Installation

  1. Prerequisites
  2. With uv (recommended)
  3. With pip
  4. With Docker
  5. Verify
  6. Next

Prerequisites

   
Python 3.12 or 3.13 (>=3.12,<3.14 — 3.14 is excluded because pydantic-core fails to build)
Package manager uv recommended
PCE access Hostname, port, org ID, and an API key/secret pair
MCP client Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-capable client

Generate the PCE API key in the PCE UI under Access → API Keys. Give it the minimum role the tools you intend to use require — read-only if you only plan to query.

git clone https://github.com/alexgoller/illumio-mcp-server.git
cd illumio-mcp-server
uv sync

uv sync resolves from uv.lock, so you get the exact dependency set the project tests against — including the security floors on transitive packages.

With pip 

git clone https://github.com/alexgoller/illumio-mcp-server.git
cd illumio-mcp-server
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

There is no requirements.txt. Dependencies live in pyproject.toml; a stale requirements file was removed because it pinned versions no build ever used.

With Docker 

docker build -t illumio-mcp .
docker run --rm -i \
  -e PCE_HOST=pce.example.com \
  -e PCE_PORT=8443 \
  -e PCE_ORG_ID=1 \
  -e API_KEY=api_xxxxx \
  -e API_SECRET=xxxxx \
  -e DOCKER_CONTAINER=true \
  illumio-mcp

DOCKER_CONTAINER=true routes the diagnostic log to /var/log/illumio-mcp/ instead of the working directory. The image runs as a non-root user (uid 1000).

Verify 

.venv/bin/python -m illumio_mcp   # should start and wait on stdin

It exits cleanly when stdin closes. Nothing is printed on success — the server writes only MCP protocol messages to stdout, and diagnostics go to the log file.

To confirm PCE connectivity, ask your MCP client to run check-pce-connection, or see Troubleshooting.

Next

Community project, not an official Illumio product. Licensed under GPL-3.0.