Docker deployment#

PyMechanical-MCP supports containerized deployment with HTTP transport. The repository provides:

  • docker/Dockerfile

  • docker/docker-compose.yml

  • docker/env.example

Quick start with Docker Compose#

  1. Configure environment values:

    cd docker
cp env.example .env

  2. Update .env values for your Mechanical target and license server.

  3. Start services:

    docker compose up -d --build

    PyMechanical-MCP is available at http://localhost:8080 by default.

  4. Validate: view container logs to confirm the pymechanical-mcp service is ready:

    docker compose logs -f pymechanical-mcp

Important environment variables#

Variable

Default

Description

PYMECHANICAL_IP

mechanical

Mechanical hostname or IP address for the gRPC connection.

PYMECHANICAL_PORT

10000

Mechanical gRPC port.

HTTP_HOST

0.0.0.0

MCP HTTP bind host.

HTTP_PORT

8080

MCP HTTP port.

CONNECT_ON_STARTUP

false

Whether PyMechanical-MCP is to connect to Mechanical on startup.

PYMECHANICAL_TRANSPORT_MODE

auto

gRPC mode: auto, insecure, mtls, or wnua.

ANSYS_GRPC_CERTIFICATES

(unset)

Path containing ca.crt, client.crt, and client.key for mTLS.

Local Mechanical connectivity notes#

  • On Windows, macOS, or Docker Desktop, use host.docker.internal for a host Mechanical instance.

  • On Linux, use host networking or explicit host IP routing.

Visual Studio Code MCP client example (HTTP)#

{
  "servers": {
    "pymechanical-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"
    }
  }
}

Limitations#

  • Containerizing PyMechanical-MCP does not containerize Ansys Mechanical licensing requirements.

  • Ensure the Mechanical gRPC endpoint and license server are reachable from the container network.