Apollo MCP Server User Guide

A typical workflow for developing with Apollo MCP Server:

1. Download (or build) an MCP Server binary.

2. Set up the graph that the MCP Server sits in front of.

3. Define the GraphQL operations to expose as MCP tools.

4. Configure and run your MCP Server.

5. Connect an MCP client and run the tools.

How to get Apollo MCP Server

Linux / MacOS installer

To install or upgrade to the latest release of Apollo MCP Server:

curl -sSL https://mcp.apollo.dev/download/nix/latest | sh

To install or upgrade to a specific version of Apollo MCP Server (recommended for CI environments to ensure predictable behavior):

1# Note the `v` prefixing the version number
2curl -sSL https://mcp.apollo.dev/download/nix/v0.3.0 | sh

If your machine doesn't have the curl command, you can get the latest version from the curl downloads page.

Deploying a container

Apollo MCP Server is available as a standalone docker container. Container images are downloadable using the image ghcr.io/apollographql/apollo-mcp-server.

By default, the container expects all schema and operation files to be present in the /data folder within the container and that clients will use SSE transport on container port 5000.

An example docker run command that runs the MCP Server for the space dev example:

docker run \
  -it --rm \
  --name apollo-mcp-server \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -v $PWD/graphql/TheSpaceDevs:/data \
  ghcr.io/apollographql/apollo-mcp-server:latest \
    --schema api.graphql \
    --operations operations/ \
    --endpoint https://thespacedevs-production.up.railway.app/

Debugging with MCP Inspector

MCP Inspector is a debugging tool for MCP servers.

Debug locally over stdio transport

You can inspect a local Apollo MCP Server by running it with MCP Inspector.

1. Run the MCP Server with Inspector:

1npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector \
2  target/debug/apollo-mcp-server \
3  --directory <absolute path to this git repo> \
4  --schema graphql/weather/api.graphql \
5  --operations graphql/weather/operations/forecast.graphql graphql/weather/operations/alerts.graphql graphql/weather/operations/all.graphql

Starting MCP inspector...
⚙️ Proxy server listening on port 6277
🔍 MCP Inspector is up and running at http://127.0.0.1:6274 🚀

1. In a browser, go to the URL returned by Inspector, then click Connect and List Tools. You should see the tools for the operations you provided.

Debug over the Streamable HTTP transport

When running the MCP Server over the Streamable HTTP transport, you can run MCP Inspector as follows.

1. Start the MCP Server in Streamable HTTP mode:

1target/debug/apollo-mcp-server \
2  --directory <absolute path to this git repo> \
3  --http-port 5000 \
4  --schema graphql/weather/api.graphql \
5  --operations graphql/weather/operations/forecast.graphql graphql/weather/operations/alerts.graphql graphql/weather/operations/all.graphql

1. Start the MCP Inspector:

1npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

1. In a browser, go to the URL returned by Inspector, then fill in the details:

   • Transport Type: Select Streamable HTTP

   • URL: Enter http://127.0.0.1:5000/mcp, where the port must match the --http-port option

2. Click Connect and List Tools. You should see the tools for the operations you provided.