feat: mcp server for validate plugin by s4kh · Pull Request #518 · grafana/plugin-validator

s4kh · 2026-02-17T00:19:08Z

Exposes plugin-validator CLI as MCP server. Tool: validate_plugin

Separate release for mcpserver - published to npm and docker-hub
MCP server uses npx or docker to run the latest validator CLI
Includes configs for vscode extension, claude code, openAI codex configs in the README

s4kh · 2026-02-17T00:20:26Z

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

+}
+
+func ValidatePlugin(ctx context.Context, req *mcp.CallToolRequest, input Input) (*mcp.CallToolResult, Output, error) {
+	return nil, Output{}, nil


We have to do same stuffs we do in plugincheck2/main.go (reading archive, checksum, etc.) Maybe extract those into separate package and reuse it.

pkg/analysis/analysis.go

s4kh · 2026-02-17T15:58:02Z

pkg/service/validator.go

@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@
+package service


Extracted from plugincheck2/main.go.

s4kh · 2026-02-17T17:59:09Z

scripts/install-mcp.sh

+  echo -e "${YELLOW}Warning: $INSTALL_DIR is not in your PATH${NC}"
+  echo "Add the following to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:"
+  echo ""
+  echo "  export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\""


.local/bin exists both on macos and linux

s4kh · 2026-02-17T18:00:40Z

pkg/utils/utils.go

+
+// HasProperArchiveStructure checks if the archive has the proper structure:
+// single top-level directory containing plugin.json
+func HasProperArchiveStructure(archiveDir string) bool {


plugincheck2 used to check this using GetIdAndVersion from quickmeta and if it returns error it would add an invalid structure report to the result.

s4kh · 2026-02-18T02:41:32Z

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

+}
+
+func main() {
+	if err := run(); err != nil {


https://grafana.com/blog/how-i-write-http-services-in-go-after-13-years/ -> func main() only calls run()

academo

I would like you to reconsider the approach for the mcp server

the validator already supports outputting as json, could you invoke the validator binary here and parse the output instead?

here are my two concerns with this approach:

single source of truth: now we are effectively creating two different software that embed the same engine. I much rather prefer we keep a single entry point (the validator cli binary) and make MCP just another user, like for example github actions is an user of the validator, and ci-workflows, and the community pipeline.

We don't need to create separate binaries for those cases because we have a common serialized output any user can read.

updates: this binary will be out of date very quickly. instead we can have this wrapper checking the latest version (once a day?), downloading it and executing it to get the json output.

I don't see a mechanism to update mcp servers, they need to auto-update. People that use the validator mainly use it via docker or npx that always pulls the latest version (except NPM when it wants to be a pain)

my bottom line: we can make this wrapper simply call npx or docker or yarn dlx or similar (support several fallbacks) and parse the json output.

s4kh · 2026-02-18T14:24:05Z

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main_test.go

+
+func TestValidatePlugin_InvalidZip(t *testing.T) {
+	// Skip if neither docker nor npx is available (e.g., in CI/CD)
+	if !isDockerAvailable() && !isNpxAvailable() {


We are running the tests locally. In CI it will be skipped due to docker and npx not present.

Validator itself is tested in https://github.com/grafana/plugin-validator/blob/main/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/main_test.go

CI has docker available.

So we run the tests using mage -v build:ci inside a container which uses goalpine(Dockerfile) thus no docker or npm. I have created a new job inside the test.yml of the github workflows.

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

academo · 2026-02-19T09:27:55Z

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

+type Diagnostics map[string][]Diagnostic
+
+// Severity constants
+const (


can we import the types from the existing definitions instead of re-defining them here?

I wanted the binary for MCP to pretty thin and no dependency on the analysis package.

So the docker build can be also minimal.

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

academo · 2026-02-19T09:30:58Z

scripts/install-mcp.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+#!/bin/bash


most MCP servers I see run from npx or docker.

We should publish this validator MCP in NPM just like we do with the validator. instead of throwing a bash file to execute and auto-detec people's setup

It requires a bit more of setup but it removes all the complications of this script failing on edge cases.

we can also publish it as a docker image which is another popular way of running mcp servers

academo · 2026-02-19T09:32:39Z

README.md

 plugincheck2 -sourceCodeUri [source_code_location/] [plugin_archive.zip]
 ```

+### MCP Server (for AI assistants)


consider this will be what we ask people to do to install our MCP server the instructions are far off.

Most people that want to install an mcp server expect instructions to tell them something like:

modify your mcp.json file and add

{ "mcpServers": { "grafana-plugin-validator": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@grafana/plugin-validator-mcp"] } } }

pkg/utils/utils.go

s4kh · 2026-02-19T21:59:09Z

@academo addressed the feedbacks - It is definitely on the right direction 👏 . Except, do not redefine types that are already available - decoupling from the pkg/ so the MCP server binary can be minimal.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR adds Model Context Protocol (MCP) server support to the plugin-validator, allowing AI assistants (like Claude, Cline, etc.) to validate Grafana plugins programmatically. The MCP server is a Go binary that wraps the plugin-validator CLI and exposes it via the MCP protocol, communicating over stdin/stdout. The implementation supports both Docker and npx execution methods, with Docker preferred when available.

Changes:

Added MCP server implementation (pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go) that wraps the plugin-validator CLI via Docker or npx
Created NPM package wrapper to download and execute platform-specific MCP server binaries
Added separate release workflows and configurations for MCP releases (tagged as mcp/v*)

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 13 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go	Core MCP server implementation that executes plugin-validator via Docker or npx
pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main_test.go	Integration tests for MCP server with valid/invalid plugin archives
mcp-package/index.js	NPM wrapper that downloads and executes platform-specific binaries
mcp-package/package.json	NPM package configuration with binary wrapper metadata
mcp-package/Dockerfile	Docker image for running the MCP server
mcp-package/README.md	Documentation with configuration examples for various MCP clients
.goreleaser.mcp.yaml	Goreleaser configuration for building MCP server binaries
.github/workflows/release-mcp.yml	Workflow to release MCP server to GitHub, NPM, and Docker Hub
.github/workflows/do-release-mcp.yml	Manual workflow to trigger MCP version bumps and releases
.github/workflows/release.yml	Updated tag filter to prevent MCP tags from triggering main releases
go.mod	Added MCP SDK dependency
go.sum	Updated dependency checksums
README.md	Added link to MCP server documentation

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pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

mcp-package/index.js

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

.goreleaser.mcp.yaml

mcp-package/README.md

pkg/cmd/mcpserver/main.go

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

github-project-automation bot added this to Grafana Catalog Team Feb 17, 2026

github-project-automation bot moved this to 📬 Triage in Grafana Catalog Team Feb 17, 2026

s4kh moved this from 📬 Triage to 🧑‍💻 In development in Grafana Catalog Team Feb 17, 2026

s4kh commented Feb 17, 2026

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pkg/service/validator.go Outdated

@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@

package service

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s4kh Feb 17, 2026

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Extracted from plugincheck2/main.go.

s4kh marked this pull request as ready for review February 17, 2026 16:50

s4kh requested review from a team as code owners February 17, 2026 16:50

s4kh requested review from academo, andresmgot and oshirohugo February 17, 2026 16:50

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s4kh force-pushed the feat-mcp-server branch from fd63cb4 to e98427b Compare February 18, 2026 14:22

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s4kh requested a review from academo February 18, 2026 14:30

s4kh force-pushed the feat-mcp-server branch from adcd348 to f23a7f9 Compare February 18, 2026 14:42

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s4kh requested review from academo and xnyo February 19, 2026 21:42

s4kh moved this from 🧑‍💻 In development to 🔬 In review in Grafana Catalog Team Feb 20, 2026

s4kh requested a review from Copilot February 20, 2026 14:16

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s4kh and others added 22 commits February 20, 2026 10:49

feat: mcp server for validate plugin

85ce6c7

ref: extract plugin archive extraction and check runner to pkg

c5ccd77

feat: run validate_plugin from mcp

1883e3e

test: add test for mcpserver

e2d30cf

feat: check project structure

05ccceb

chore: readme.md

4d104ef

chore: regenerated readme

7192e2d

chore: mcp server install script, add mcpserver to release

3c1a00e

ref: os.exit(1) when run returns err

40b20f3

ref: use validator cli in the mcp server

f4a7346

ref: remove analysis dependency

ab1bdb8

fix: jsonschema tag fix

7856e55

chore: readme config changes

a1c63be

ref: remove unused func

61a5259

ref: remove calculate summary, pass the version

317e839

chore: create release workflows for mcp

ea7555b

docs: codex config

fb0f3cf

Update .goreleaser.mcp.yaml

1288300

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Apply suggestions from code review

5ba0fcf

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

chore: readme.md

9888117

chore: regenerated readme

16ce2d6

test: test mcpserver where docker is available

947a09d

s4kh force-pushed the feat-mcp-server branch from 7f1d1b1 to 947a09d Compare February 20, 2026 15:50

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s4kh commented Feb 17, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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s4kh Feb 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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s4kh commented Feb 17, 2026 •

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