cdash-mcp

An MCP server for Kitware CDash — the CI/CD dashboard for projects built with CMake/CTest. Browse dashboards, find failing tests, inspect build errors, check coverage, and triage CI failures, all through natural language. Works with Claude Desktop/Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client.

Provides 12 tools for navigating CDash builds, tests, coverage, and dynamic analysis.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• A CDash instance (defaults to my.cdash.org)

Installation

# Install from GitHub with uv (recommended)
uv tool install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp

# Or with pip
pip install git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add cdash \
  -e CDASH_URL=https://my.cdash.org \
  -e CDASH_TOKEN=your-token-here \
  -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp cdash-mcp

Use --scope user for global access, --scope project to share via .mcp.json in your repo, or omit --scope for local (current project only).

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cdash": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp", "cdash-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CDASH_URL": "https://my.cdash.org",
        "CDASH_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running from Source

git clone https://github.com/cbyrohl/cdash-mcp.git
cd cdash-mcp
uv sync

# Run the server
uv run cdash-mcp

Configuration

Environment Variable	Required	Default	Description
CDASH_URL	No	https://my.cdash.org	CDash instance URL
CDASH_TOKEN	No	—	Bearer token for authentication (required for private instances)

Note: Project names in CDash are case-sensitive (e.g. "thor" and "THOR" are different projects).

Tools (12)

Dashboard & Overview

Tool	Description
get_dashboard	Dashboard overview: build groups, pass/fail counts, build IDs
get_project_overview	Aggregate build/test/coverage statistics for a project

Test Triage

Tool	Description
get_failing_tests	Find non-passing tests across all builds (CI triage entry point)
get_build_tests	List tests for a specific build, filter by passed/failed/notrun
get_test_details	Detailed output/log for a single test run
get_test_summary	Test pass/fail history across builds — detect flaky tests

Build Inspection

Tool	Description
get_build_details	Drill into a build: configure/compile/test summary
get_build_errors	Compiler errors or warnings with source file and line info
get_configure_output	CMake configure command and output
get_build_update	Source code changes (VCS commits) associated with a build

Coverage & Analysis

Tool	Description
get_coverage_comparison	Compare code coverage across builds, detect regressions
get_dynamic_analysis	Dynamic analysis results (Valgrind, sanitizers)

Troubleshooting

401 Authentication errors:

• Verify your token is valid in CDash under My Profile > Authentication Token.
• Make sure the env block is in the right config file. For Claude Code, MCP servers must be defined in ~/.claude.json — putting them in ~/.claude/settings.json will silently ignore the env vars.
• After changing config, restart the MCP server (/mcp in Claude Code, or restart the application).

Project not found / empty dashboard:

• CDash project names are case-sensitive. Check the exact name in your CDash instance.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests (hits my.cdash.org live)
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

# Run the server locally
uv run cdash-mcp

License

MIT