Release MCP Server Usage Examples

The Release MCP Server supports a wide range of automation and orchestration scenarios. Here are some example use cases to help you get started (not exhaustive):

• Listing Releases: Retrieve and filter releases by status, owner, or date; view detailed release information.
• Analyzing Failures: Use AI to identify failed tasks or phases, get root cause analysis, and receive remediation suggestions.
• Optimizing Templates: Automatically review and optimize deployment templates with AI-driven recommendations for best practices and efficiency.
• Managing Variables: List, create, update, or delete variables at any scope (global, folder, release, template).

These usage patterns help automate repetitive tasks, provide actionable insights, and optimize release management with minimal manual effort.

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The following scenario and prompts are provided for illustrative purposes only. Results may vary depending on the LLM model you use.

Generate DORA Metrics (Claude Desktop)

Challenge: Gaining visibility into DORA metrics (such as deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery) across completed releases, in order to assess and improve software delivery performance.

Sample AI Prompt:

Connect to Release and retrieve the DORA metrics from a selection of recently completed releases on the server.

Illustrative Results:

Example Prompts

Below are example prompts you can use to interact with the Release MCP Server and automate common tasks:

Basic Operations

List all releases in the 'Production' folder
Show me all templates
What folders are available?
Find the folder 'Security Business/AppSec'
List releases in folder 'Applications/Folder123'
Get the release named 'My Release' from the Production folder
Find the template with ID 'Release123'
Show me the activity logs for the latest release
Get details about task 'Applications/Release1/Phase1/Task1'
What's in phase 'Build and Test' of my current release?

Advanced Search and Filtering

Find all failed releases from the last month
List workflow templates in the Applications folder
Show me releases that are currently failing
Find releases with the tag 'production' that are in progress
List releases created by me that need attention
Show all releases in the 'Critical' folder that failed

Release and Template Analysis

Give me a summary of the 'Q4 Production Release' including phases, tasks, and current status
Analyze the 'Payment Service Deploy' template and explain its workflow
Show me the task breakdown for the currently running release in Production folder
What are the gate tasks in my 'Security Compliance' template?
List all manual tasks that require approval in the active releases

Failure Analysis and Root Cause Detection

Why did the 'API Gateway Release v2.3' fail? Analyze the failure and provide root cause
Show me all failed tasks in the last deployment and their error messages
What's the pattern of failures in our Production releases over the last month?
Analyze the 'Database Migration' phase failure and suggest remediation steps

Template and Task Management

Create a new deployment template in the Production folder
Add a Jenkins build task to phase 'Build'
Update the Jenkins job name to 'deploy-prod'
Convert this manual task to a gate task
Delete the obsolete verification phase

Configuration Management

Search for all Jenkins server configurations
Find the JIRA server configuration named 'Production JIRA'
Get details of the Git repository configuration
Create a new Jenkins server configuration for CI/CD

Variable Management

The variable tools support all variable contexts (release, template, folder, and global):

Global Variables (system-wide)

List all global variables
Create a global password variable for Jenkins API token using external Vault provider
Update the global API endpoint variable

Folder Variables (inherited by child releases/templates)

List all variables in the 'Production' folder
Create a folder variable for the deployment environment
Get the database connection string variable from the folder

Release/Template Variables (scoped to specific entity)

List all variables in the current release
Create a new string variable for the release version
Update the boolean flag variable in the template
Delete the obsolete configuration variable

Advanced Template Generation

Creating Complex Templates with AI Assistance

The MCP server enables AI agents to create release templates by understanding your requirements and implementing best practices automatically.

Example 1: End-to-End DevOps Pipeline

Create a release template inside the test folder that automates the following workflow:

- Retrieve the JIRA ticket that the developer is currently working on
- Once the developer pushes code to GitHub and opens a pull request (PR), the PR should automatically trigger a build in Jenkins
- If the PR build is successful and all checks pass, create a gate task for the development team with all necessary validations
- After developer approval, transition the JIRA ticket to "Code Review" state
- Upon code review approval, move the ticket to "Testing"
- Deploy to QE environment using XL Deploy when in testing state
- Add a "Definition of Done" gate task for the QE team
- Deploy to production after all approvals
- Mark the JIRA ticket as "Done"
- Integrate quality gates (SonarQube, Checkmarx) at appropriate stages
- Notify Product, Marketing, and Documentation teams after production deployment
- Use proper task types for all tasks and delete empty phases

Template name: "Jira driven Dev to Prod development"

Example 2: Microservices Deployment with Canary Release

Create a microservices deployment template with canary release pattern:

- Health check for all dependent services
- Database migration with rollback capability
- Deploy canary instance (5% traffic)
- Monitor metrics for 15 minutes (error rate, latency, CPU)
- Automated rollback if metrics exceed thresholds
- Progressive traffic shifting: 5% → 25% → 50% → 100%
- Gate approval between each traffic shift
- Feature flag validation
- Smoke tests after each stage
- Full rollback plan with single-click execution
- Use proper task types for all tasks and delete empty phases

Template Review and Optimization

Review my 'Deployment pattern: Canary Release' template and suggest improvements
Analyze the 'Blue-Green Deployment' template for missing security checks
Compare my template with industry best practices for zero-downtime deployments
Add automated rollback capabilities to my existing deployment template