#### Windows
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Edit `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`:
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"coder": {
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"command": "coder.exe",
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"args": ["exp", "mcp", "server"]
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}
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}
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}
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```
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</div>
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## Remote MCP Server
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The remote MCP server is an HTTP endpoint exposed by your Coder deployment at
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`/api/experimental/mcp/http`. This enables MCP clients to connect to Coder
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without running the CLI locally.
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### Prerequisites
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The remote MCP HTTP endpoint requires both the `oauth2` and `mcp-server-http`
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experiments enabled on your Coder deployment:
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```sh
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CODER_EXPERIMENTS="oauth2,mcp-server-http" coder server
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# or
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coder server --experiments=oauth2,mcp-server-http
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```
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The Coder server will expose the MCP server at:
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Or set the environment variable:
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```txt
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https://coder.example.com/api/experimental/mcp/http
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```sh
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CODER_EXPERIMENTS=oauth2,mcp-server-http
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```
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> [!NOTE]
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> At this time, the remote MCP server is not compatible with web-based ChatGPT.
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### MCP Registry
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Users can authenticate applications to use the remote MCP server with [OAuth2](../admin/integrations/oauth2-provider.md). An authenticated application can perform any action on the user's behalf. Fine-grained permissions are in development.
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Coder is published to the official [MCP Registry](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry)
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as `io.github.coder/coder`, enabling easy installation in supported MCP clients.
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#### VS Code / GitHub Copilot
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1. Open VS Code Command Palette and run **MCP: Add Server...**
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1. Select **From MCP Registry**
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1. Search for "Coder" and select it
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1. Enter your Coder deployment URL when prompted (e.g., `https://coder.example.com`)
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1. VS Code will automatically handle OAuth2 authentication
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#### Claude Desktop (Remote)
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Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file (`claude_desktop_config.json`):
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"coder": {
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"url": "https://coder.example.com/api/experimental/mcp/http"
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}
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}
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}
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```
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Claude Desktop will automatically discover OAuth2 endpoints and prompt you to
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authenticate through your browser.
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### Manual Configuration
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For MCP clients that don't support the registry or OAuth2 discovery, configure
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the server manually with a session token:
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"coder": {
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"url": "https://coder.example.com/api/experimental/mcp/http",
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"headers": {
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"Coder-Session-Token": "<your-session-token>"
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}
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}
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}
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}
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```
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To create a session token:
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1. Navigate to your Coder deployment
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1. Go to **Settings > Tokens**
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1. Create a new token
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1. Add the token to your MCP client configuration
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## Authentication
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The MCP server supports two authentication methods:
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### OAuth2 (Recommended for Interactive Clients)
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MCP clients that support [RFC 9728](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9728)
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(Protected Resource Metadata) can authenticate automatically using OAuth2. The
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server advertises its OAuth2 capabilities via the `WWW-Authenticate` header and
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`/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource` endpoint.
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This enables a seamless "click-to-connect" experience where users authenticate
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through their browser without manually managing tokens.
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> [!NOTE]
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> OAuth2 requires the `oauth2` experiment to be enabled on your Coder deployment.
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### Session Token (For Programmatic Access)
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For clients that don't support OAuth2 discovery, or for programmatic access, use
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a session token as shown in the [Manual Configuration](#manual-configuration)
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section.
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## Available Tools
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The MCP server exposes tools across several areas:
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- **Workspace management**: list, inspect, create, and build workspaces
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- **Template operations**: list, inspect, create, and manage templates and versions
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- **File operations**: read, write, and edit files in a workspace
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- **Workspace interaction**: run commands, forward ports, list apps, and read logs
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- **Task management**: create, list, inspect, and control tasks
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- **User and system**: authenticated user details, tar uploads, and task reporting
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The full, authoritative set of tools, including their names, descriptions, and
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arguments, is defined in Coder's
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[`toolsdk` package](../../codersdk/toolsdk/toolsdk.go). Refer to it for the
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current list, since the available tools can change between releases.
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## Troubleshooting
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### "Unauthorized" errors
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- Verify your session token is valid and not expired
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- Check that the MCP server experiment is enabled on your deployment
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- Ensure your user has appropriate permissions for the requested operations
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### Connection timeouts
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- Verify your Coder deployment URL is correct and accessible
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- Check network connectivity between your MCP client and the Coder server
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- Review Coder server logs for any errors
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### OAuth2 authentication not working
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- Ensure your Coder deployment has the `oauth2` experiment enabled
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- Verify your MCP client supports RFC 9728 Protected Resource Metadata
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- Check that your browser can reach the Coder authorization endpoint
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