This page provides an overview of the Dynatrace Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and how you can use it to maximize your efficiency and quickly complete a variety of tasks, such as generating, executing or explaining a DQL query, with the help of an MCP client (external agent).
Currently, the MCP server supports the following use cases:
The Dynatrace MCP server is a server that hosts tools that can be used to fulfill specific use cases. An external agent, such as GitHub CoPilot VS Code integration or Claude desktop, can then make use of the MCP server and its tools to execute a series of calls when fulfilling a user request.
To learn more about MCP servers, see What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?.
Dynatrace provides a dynatrace-mcp server that hosts a collection of tools designed for external connections. It currently hosts the following tools:
You can connect to an MCP server via a URL by using the following address:
https://{environment-name}.apps.dynatrace.com/platform-reserved/mcp-gateway/v0.1/servers/dynatrace-mcp/mcp
You can set up connections by using VS Code and its chat integration, or by using any other tool of your choice.
Every request to the MCP server needs a bearer token in the authorization header. You can authenticate in one of the following ways:
Authorization Code grant type, configure it with the required scopes, and provide only the server URL in your MCP client configuration. An MCP client like VS Code handles the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code flow and obtains the bearer token for you. For more information, see Authorization code flow.
While generating a token from an OAuth client means that you have to manually refresh tokens each time they expire, creating and using an OAuth client with a client secret allows you to automate token refreshing.The MCP server doesn't support CIMD, public OAuth clients, or dynamic client registration yet. To authenticate via an OAuth client, you must use a confidential OAuth client and provide both its client ID and client secret to your MCP client. The client secret is required so that your MCP client can refresh the access token automatically—without it, the token expires and the connection breaks. For more information, see Authorization code flow.
Regardless of the authentication method, the bearer token works only within the scope of your user permissions. To use the Dynatrace MCP server, you need to have all of the necessary permissions. For more information, see Platform tokens or OAuth clients, depending on the type of authentication you use.
In addition to the tool permissions mentioned in Server and server tools, both the user and the token must have the following permissions to access and invoke server tools:
mcp-gateway:servers:invokemcp-gateway:servers:readIf you're using an OAuth client to authenticate, the effective token permissions consist of the intersection of the permissions configured on the OAuth client and the permissions of the user who created the client. To ensure access to all MCP tools, configure the OAuth client with the following permissions:
ai:operator:executemcp-gateway:servers:invokemcp-gateway:servers:readdavis-copilot:conversations:executedavis-copilot:nl2dql:executedavis-copilot:document-search:executedavis-copilot:dql2nl:executedavis:analyzers:readdavis:analyzers:executedocument:documents:readstorage:bizevents:readstorage:buckets:readstorage:system:readstorage:spans:readstorage:entities:readstorage:user.events:readstorage:user.sessions:readstorage:user.replays:readstorage:smartscape:readstorage:events:readstorage:metrics:readstorage:logs:readstorage:files:readstorage:security.events:readFor more information, see OAuth clients.
You can connect the Dynatrace MCP server to VS Code by using the MCP client support available through GitHub Copilot Chat or any MCP‑enabled extension. Additionally, you need to set up authentication, configure VS Code, and validate the setup.
To set up a proper configuration and connect the Dynatrace MCP server to the VS Code, follow the steps below:
To configure VS Code for using Dynatrace MCP server:
Open your workspace in VS Code.
In the .vscode folder, create or open mcp.json file in your project. The resulting path should look like this: .vscode/mcp.json.
Add an MCP server configuration. The configuration depends on how you want to authenticate.
When you authenticate with a bearer token, VS Code doesn't automatically refresh it. After the token expires, you need to generate a new one and update your configuration accordingly. When you authenticate via an OAuth client and provide both the client ID and client secret, VS Code refreshes the access token automatically.
Add a configuration similar to the one below, providing the bearer token in the authorization header:
{"servers": {"dynatrace-mcp": {"url": "https://{environment-name}.apps.dynatrace.com/platform-reserved/mcp-gateway/v0.1/servers/dynatrace-mcp/mcp","headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN_HERE"}}}}
Replace:
{environment-name} with your Dynatrace environment identifier.YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN_HERE with the token you generated, either via Platform token or an OAuth client.Save your file changes.
Select Start above the server name. If you configured an OAuth client, enter your client ID and client secret when VS Code prompts you.
For a more detailed guide on how to set up a VS Code configuration, see the official Visual Studio Code guide.
To confirm the connection works:
ctrl+# to open the list of contexts.dynatrace-mcp (All tools).Show me last 10 logs.
Ensure that both the user and the token have the storage:logs:read permission. Otherwise, you won't be able to see any logs.
If your configuration is correct, you will receive a response from the Dynatrace MCP server.
Dynatrace offers an MCP plugin for Claude Code that allows you to use Dynatrace AI skills and remote MCP server configuration with AI coding agents of your choice. Since the plugin is publicly available, you can review the MCP configuration (mcp.json) in our public Dynatrace for AI repository.
The Dynatrace MCP plugin is also available for Cursor.
To use the Dynatrace remote MCP plugin in Claude Code, you need to have the following:
Claude Code installed on your device. If you don't have Claude Code, you can follow the official installation guide.
Permissions to access the remote MCP server and invoke skills through it:
mcp-gateway:servers:invokemcp-gateway:servers:readTo check if you have the necessary permissions, open Account Management or contact your administrator, who can help if you lack any permissions.
To install the Dynatrace MCP plugin
Open a terminal on your machine.
Install the MCP plugin by entering the following command:
claude plugin install dynatrace@claude-plugins-official
Since Dynatrace MCP plugin is published on the official Anthropic marketplace, it's automatically added to the list of available plugins by Claude Code during the first launch.
Once you have installed the plugin, you need to configure the connection to your Dynatrace environment by setting the required environment variables before starting the Claude Code session.
To configure the connection:
Set the environment you want Claude Code to connect to by entering the following command:
export DT_ENVIRONMENT=https://<your-environment-id>.apps.dynatrace.com
Provide your platform token by entering the following command:
export DT_PLATFORM_TOKEN=dt0s16.<your-token>
If you don't have a platform token, you can follow these steps to generate it:
For more information, see Dynatrace API - Tokens and authentication.
Start a new Claude Code session by typing claude. The MCP plugin is active by default once it's installed.
Optional After starting the session, type /plugin list to check if the Dynatrace MCP plugin has loaded correctly.