Name: Harness
Author: harness

LABSCO SUMMARY

Eleven verbs beat 240 tools an LLM has to choose between.

The consolidation is the whole design argument: Harness is broad enough that one-tool-per-endpoint would give an agent hundreds of choices and fill the context with schemas, so the verbs stay fixed and a resource type rides along as an argument. harness_describe and harness_status make that navigable — the agent asks what resource types exist and what is failing right now before it reaches for a specific action.

What it is

Harness's official server for its CI/CD and platform suite. Rather than one tool per endpoint, it uses 11 consolidated tools that a registry dispatches to 240 resource types, spanning 39 default toolsets. It runs over stdio or HTTP.

What you get

The CRUD verbs applied to any Harness resource by type: harness_list with filtering and pagination, harness_get, harness_create, harness_update and harness_delete — each able to auto-extract scope and identifiers from a pasted Harness URL
harness_execute runs actions across the platform: run, retry or interrupt a pipeline, kill or restore a feature flag, test a connector, sync a GitOps app, or run a chaos experiment, with wait:true to block until a pipeline reaches a terminal state
harness_diagnose analyzes a failure, tests connectivity, checks health or troubleshoots a GitOps sync, defaulting to pipeline-execution diagnosis
harness_status gives a live project overview — recent failed executions, currently running ones, recent deployments — the tool for 'what's happening in my project right now?'
harness_search ranks results across multiple resource types, and harness_describe returns local metadata about which resource types and operations exist, with no API call, so an agent can discover what it can act on
harness_schema fetches the YAML schema or examples for a resource type — pipeline and template schemas bundled, connector, environment, service, secret and infrastructure schemas fetched live
Coverage spanning CI/CD, GitOps, Feature Flags, Cloud Cost Management, Security Testing, Chaos Engineering, Database DevOps, the Internal Developer Portal, Software Supply Chain and Governance, with opt-in Ansible
Multi-project navigation without hardcoded scope — agents discover organizations and projects dynamically, so 'show failed executions across all projects' walks the account hierarchy on its own

Requirements

A Harness API key — a PAT or SAT token in the form <prefix>.<accountId>.<tokenId>.<secret> — held in HARNESS_API_KEY. The account ID is auto-extracted from the token, so HARNESS_ACCOUNT_ID is only needed for keys without an embedded account segment, and org/project defaults are optional. Run it with npx harness-mcp-v2 over stdio, or with the http argument on a port for a shared deployment, where each session supplies its key as an x-harness-api-key header so the Harness audit trail reflects the real user. A hosted endpoint exists but uses Harness Platform OAuth and must be enabled per account by Harness Support.

Setup effort

One command plus a key — HARNESS_API_KEY=<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY> npx harness-mcp-v2@latest

See installation options

USE CASES

01

Seeing what is broken right now

Open with a live project overview of failed and running executions and recent deployments, then diagnose the pipeline that failed to get the root cause rather than reading logs by hand.

harness_statusharness_diagnoseharness_get

02

Shipping a pipeline change

Fetch the schema for the resource type, create or update the pipeline from YAML, and run it — waiting for the execution to reach a terminal state so you know whether it passed.

harness_schemaharness_updateharness_execute

03

Finding your way around an unfamiliar account

Ask which resource types and operations exist, search across them for what you need, and list the resources in scope — discovering orgs and projects dynamically instead of hardcoding them.

harness_describeharness_searchharness_list

04

Managing a feature-flag rollout

List the flags in the project, execute a kill or restore on the one that needs it, and diagnose connectivity when a change does not take effect.

harness_listharness_executeharness_diagnose

11 tools

Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.

`harness_create`

Create a Harness resource. For pipelines/input sets: pass body as a YAML string directly (recommended for complex definitions), or use body.yamlPipeline (YAML string), or body.pipeline (JSON object). For remote pipelines, pass git details in params: external Git (store_type='REMOTE', connector_ref, repo_name, branch, file_path) or Harness Code (store_type='REMOTE', is_harness_code_repo=true, repo_name, branch, file_path). For others: call harness_describe for the body format.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL

What to know first

Tools you get

11 tools when we connected. The count is small by design: harness_list, harness_get, harness_create and the other verbs each work across 240 resource types. HARNESS_AUTO_APPROVE_RISK sets how risky a write can be before it needs approval.

Requires

npx on PATH
HARNESS_API_KEY in your environment

CONTEXT COST

Moderate Standing cost

Rated by the size of the 11 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are

INSTALLATION

Connect your client

Server setup

The install command the project publishes

TERMINAL

HARNESS_API_KEY=<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY> npx harness-mcp-v2@latest

Hosted endpoint

ENDPOINT URL

https://mcp.harness.io/mcp

Connect a client to this instead of installing anything, then sign in with your Harness account. Harness Support has to switch hosted MCP on for your account first, so ask them before you connect.

MCP Clients

Claude Desktop — npx, Cursor — npx, Devin — npx

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "<YOUR_PATH_TO_NPX>",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "harness-mcp-v2@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY>",
        "PATH": "<YOUR_NODE_DIR>:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
      }
    }
  }
}

<YOUR_PATH_TO_NPX> is the full path which npx prints, and <YOUR_NODE_DIR> the folder that holds node: which node prints node's full path, without the final /node. Desktop apps don't always see your shell's PATH, which is why both are spelled out.

Claude Desktop — global install

CLAUDE DESKTOP — GLOBAL INSTALL · JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "<YOUR_PATH_TO_HARNESS_MCP_V2>",
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY>",
        "PATH": "<YOUR_NODE_DIR>:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
      }
    }
  }
}

<YOUR_NODE_DIR> is the folder that holds node: which node prints node's full path, without the final /node.

Any MCP client — remote

ANY MCP CLIENT — REMOTE · JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness-prod1-mcp": {
      "url": "https://mcp.harness.io/mcp",
      "auth": {
        "CLIENT_ID": "mcp-client"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker MCP Gateway, Portkey

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "harness-mcp-v2"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any MCP client — local build

ANY MCP CLIENT — LOCAL BUILD · TERMINAL

git clone https://github.com/harness/mcp-server.git
cd mcp-server
pnpm install
pnpm build

Point your client at the built build/index.js inside that mcp-server folder, with your Harness API key in env

ANY MCP CLIENT — LOCAL BUILD · JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "<YOUR_PATH_TO_MCP_SERVER>/build/index.js",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "<YOUR_HARNESS_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Harness

Eleven verbs beat 240 tools an LLM has to choose between.

What it is

What you get

Requirements

Setup effort

Seeing what is broken right now

Shipping a pipeline change

Finding your way around an unfamiliar account

Managing a feature-flag rollout

11 tools

`harness_create`

`harness_delete`

`harness_describe`

`harness_diagnose`

`harness_execute`

`harness_get`

`harness_list`

`harness_schema`

`harness_search`

`harness_status`

`harness_update`

What to know first

Tools you get

Requires

Moderate Standing cost

Connect your client

Server setup

The install command the project publishes

Hosted endpoint

MCP Clients

Claude Desktop — npx, Cursor — npx, Devin — npx

Claude Desktop — global install

Any MCP client — remote

Docker MCP Gateway, Portkey

Any MCP client — local build

Harness

Eleven verbs beat 240 tools an LLM has to choose between.

What it is

What you get

Requirements

Setup effort

Seeing what is broken right now

Shipping a pipeline change

Finding your way around an unfamiliar account

Managing a feature-flag rollout

11 tools

harness_create

harness_delete

harness_describe

harness_diagnose

harness_execute

harness_get

harness_list

harness_schema

harness_search

harness_status

harness_update

What to know first

Tools you get

Requires

Moderate Standing cost

Connect your client

Server setup

The install command the project publishes

Hosted endpoint

MCP Clients

Claude Desktop — npx, Cursor — npx, Devin — npx

Claude Desktop — global install

Any MCP client — remote

Docker MCP Gateway, Portkey

Any MCP client — local build

Same category

Jenkins Build Debugging

Build-Scout

Esp MCP

Salesforce DX MCP Server

`harness_create`

`harness_delete`

`harness_describe`

`harness_diagnose`

`harness_execute`

`harness_get`

`harness_list`

`harness_schema`

`harness_search`

`harness_status`

`harness_update`