# Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/llms.txt). Component-specific: [cloud-data-platform-full.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/cloud-data-platform-full.txt) --- title: Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server page-beta-text: This is a beta feature. Beta features are available for testing and feedback. They are not supported by Redpanda and should not be used in production environments. latest-operator-version: v26.1.4 latest-console-tag: v3.7.3 latest-connect-version: 4.93.0 latest-redpanda-tag: v26.1.9 docname: mcp/overview page-component-name: cloud-data-platform page-version: master page-component-version: master page-component-title: Cloud page-relative-src-path: mcp/overview.adoc page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/cloud-docs/edit/main/modules/ai-agents/pages/mcp/overview.adoc # Beta release status page-beta: "true" description: Let AI agents securely operate your Redpanda Cloud clusters, topics, and users through natural language commands. page-topic-type: overview personas: evaluator, agent_developer, platform_admin learning-objective-1: Explain what the Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server does learning-objective-2: Identify what operations are available through MCP learning-objective-3: Identify security considerations for MCP authentication page-git-created-date: "2025-10-21" page-git-modified-date: "2026-04-28" release-status: beta - This is a beta feature. Beta features are available for testing and feedback. They are not supported by Redpanda and should not be used in production environments. --- The Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server lets AI agents securely access and operate your Redpanda Cloud account and clusters through natural language commands. After reading this page, you will be able to: - Explain what the Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server does - Identify what operations are available through MCP - Identify security considerations for MCP authentication ![A terminal window showing Claude Code invoking the Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server to list topics in a cluster.](https://docs.redpanda.com/cloud-data-platform/shared/_images/cloud-mcp.gif) ## [](#what-you-can-do)What you can do MCP provides controlled access to: - [Control Plane](https://docs.redpanda.com/api/doc/cloud-controlplane/) APIs, such as creating a Redpanda Cloud cluster or listing clusters. - [Data Plane](https://docs.redpanda.com/api/doc/cloud-dataplane/) APIs, such as creating topics or listing topics. The MCP server runs on your computer and authenticates to Redpanda Cloud using a Redpanda Cloud token. You can do anything that’s available in the Control Plane or Data Plane APIs. Typical requests you can make to your assistant once connected include: - Create a Redpanda Cloud cluster named `dev-mcp`. - List topics in `dev-mcp`. - Create a topic `orders-raw` with 6 partitions. > 📝 **NOTE** > > The MCP server does **not** expose delete endpoints by default. You can enable delete endpoints when you create the server if you intentionally want to allow delete operations. ## [](#use-cases)Use cases - Test automation: Create short-lived clusters, create topics, and validate pipelines quickly. - Operational assistance: Inspect a cluster’s health or list topics during incidents. - Onboarding and demos: Let team members issue high-level requests without memorizing every CLI flag. ## [](#how-it-works)How it works 1. Authenticate to Redpanda Cloud and receive a token using the [`rpk cloud login` command](https://docs.redpanda.com/cloud-data-platform/reference/rpk/rpk-cloud/rpk-cloud-login/). 2. Configure your MCP client using the `rpk cloud mcp install` command. Your client then starts the server on-demand using `rpk cloud mcp stdio`, authenticating with the Redpanda Cloud token from `rpk cloud login`. 3. Prompt your assistant to perform Redpanda operations. The MCP server executes them in your Redpanda Cloud account using your Redpanda Cloud token. ### [](#components)Components The Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server requires these components: - AI client (Claude, Claude Code, or any other MCP client) that connects to the MCP server. - Redpanda CLI (`rpk`) for obtaining a token and starting the MCP server. - Redpanda Cloud account that the MCP server can connect to and issue API requests. ## [](#security-considerations)Security considerations MCP servers authenticate to Redpanda Cloud using your personal or service account credentials. However, there is **no auditing or access control** that distinguishes between actions performed by MCP servers versus direct API calls: - All API actions appear in Redpanda Cloud’s internal logs as coming from the authenticated user account, not the specific MCP server. - You cannot audit which MCP server performed which operations, as Redpanda Cloud logs are not accessible to users. - You cannot restrict specific MCP servers to only certain API endpoints or resources. ## [](#next-steps)Next steps - [Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server Quickstart](https://docs.redpanda.com/cloud-data-platform/ai-agents/mcp/quickstart/) - [Configure the Redpanda Cloud Management MCP Server](https://docs.redpanda.com/cloud-data-platform/ai-agents/mcp/configuration/) > 💡 **TIP** > > The Redpanda documentation site has a read-only MCP server that provides access to Redpanda docs and examples. This server has no access to your Redpanda Cloud account or clusters. See [How to Use These Docs](https://docs.redpanda.com/data-platform/how-to-use-these-docs/).