Vault

You run a Vault MCP Server to expose Vault features as MCP endpoints, enabling you to inspect and manage Vault ACLs, audit devices, authentication engines, and secret engines from MCP clients. This server image can run locally via Docker, making it convenient for development, testing, and integration with MCP workflows.

How to use

Connect to the Vault MCP Server from your MCP client by starting the local Docker-based server and then pointing your client to the running instance. You will supply the Vault URL you want to target and an authentication token that authorizes access for polling policies, devices, engines, and secrets. The MCP server exposes the current enabled Vault components so you can view and interact with ACL policies, audit devices, authentication engines, and secret engines through the standard MCP tooling.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing:

• Docker installed on your machine

Follow these steps to run the Vault MCP Server locally using Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vault": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "VAULT_URL",
        "-e",
        "VAULT_TOKEN",
        "matthewschuchard/vault-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "VAULT_URL": "<VAULT SERVER CLUSTER URL>",
        "VAULT_TOKEN": "<VAULT AUTHENTICATION TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Additional steps to run from IDEs (optional)

If you are using an IDE with MCP support, you can often streamline configuration by selecting the Docker-based MCP server option and filling in the same values shown above. This will create an MCP config entry you can start from within the IDE.

Configuration notes

• The Vault MCP Server runs the vault-mcp-server image from Docker Hub. It expects two environment variables to operate: VAULT_URL for the Vault cluster URL and VAULT_TOKEN for authentication. These values must be supplied by you in your MCP client configuration or environment when launching the container. Use placeholders like YOUR_VAULT_URL and YOUR_VAULT_TOKEN in examples until you supply real values.

Security considerations

• Treat VAULT_TOKEN as a sensitive credential. Store it securely and rotate it as needed. Limit token capabilities to only what is necessary for reading ACLs, devices, engines, and secrets within your testing or development environment. When deploying to production, follow your organization’s security practices for secret management and access control.

Troubleshooting tips

• If the server container fails to start, verify Docker is running and that the provided VAULT_URL and VAULT_TOKEN are correct. Check your environment variable names for typos in your MCP client configuration.

Tools exposed by the Vault MCP Server

• ACL Policies: Current Enabled ACL Policies
• Audit Devices: Current Enabled Audit Devices
• Authentication Engines: Current Enabled Authentication Engines
• Secrets Engines: Current Enabled Secret Engines

Examples of prompts and interactions

You can use prompts to work with Vault policies and policies generation workflows. For example, you can provide an ACL policy JSON string to an input tool for creating an ACL Policy (with an auto-generated name). You can also generate a pseudo-example policy by supplying a list of paths that will appear in the policy, with boilerplate capabilities that you adjust to your needs.

Notes on available backends and prompts

The server surfaces several backends and prompts to help you manage and generate Vault configurations. This includes a Secrets Backend with KV, PKI, and Transit options, and a System Backend that exposes ACL Policies, Audit Devices, and Authentication Engines.

Available tools

ACL Policies

View and manage current enabled Vault ACL policies through MCP prompts and endpoints.

Audit Devices

Inspect and configure current enabled Vault audit devices via MCP.

Authentication Engines

Access and manage the enabled Vault authentication engines.

Secrets Engines

Access and manage the enabled Vault secret engines (KV, PKI, Transit, etc.).

Database (Secrets Backend)

Manage the Database secrets backend (Beta) if available in the Vault MCP Server.

KV Version 2

Interact with the KV Version 2 secret engine.

PKI

Interact with the PKI secret engine.

Transit

Interact with the Transit secret engine.

mcp.vault.example-acl-policy

Displays an example Vault ACL Policy in JSON string format for use as input to policy generation.

mcp.vault.generate-acl-policy

Displays a pseudo-example Vault ACL Policy with a paths argument to generate a policy template.