How to integrate Gitlab MCP with Claude Agent SDK

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Gitlab to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Gitlab agent that can create new gitlab group for qa team, open bug issue in frontend project, create branch from latest main commit, archive completed api migration project through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your Claude Agent SDK agent real control over a Gitlab account through Composio's Gitlab MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your Claude/Anthropic and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Gitlab
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Gitlab as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Gitlab operations

What is Claude Agent SDK?

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's official framework for building AI agents powered by Claude. It provides a streamlined interface for creating agents with MCP tool support and conversation management.

Key features include:

  • Native MCP Support: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
  • Permission Modes: Control tool execution permissions
  • Streaming Responses: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications
  • Context Manager: Clean async context management for sessions

What is the Gitlab MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Gitlab MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Gitlab account. It provides structured and secure access to your repositories, projects, and issues, so your agent can perform actions like creating projects, managing issues, handling branches, and automating DevOps workflows on your behalf.

  • Project and group automation: Instantly create new Gitlab projects or organize your workspaces by setting up project groups—all without manual clicks.
  • Issue creation and tracking: Have your agent report bugs, request features, or open new issues in specific projects to keep your team on top of tasks.
  • Branch management: Let your agent create repository branches from any commit or base branch, making it easy to streamline your development process.
  • Project lifecycle management: Archive completed projects or delete unneeded ones, keeping your workspace clean and up to date with minimal effort.
  • Commit and job insights: Retrieve commit references, determine commit sequence in project history, or erase job artifacts and logs for deeper CI/CD control.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Archive ProjectTool to archive a project.
Create GitLab GroupTool to create a new group in gitlab.
Create ProjectTool to create a new project in gitlab.
Create Project IssueTool to create a new issue in a gitlab project.
Create Repository BranchTool to create a new branch in a project.
Delete ProjectTool to delete a gitlab project by its id.
Download Project AvatarTool to download a project’s avatar image.
Erase JobTool to erase the content of a specified job within a project.
Get Commit ReferencesTool to get all references (branches or tags) a commit is pushed to.
Get Commit SequenceTool to get the sequence number of a commit in a project by following parent links from the given commit.
Get Group DetailsTool to retrieve information about a specific group by its id.
Get Group MemberTool to retrieve details for a specific group member.
Get GroupsGet groups
Get Job DetailsTool to retrieve details of a single job by its id within a specified project.
Get Merge Request NotesTool to fetch comments on a merge request.
Get ProjectTool to get a single project by id or url-encoded path.
Get Project LanguagesTool to list programming languages used in a project with percentages.
Get Project MemberTool to retrieve details for a specific project member.
Get Project Member AllTool to retrieve details for a specific project member (including inherited and invited members).
Get Merge Request CommitsTool to get commits of a merge request.
Get Project Merge RequestsTool to retrieve a list of merge requests for a specific project.
Get ProjectsTool to list all projects accessible to the authenticated user.
List Merge Request DiffsTool to list all diff versions of a merge request.
Get Repository BranchTool to retrieve information about a specific branch in a project.
Get Repository BranchesRetrieves a list of repository branches for a project.
Get Single CommitTool to get a specific commit identified by the commit hash or name of a branch or tag.
Get Single PipelineTool to retrieve details of a single pipeline by its id within a specified project.
Get UserTool to retrieve information about a specific user by their id.
Get User PreferencesTool to get the current user's preferences.
Get UsersTool to retrieve a list of users from gitlab.
Get User StatusTool to get a user's status by id.
Get User StatusTool to get the current user's status.
Get User Support PINTool to get details of the current user's support pin.
Import project membersTool to import members from one project to another.
List All Group MembersTool to list all members of a group including direct, inherited, and invited members.
List All Project MembersTool to list all members of a project (direct, inherited, invited).
List Billable Group MembersTool to list billable members of a top-level group (including its subgroups and projects).
List Group MembersTool to list direct members of a group.
List Pending Group MembersTool to list pending members of a group and its subgroups and projects.
List Pipeline JobsTool to retrieve a list of jobs for a specified pipeline within a project.
List Project GroupsTool to list ancestor groups of a project.
List Project Invited GroupsTool to list groups invited to a project.
List Project PipelinesTool to retrieve a list of pipelines for a specified project.
List Project Shareable GroupsTool to list groups that can be shared with a project.
List Project Repository TagsTool to retrieve a list of repository tags for a specified project.
List Project Transfer LocationsTool to list namespaces available for project transfer.
List project usersTool to list users of a project.
List Repository CommitsTool to get a list of repository commits in a project.
List User ProjectsTool to list projects owned by a specific user.
Create Support PINTool to create a support pin for your authenticated user.
Update User PreferencesTool to update the current user's preferences.
Set User StatusTool to set the current user's status.
Share Project With GroupTool to share a project with a group.
Start Housekeeping TaskTool to start the housekeeping task for a project.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Tool Router?

Composio's Tool Router helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Tool Router

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Tool Router works

The Tool Router follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Composio API Key and Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Primary know-how of Claude Agents SDK
  • A Gitlab account
  • Some knowledge of Python

Getting API Keys for Claude/Anthropic and Composio

Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Go to the Anthropic Console and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.

Install dependencies

pip install composio-anthropic claude-agent-sdk python-dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the Claude Agents SDK.

What's happening:

  • composio-anthropic provides Composio integration for Anthropic
  • claude-agent-sdk is the core agent framework
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID identifies the user for session management
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY authenticates with Anthropic/Claude

Import dependencies

import asyncio
from claude_agent_sdk import ClaudeSDKClient, ClaudeAgentOptions
import os
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()
What's happening:
  • We're importing all necessary libraries including the Claude Agent SDK and Composio
  • The load_dotenv() function loads environment variables from your .env file
  • This setup prepares the foundation for connecting Claude with Gitlab functionality

Create a Composio instance and Tool Router session

async def chat_with_remote_mcp():
    api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")

    composio = Composio(api_key=api_key)

    # Create Tool Router session for Gitlab
    mcp_server = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["gitlab"]
    )

    url = mcp_server.mcp.url

    if not url:
        raise ValueError("Session URL not found")
What's happening:
  • The function checks for the required COMPOSIO_API_KEY environment variable
  • We're creating a Composio instance using our API key
  • The create method creates a Tool Router session for Gitlab
  • The returned url is the MCP server URL that your agent will use

Configure Claude Agent with MCP

# Configure remote MCP server for Claude
options = ClaudeAgentOptions(
    permission_mode="bypassPermissions",
    mcp_servers={
        "composio": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": url,
            "headers": {
                "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
            }
        }
    },
    system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant with access to Gitlab tools via Composio.",
    max_turns=10
)
What's happening:
  • We're configuring the Claude Agent options with the MCP server URL
  • permission_mode="bypassPermissions" allows the agent to execute operations without asking for permission each time
  • The system prompt instructs the agent that it has access to Gitlab
  • max_turns=10 limits the conversation length to prevent excessive API usage

Create client and start chat loop

# Create client with context manager
async with ClaudeSDKClient(options=options) as client:
    print("\nChat started. Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

    # Main chat loop
    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        # Send query
        await client.query(user_input)

        # Receive and print response
        print("Claude: ", end="", flush=True)
        async for message in client.receive_response():
            if hasattr(message, "content"):
                for block in message.content:
                    if hasattr(block, "text"):
                        print(block.text, end="", flush=True)
        print()
What's happening:
  • The Claude SDK client is created using the async context manager pattern
  • The agent processes each query and streams the response back in real-time
  • The chat loop continues until the user types 'exit' or 'quit'

Run the application

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(chat_with_remote_mcp())
What's happening:
  • This entry point runs the async chat_with_remote_mcp() function using asyncio.run()
  • The application will start, create the MCP connection, and begin the interactive chat session

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Gitlab and Claude Agent SDK:

import asyncio
from claude_agent_sdk import ClaudeSDKClient, ClaudeAgentOptions
import os
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

async def chat_with_remote_mcp():
    api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")

    composio = Composio(api_key=api_key)

    # Create Tool Router session for Gitlab
    mcp_server = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["gitlab"]
    )

    url = mcp_server.mcp.url

    if not url:
        raise ValueError("Session URL not found")

    # Configure remote MCP server for Claude
    options = ClaudeAgentOptions(
        permission_mode="bypassPermissions",
        mcp_servers={
            "composio": {
                "type": "http",
                "url": url,
                "headers": {
                    "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
                }
            }
        },
        system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant with access to Gitlab tools via Composio.",
        max_turns=10
    )

    # Create client with context manager
    async with ClaudeSDKClient(options=options) as client:
        print("\nChat started. Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

        # Main chat loop
        while True:
            user_input = input("You: ").strip()
            if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit"}:
                print("Goodbye!")
                break

            # Send query
            await client.query(user_input)

            # Receive and print response
            print("Claude: ", end="", flush=True)
            async for message in client.receive_response():
                if hasattr(message, "content"):
                    for block in message.content:
                        if hasattr(block, "text"):
                            print(block.text, end="", flush=True)
            print()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(chat_with_remote_mcp())

Conclusion

You've successfully built a Claude Agent SDK agent that can interact with Gitlab through Composio's Tool Router.

Key features:

  • Native MCP support through Claude's agent framework
  • Streaming responses for real-time interaction
  • Permission bypass for smooth automated workflows
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.

How to build Gitlab MCP Agent with another framework

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FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Gitlab MCP?

With a standalone Gitlab MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Gitlab tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Gitlab and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Claude Agent SDK?

Yes, you can. Claude Agent SDK fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Gitlab tools.

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Gitlab while using Tool Router?

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Gitlab scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Gitlab data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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