mcp-lava

# mcp-lava `mcp-lava` is an **MCP (Model Context Protocol) server** that lets an LLM interact with a [Linaro LAVA](https://gitlab.com/lava/lava) by **wrapping** the official `lavacli` command-line tool. Instead of re-implementing LAVA's XML-RPC API, this server executes `lavacli` locally and returns results to the LLM in a tool-friendly way. ## Why an MCP server for LAVA? LAVA is powerful, but day-to-day workflows often involve many repetitive CLI steps: - checking device availability and health - locating the right job definition - submitting jobs and monitoring states - pulling logs and artifacts for failed jobs - correlating failures across multiple runs - re-running jobs to reproduce or to confirm a fix An LLM can help with these workflows **if** it can reliably call the right commands and parse the outputs. `mcp-lava` provides that bridge: - **Reuses `lavacli` subcommands and output formats** (many support `--json` / `--yaml`). - **Keeps server logic minimal** (no duplicated API client). - **Makes automation conversational**: "find the last failed run for this device type and summarize the failure", "show me the first kernel panic in the logs", etc. ## Example scenarios A few practical things you can do with an LLM + `mcp-lava`: 1. **Triage a failure quickly** - List recent jobs for a project - Detect failures, fetch logs, and summarize the suspected root cause - Extract the first occurrence of an error pattern (e.g. *kernel panic*, *timeout*, *SSH failed*) 2. **Lab status overview** - List devices and filter to offline/retired/busy - Show which workers are overloaded - Identify the most flaky device type based on recent job outcomes 3. **Job submission assistance** - Validate that a device type exists - Submit a job definition - Track the job until completion and then download artifacts 4. **Re-run / reproduce / confirm a fix ("rerun" workflow)** - Re-run the same job definition to reproduce a failure on demand - Re-run on a different device (or a different device type) to separate lab flakiness from real regressions - Re-run after changing one variable (new kernel, new rootfs, different test plan) and compare outcomes - Compare logs/artifacts between the original run and the rerun to spot what changed 5. **Routine reporting** - "Summarize all failed jobs in the last 24h, grouped by device type" - "Show the top 3 failure signatures and link to the relevant logs" ## Installation Create/activate a virtual environment, then install: ``` python -m venv .venv # Activate the venv (command depends on your shell) python -m pip install -U pip pip install mcp-lava ``` Alternatively, you can also use `uvx mcp-lava` to run it directly without installing to your system Python. ## Configuration (required) `mcp-lava` authenticates to LAVA by creating/refreshing a **lavacli identity** at startup and then running all subsequent commands using that identity. Set these environment variables: - `LAVA_URL` - Base URL or RPC endpoint. If it doesn't end with `/RPC2`, the server appends it. - `LAVA_USERNAME` - LAVA username. - `LAVA_AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN` - LAVA token. Optional: - `LAVA_IDENTITY` - Identity name to use (default: `mcp`). - `LAVA_SSL_VERIFY` - `true`/`false` (default: `true`). A minimal way to represent variables (set them using your preferred method): ```text LAVA_URL=https://lava.example.com LAVA_USERNAME=your.user LAVA_AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN=<your-token> ``` ## Running the MCP server This server uses the **stdio transport** (typical for MCP servers). ``` mcp-lava ``` Equivalent: ``` python -m mcp_lava.server ``` ## Tools ### `lava_run` Run *any* `lavacli` command. - `args` must be an **argv token list** (a list of strings): exactly what you would type after `lavacli`. Examples: - `lavacli devices list` -> `args=["devices", "list"]` - `lavacli devices show qemu0` -> `args=["devices", "show", "qemu0"]` - `lavacli devices list --json` -> `args=["devices", "list", "--json"]` Do **not** pass a single space-separated string like `args=["devices list"]`. ### `lava_help` Get `lavacli --help`, or help for a specific command group. ### `lava_command_tree` Introspect the installed `lavacli` Python package and return its command/subcommand tree.