Dapr MCP Server

Name: Dapr MCP Server
Author: dapr

@daprMCP server · External

Dapr state, pub/sub, bindings, secrets, locks, crypto, conversation, actors, invocation as MCP tools

MCP gateways & tool hubsv0.0.3Apache-2.0Go

Freeno charge per call

How to install

Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.

What it does

Reads
Writes
High impact

At most: moves money, runs code or commands, deletes data, or sends messages for you.

What it costs

Free

Odel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.

Runs locally over stdio

This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).

Dockerghcr.io/dapr/dapr-mcp-server:v0.0.3

Run

docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/dapr/dapr-mcp-server:v0.0.3

MCP client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dapr-mcp-server": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "ghcr.io/dapr/dapr-mcp-server:v0.0.3"
      ]
    }
  }
}

README4 min readView on GitHub

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes Dapr's building blocks as tools for AI agents.

What it is

dapr-mcp-server is a Go MCP server that fronts a Dapr sidecar and hands AI agents a curated set of tools over every Dapr building block: state, pub/sub, secrets, service invocation, actors, bindings, distributed locks, cryptography, and conversation components. Tools register dynamically from the live component set — if your deployment has no pub/sub broker, the pub/sub tools aren't exposed.

Two transports are supported: stdio for local IDE integrations (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code) and streamable HTTP for remote or shared deployments. Every tool call is annotated with OpenTelemetry spans, metrics, and optional log export; requests can be gated by OIDC, SPIFFE, Dapr Sentry, or a hybrid of the three.

Full documentation lives at docs.dapr.io / developing-ai / mcp.

Quick start

Run the binary next to a Dapr sidecar with dapr run (install it from Install):

bash

dapr init

# stdio, for local MCP clients that launch the server themselves
dapr run --app-id dapr-mcp-server --resources-path resources -- dapr-mcp-server

# streamable HTTP, for remote clients
dapr run --app-id dapr-mcp-server --resources-path resources -- dapr-mcp-server --http :8080

With --http, connect any MCP client to http://localhost:8080/. The container image is meant for Kubernetes, where the Dapr sidecar injector adds the sidecar through the dapr.io/enabled: "true" and dapr.io/app-id pod annotations. For the complete walk-through (components, auth, OTEL, verification), see the getting started guide.

Install

Method	Command
Container	`docker pull ghcr.io/dapr/dapr-mcp-server:latest`
Binary	Download from Releases and place on `PATH`
From source (Go 1.26.6+)	`go install github.com/dapr/dapr-mcp-server/cmd/dapr-mcp-server@latest`

The server is listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.dapr/dapr-mcp-server, so MCP clients that browse the registry can install it as a container.

Configuration

The configuration guide has the full environment variable reference.

Flag	Default	Purpose
`--http <addr>`	unset (stdio)	Serve streamable HTTP on this address instead of stdin/stdout. Health probes are served on `/livez`, `/readyz` and `/startupz`.
`--health-check`	`false`	Probe `/livez` of a running server and exit 0 if it answers 200, 1 otherwise. Used by the container `HEALTHCHECK`.
`--health-check-addr <host:port>`	from `--http`, else `localhost:8080`	Address `--health-check` probes. A wildcard host such as `0.0.0.0` is probed as `localhost`.
`--version`	`false`	Print the version and exit.

Logs are written as JSON to stderr, so they never mix with the stdio transport on stdout. /readyz returns 503 while the Dapr sidecar is unreachable.

Settings specific to the HTTP transport:

Environment variable	Default	Purpose
`DAPR_MCP_CORS_ORIGIN`	unset (no CORS headers)	Origin allowed to call the server from a browser, for example `https://app.example.com`. Set it only when a browser-based MCP client on another origin needs access.

Documentation

Page	Purpose
Overview	What the server is, architecture, capabilities, when to use it
Getting started	Install, configure components, run, verify
Tool reference	Schemas, inputs, outputs, and safety flags for every tool
Configuration	Environment variables, flags, and transport settings
Authentication	OIDC, SPIFFE, Dapr Sentry, hybrid mode
Observability	Traces, metrics, and logs

AI coding agents contributing to this repo: see AGENTS.md. For human contributors: see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Tools at a glance

All tools, with links to their entries in the tool reference. Core tools are always registered; conditional tools register only when a matching Dapr component exists. The server follows components that Dapr hot-reloads: each time a client lists tools or calls get_components, it checks the sidecar, adds a building block's tools when its first component appears and removes them when its last one goes, and tells connected clients the tool list changed.

Category	Tool	Registration	Notes
metadata	`get_components`	Core	Always call first
invoke	`invoke_service`	Core	Service-to-service HTTP invocation
actors	`invoke_actor_method`	Core	Virtual-actor method call
state	`save_state`	`state.*`	Idempotent save
state	`get_state`	`state.*`	Read-only
state	`delete_state`	`state.*`	Destructive, idempotent
state	`execute_transaction`	`state.*`	Atomic batch
pubsub	`publish_event`	`pubsub.*`	Not idempotent
pubsub	`publish_event_with_metadata`	`pubsub.*`	Adds headers/TTL
bindings	`invoke_output_binding`	`bindings.*`	External-system I/O
secrets	`get_secret`	`secretstores.*`	Single secret
secrets	`get_bulk_secrets`	`secretstores.*`	High-risk; bulk fetch
conversation	`converse_with_llm`	`conversation.*`	Delegate to a downstream LLM
crypto	`encrypt_data`	`crypto.*`	RSA encrypt
crypto	`decrypt_data`	`crypto.*`	RSA decrypt
lock	`acquire_lock`	`lock.*`	Distributed mutex
lock	`release_lock`	`lock.*`	Pair with `acquire_lock`

Development

bash

go build -o dapr-mcp-server ./cmd/dapr-mcp-server
go test -race ./...
golangci-lint run ./...

See AGENTS.md for the full contributor / AI-agent playbook (build commands, tool-addition pattern, testing strategy, DCO flow).

Contributing

Contributions welcome — open issues via the issue templates, sign your commits per the DCO, and follow the pull request template. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow.

Security issues: do not open a public issue — follow the Dapr security disclosure process instead.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.

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