The shape is a deliberate answer to tool sprawl: instead of one tool per API endpoint, each manager takes a resource type and an operation, so ten definitions in your context cover applications, infrastructure, events, websites, mobile apps, SLOs, releases, maintenance windows, automation and dashboards — and --tools narrows even that when you only work in one or two. One thing to decide before deploying it: SSL verification on outgoing Instana calls is off until you turn it on.
IBM Instana's server, built as ten unified resource managers rather than one tool per endpoint: each takes a resource type and an operation, so an entire monitoring domain sits behind a single tool definition.
- Application metrics across services and endpoints, with application-specific and global alert configurations and the application catalog
- Infrastructure queried by entity with grouping and filtering, plus the plugin, metric and tag catalog and entity snapshots
- Events fetched in bulk or by ID, including Kubernetes info events and agent monitoring events
- Website beacon data analysed and grouped, with the website catalog, configuration and alerts
- Mobile app beacon data on the same footing — analyze, catalog, configuration, alerts
- SLO configurations created, updated and deleted, with reports, alerts and corrections
- Releases created, listed over a time range, and used to analyse deployment impact
- Maintenance windows created, modified, closed and listed, plus the available templates
- Automation actions browsed in the catalog and their execution history reviewed
- Custom dashboards created, updated and deleted, and shared with users or API tokens
An Instana instance and an API token carrying permission for the tools you intend to call. pip install mcp-instana, then run mcp-instana. In stdio mode set INSTANA_BASE_URL and INSTANA_API_TOKEN as environment variables or pass them with --env. In streamable-http mode credentials travel as HTTP headers instead: instana-api-token for a direct API token, instana-auth-token with instana-csrf-token for a UI session, or instana-jwt-token with instana-csrf-token for IBM Platform integration, with the environment variable as the fallback. --tools narrows the surface to infra, app, events or website, and --list-tools shows the categories. SSL certificate verification on outgoing Instana calls is disabled by default; --verify-ssl or INSTANA_SSL_VERIFY=true enables it.
One command plus a key — uvx mcp-instana, then supply credentials