Manage Remote MCP Servers

This guide shows you how to manage the lifecycle of MCP servers, including editing configurations, pausing servers to save costs, and permanent deletion.

Prerequisites

You must have an existing MCP server. If you do not have one, see Remote MCP Server Quickstart.

Edit an MCP server

You can update the configuration, resources, or metadata of an MCP server at any time.

  • Cloud UI

  • Data Plane API

  1. In the Redpanda Cloud Console, navigate to Remote MCP.

  2. Find the MCP server you want to edit and click its name.

  3. Click Edit configuration.

  4. Make your changes.

  5. Click Save to apply changes.

Editing a running MCP server may cause a brief interruption. Review changes before deploying to production.

  1. Authenticate and get the base URL for the Data Plane API.

  2. Make a request to GET /v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/{mcp_server_id} to retrieve the current configuration.

  3. Make a request to PATCH /v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/{mcp_server_id} to update the configuration:

    curl -X PATCH "https://<dataplane-api-url>/v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/<mcp-server-id>?update_mask=display_name,description" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mcp_server": {
      "display_name": "updated-name",
      "description": "Updated description"
    }
  }'

Stop an MCP server

Stopping a server pauses all tool execution and releases compute resources, but preserves configuration and state. This is useful for temporarily disabling a server to save costs while retaining the ability to restart it later.

  • Cloud UI

  • Data Plane API

  1. In the Redpanda Cloud Console, navigate to Remote MCP.

  2. Find the server you want to stop.

  3. Click the three dots and select Stop.

  4. Confirm the action.

  1. Authenticate and get the base URL for the Data Plane API.

  2. Make a request to POST /v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/{mcp_server_id}:stop:

    curl -X POST "https://<dataplane-api-url>/v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/<mcp-server-id>:stop" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

While stopped, the server does not respond to MCP requests. Start it again to restore service.

Start a stopped MCP server

Resume a stopped server to restore its functionality.

  • Cloud UI

  • Data Plane API

  1. In the Redpanda Cloud Console, navigate to Remote MCP.

  2. Find the stopped server.

  3. Click the three dots and select Start.

  4. Wait for the status to show Running before reconnecting clients.

  1. Authenticate and get the base URL for the Data Plane API.

  2. Make a request to POST /v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/{mcp_server_id}:start:

    curl -X POST "https://<dataplane-api-url>/v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/<mcp-server-id>:start" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

  3. Wait for the status to show Running before reconnecting clients.

Delete an MCP server

Deleting a server is permanent and cannot be undone. All configuration, tools, and associated resources are removed.

  • Cloud UI

  • Data Plane API

  1. In the Redpanda Cloud Console, navigate to Remote MCP.

  2. Find the server you want to delete.

  3. Click the three dots and select Delete.

  4. Confirm the deletion when prompted.

  1. Authenticate and get the base URL for the Data Plane API.

  2. Make a request to DELETE /v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/{mcp_server_id}:

    curl -X DELETE "https://<dataplane-api-url>/v1/redpanda-connect/mcp-servers/<mcp-server-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Deletion is immediate and permanent. Make sure you have backed up any important configuration before deleting an MCP server.

Next steps