MCP Client Setup

Both clients below hand the server its settings through env. The blocks show the four required variables and VCFA_IGNORE_TLS; the full table, including the platform selector and the artifact directories, is in Configuration.

VS Code

Add the server to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "vcfa": {
        "command": "npx",
        "args": ["-y", "@mgovedarov/mcp-vcf-orchestrator"],
        "env": {
          "VCFA_HOST": "vcfa.example.com",
          "VCFA_USERNAME": "administrator",
          "VCFA_ORGANIZATION": "your-organization-here",
          "VCFA_PASSWORD": "your-password",
          "VCFA_IGNORE_TLS": "false"
          // External vRO appliance only: uncomment the next line and add a comma to the line above.
          // "VCFA_VRO_HOST": "vro.example.com"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code reads settings.json as JSONC, so the two comment lines can stay in place.

Claude Desktop

Add the server to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vcfa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mgovedarov/mcp-vcf-orchestrator"],
      "env": {
        "VCFA_HOST": "vcfa.example.com",
        "VCFA_USERNAME": "administrator",
        "VCFA_ORGANIZATION": "your-organization-here",
        "VCFA_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "VCFA_IGNORE_TLS": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

That file is strict JSON and does not accept comments, so the block above carries none. When the organization's vRO runs on its own appliance rather than embedded in the VCF Automation appliance, add VCFA_VRO_HOST to env; leave it out for the embedded vRO, which is the default. With the variable, the env object reads:

{
  "VCFA_HOST": "vcfa.example.com",
  "VCFA_USERNAME": "administrator",
  "VCFA_ORGANIZATION": "your-organization-here",
  "VCFA_PASSWORD": "your-password",
  "VCFA_IGNORE_TLS": "false",
  "VCFA_VRO_HOST": "vro.example.com"
}

External vRO Appliance

VCFA_VRO_HOST moves only the vRO /vco/api requests to that host. The login, the GET /api/versions probe, and the catalog, deployment, template, project, and event-broker services stay on VCFA_HOST, and the token issued there is reused as-is, so no second set of credentials is involved. Left unset in an environment whose vRO is external, every vRO tool fails with a 403 and an HTML body while the Automation-service tools keep working, and the error carries a hint naming this variable. The mechanism is described in External vRO Appliance and the failure signatures in Troubleshooting.

MCP Inspector

Build the project first, then inspect the server:

npm run build
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js