What is the Vault MCP server?

Beta feature

Beta functionality is stable but possibly incomplete and subject to change. We strongly discourage using beta features in production deployments of Vault.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that enables AI models to securely connect with external tools, applications, and data sources. MCP allows AI models to access information beyond their training data, providing more curren and accurate responses.

The Vault MCP Server provides integration with IBM Vault for managing secrets and mounts. The MCP server uses both stdio and StreamableHTTP transports for MCP communication, making it compatible with Claude for Desktop and other MCP clients.

The Vault MCP server offers several key benefits:

Understanding code bases and automatically invoke Vault based workflows
Help configure PKI certificates with new or existing codebases
Perform automated Vault operations using natural language

Disclaimer

Depending on the query, the MCP server may expose certain Vault data, including Vault secrets, to MCP clients and LLMs interacting with the server. Do not use the MCP server with untrusted MCP clients or LLMs.

Your use of third-party MCP clients and LLMs is subject solely to the terms of use for those MCP servers and LLMs. IBM is not responsible for the performance of such third party tools. IBM expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability for third party MCP clients and LLMs, and may not be able to provide support to resolve issues caused by the third party tools.

How it works

When you connect an AI model to the Vault MCP server, the model gains access to specialized tools that can perform the following actions:

List, Delete, Create mounts in Vault (KV v1, KV v2)
List, Delete, Read, Write secrets to KV mounts
Enable PKI secrets engine
Issue PKI certificate
List, Create, Read PKI issuers, roles
Delete PKI roles
Comprehensive HTTP middleware stack (CORS, logging, Vault context)
Session-based Vault client management
Structured logging with configurable output

The AI model uses these tools automatically when you ask questions about securely storing secrets.

The server specifically handles Vault API based interaction. For general Vault questions, AI models use their standard training data and other sources.

Additional resources

Vault MCP server Github repository - source code, issues and contributions for the MCP server.
Vault MCP server releases page- Download prebuilt server binaries.