Keycloak MCP: Simplifying Keycloak Management Through Model Context Protocol

Have you ever wished for a more streamlined way to manage your Keycloak users and realms? Today, I'm excited to introduce Keycloak MCP, a Model Context Protocol server implementation that makes Keycloak management more accessible and standardized than ever before.

Like i always say if you're new to Keycloak, check out my previous articles:

• Getting Started with Keycloak: Understanding the Basics to understand how to set up and configure Keycloak.
• Secure Your RESTful API Using Keycloak Role-Based Access Control to secure you API using RBAC.
• Going Deeper with Keycloak: Understanding Authorization Services to understand the basics of Keycloak Authorization Services and how to set up all the necessary configurations.
• Integrating KC Authorization Services into NestJS API to apply fine-grained, policy-based access control using Keycloak's authorization features inside a NestJS backend.

So let's get started!

Understanding the Foundations

What is MCP (Model Context Protocol)?

Before diving into Keycloak MCP, let's quickly understand MCP. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standardized communication protocol that enables AI models to interact with external tools and services. Think of it as a universal translator that allows AI models to:

• Discover what tools are available
• Execute operations with proper validation
• Receive standardized responses
• Handle errors consistently

An MCP server, therefore, acts as a bridge between AI models and real-world applications, providing a structured way to expose functionality to AI systems.

What is Keycloak MCP?

Keycloak MCP is a specialized server implementation that bridges the gap between Keycloak's administrative capabilities and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It provides a standardized interface for managing Keycloak users and realms, making it easier to integrate Keycloak management into various development workflows.

Key Features

• 🚀 User Management: Create and delete users with ease
• 👥 Role Management: Assign client roles to users
• 🌐 Realm Operations: List and manage realms effortlessly
• 👪 Group Management: Handle user groups efficiently
• 🔑 Client Management: List clients and their roles

Available Tools

Here's what you can do with Keycloak MCP:

User Management

• Create new users with full profile information
• Delete existing users
• List all users in a realm
• Add users to groups

Role and Client Management

• List available realms
• View all clients in a realm
• List client roles
• Assign client roles to users

Group Operations

• List all groups in a realm
• Manage user group memberships

and more tools are comming...

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (Latest LTS version)
• npm
• A running Keycloak instance

Quick Installation

You can install Keycloak MCP in two ways:

1. Via Smithery (Recommended)

npx -y @smithery/cli install @HaithamOumerzoug/keycloak-mcp --client claude

2. Via NPM

# Direct usage with npx
npx -y keycloak-mcp

# Or global installation
npm install -g keycloak-mcp

Configuration

To configure Keycloak MCP in your environment, add the following to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "keycloak": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "keycloak-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "KEYCLOAK_URL": "http://localhost:8080",
        "KEYCLOAK_ADMIN": "admin",
        "KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD": "admin"
      }
    }
  }
}

Feature Demo

Benefits of Using Keycloak MCP

1. Standardization: Consistent interface for Keycloak operations
2. Simplification: Reduces complexity in managing Keycloak
3. Integration: Easy to integrate with existing tools and workflows
4. Automation: Perfect for automated user management scenarios
5. Developer-Friendly: Clean API with TypeScript support

Technical Stack

• TypeScript for type safety
• @keycloak/keycloak-admin-client for Keycloak integration
• Model Context Protocol SDK for standardized communication
• Zod for robust schema validation

Future Development

The project is actively maintained and welcomes contributions. Some planned features include:

• Enhanced role management capabilities
• Extended user management features
• Extended group management features

Conclusion

Keycloak MCP brings a new level of simplicity to Keycloak management through standardized protocols and intuitive tooling. Whether you're managing a small application or a large enterprise system, Keycloak MCP can help streamline your identity and access management workflows.

What's Coming Next?

Stay tuned for my upcoming articles in this series where I'll cover:

1. Real-time Updates with SSE:

   • Implementing Server-Sent Events (SSE) communication between Keycloak MCP server and clients
   • Setting up /sse endpoints for live updates

2. MCP Security Best Practices:

   • Secure credential management
   • Safe storage of sensitive information
   • Authentication and authorization patterns
   • Environment-based configuration strategies

These upcoming articles will help you build more robust and secure implementations with Keycloak MCP.

Resources

• GitHub Repository
• Smithery Package
• NPM Package

Stay tuned, the real fun is just getting started!

About the Author

Created by OUMERZOUG Haitham, Keycloak MCP is an open-source project under the MIT license.