Render MCP Server

The Render MCP server lets AI coding tools manage Render services, databases, deploys, logs, and metrics directly. This skill covers setup, authentication, workspace selection, the tool catalog, and troubleshooting.

Action skills (render-deploy, render-debug, render-monitor) use MCP tools for their workflows. If MCP is not connected, set it up using this skill first.

When to Use

• list_services() fails or MCP tools are unavailable
• First-time Render MCP setup for any AI tool
• User asks how to connect their AI tool to Render
• Switching workspaces or troubleshooting auth errors
• Discovering which MCP tools exist and what they do

Connection Details

Workspace Selection

After MCP is connected, set the active workspace:

Set my Render workspace to [WORKSPACE_NAME]

Or programmatically:

get_selected_workspace()   # Check current
list_workspaces()          # List available

All MCP operations run against the active workspace.

Tool Catalog

Service management

Deploys

Logs

Key filters: level (error, warn, info), type (build, deploy), text (search string), statusCode (HTTP codes).

Metrics

Metric types: cpu_usage, memory_usage, cpu_limit, memory_limit, http_latency, http_request_count, active_connections.

Optional: httpLatencyQuantile (0.5, 0.95, 0.99), httpPath (filter by endpoint).

Databases

Key Value

Environment Variables

Workspace

References

Related Skills

• render-deploy — Deploy flows using MCP tools
• render-debug — Debug failures using MCP logs and metrics
• render-monitor — Monitor health using MCP metrics
• render-cli — CLI alternative when MCP is unavailable

Setup by Tool

Cursor

1. Get an API key from the Render Dashboard

2. Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "render": {
      "url": "https://mcp.render.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Cursor, then verify with list_services()

Claude Code

1. Get an API key from the Render Dashboard

2. Add the MCP server:

claude mcp add --transport http render https://mcp.render.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>"

3. Restart Claude Code, then verify with list_services()

Codex

1. Get an API key from the Render Dashboard

2. Set the key in your shell:

export RENDER_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"

3. Add the MCP server:

codex mcp add render --url https://mcp.render.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var RENDER_API_KEY

4. Restart Codex, then verify with list_services()

Other Tools

For tools not listed above, use the generic HTTP MCP configuration:

• URL: https://mcp.render.com/mcp
• Auth header: Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>
• Transport: HTTP (streamable HTTP, not SSE)

See Render MCP docs for tool-specific instructions.

Common Mistakes

Troubleshooting

See references/troubleshooting.md for connection errors, auth failures, timeout issues, and tool-specific quirks.