flyer-crawler.projectium.com/plans/podman-mcp-test-results.md

Podman MCP Server Test Results

Date: 2026-01-08 Status: Configuration Complete ✅

Configuration Summary

MCP Configuration File

Location: c:/Users/games3/AppData/Roaming/Code/User/mcp.json

"podman": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "docker-mcp"],
    "env": {
        "DOCKER_HOST": "ssh://root@127.0.0.1:2972/run/podman/podman.sock"
    }
}

Key Configuration Details

• Package: docker-mcp (community MCP server with SSH support)
• Connection Method: SSH to Podman machine
• SSH Endpoint: root@127.0.0.1:2972
• Socket Path: /run/podman/podman.sock (inside WSL)

Podman System Status

Podman Machine

NAME                    VM TYPE     CREATED      CPUS        MEMORY      DISK SIZE
podman-machine-default  wsl         4 weeks ago  4           2GiB        100GiB

Connection Information

Name:     podman-machine-default-root
URI:      ssh://root@127.0.0.1:2972/run/podman/podman.sock
Default:  true

Container Status

Podman is operational with 3 containers:

• flyer-dev (Ubuntu) - Exited
• flyer-crawler-redis (Redis) - Exited
• flyer-crawler-postgres (PostGIS) - Exited

Test Results

Command Line Tests

✅ Podman CLI: Working - podman ps returns successfully ✅ Container Management: Working - Can list and manage containers ✅ Socket Connection: Working - SSH connection to Podman machine functional

MCP Server Integration Tests

✅ Configuration File: Updated and valid JSON ✅ VSCode Restart: Completed to load new MCP configuration ✅ Package Selection: Using docker-mcp (supports SSH connections) ✅ Environment Variables: DOCKER_HOST set correctly for Podman

How to Verify MCP Server is Working

The Podman MCP server should now be available through Claude Code. To verify:

1. In Claude Code conversation: Ask Claude to list containers or perform container operations
2. Check VSCode logs: Look for MCP server connection logs
3. Test with MCP Inspector (optional):

   $env:DOCKER_HOST="ssh://root@127.0.0.1:2972/run/podman/podman.sock"
   npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector docker-mcp
   

Expected MCP Tools Available

Once the MCP server is fully loaded, the following tools should be available:

• Container Operations: list, start, stop, restart, remove containers
• Container Logs: view container logs
• Container Stats: monitor container resource usage
• Image Management: list, pull, remove images
• Container Execution: execute commands inside containers

Troubleshooting

If MCP Server Doesn't Connect

1. Verify Podman is running:

   podman ps
   

2. Check SSH connection:

   podman system connection list
   

3. Test docker-mcp package manually:

   $env:DOCKER_HOST="ssh://root@127.0.0.1:2972/run/podman/podman.sock"
   npx -y docker-mcp
   

4. Check VSCode Extension Host logs:

   • Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
   • Search for "Developer: Show Logs"
   • Select "Extension Host"

Common Issues

• Port 2972 not accessible: Restart Podman machine with podman machine restart
• SSH key issues: Verify SSH keys are set up correctly for Podman machine
• Package not found: Ensure npm can access registry (check internet connection)

Next Steps

1. Test the Podman MCP server by requesting container operations through Claude Code
2. If the MCP server isn't responding, check the Extension Host logs in VSCode
3. Consider testing with alternative packages if docker-mcp has issues:
   • docker-mcp-server (alternative community package)
   • docker-mcp-secure (security-focused alternative)

Additional Notes

• The docker-mcp package is a community-maintained MCP server
• It supports both local Docker sockets and remote SSH connections
• The package uses the dockerode library under the hood, which works with both Docker and Podman
• Podman's API is Docker-compatible, so Docker MCP servers work with Podman

References

• docker-mcp package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/docker-mcp
• Podman Machine Documentation: https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-machine.1.html
• Model Context Protocol: https://modelcontextprotocol.io