Install the kmcp controller#

The kmcp controller manages the lifecycle of MCP servers that are defined in an MCPServer custom resource.

Prerequisites#

• Kind for creating and running a local Kubernetes cluster
• Docker for running local kind clusters
• Helm for installing the kmcp controller chart

Install the controller#

1. Create a kind cluster.

   Tip: If you already have a Kubernetes cluster that you want to use, switch to the kubeconfig context for that cluster by using the kubectl config use-context [CONTEXT-NAME] command.

   kind create cluster

2. Install the kmcp CRDs.

   helm install kmcp-crds oci://ghcr.io/kagent-dev/kmcp/helm/kmcp-crds \
     --namespace kmcp-system \
     --create-namespace

3. Install the following kmcp controller components in your cluster.

   • The MCPServer Custom Resource Definition to define your MCP server.
   • The ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding to control RBAC permissions for the kmcp controller.
   • The kmcp controller deployment that automatically manages the lifecycle of MCPServer resources.
   kmcp install

   Example output:

   🚀 Deploying KMCP controller to cluster...
   No version specified, using latest: v0.1.0
   Release "kmcp" does not exist. Installing it now.
   NAME: kmcp
   LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Jul 30 18:41:01 2025
   NAMESPACE: kmcp-system
   STATUS: deployed
   REVISION: 1
   TEST SUITE: None
   ✅ KMCP controller deployed successfully
   💡 Check controller status with: kubectl get pods -n kmcp-system
   💡 View controller logs with: kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=kmcp -n kmcp-system

4. Verify that the kmcp controller manager is up and running.

   kubectl get pods -n kmcp-system

   Example output:

   NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   kmcp-controller-manager-66c8764c66-8h5sl   1/1     Running   0          27h

5. Optional: Look at the logs of the kmcp controller manager.

   kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=kmcp -n kmcp-system

Next#

Deploy your MCP servers to your cluster and manage their lifecycle.