MCP and deterministic skills

Nines exposes a stdio MCP adapter, an opt-in remote OAuth HTTP transport, and a deterministic CLI.

• Both use the same tenant-scoped HTTP contracts as the portal.
• The CLI can also validate definitions and generate rules offline without a server, identity provider or model.

Connect a read-only MCP client

Configure your MCP-capable client to launch the released nines-mcp executable. Supply credentials through its private process environment or your client's secret manager.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nines": {
      "command": "nines-mcp",
      "args": ["-server", "https://nines.example.com", "-tenant", "production"]
    }
  }
}

• The adapter reads NINES_API_KEY, with API_TOKEN as a compatibility fallback, matching CLI precedence.
  • Its server and tenant are fixed at startup; a prompt cannot supply an arbitrary provider endpoint or Mimir organization.
  • Use the server's agent role or a narrower service account for automated clients.

Mutation boundaries

• Read-only tools are the default. -allow-writes enables the documented mutation surface; it does not grant the workflow model approval authority.
  • Rule deployment additionally requires -allow-rule-deployment and the API owner role.
  • Operator withdrawal is a further explicit opt-in through -allow-rule-withdrawal.
• A client flag cannot bypass server-side roles, tenant boundaries, expected revisions or reviewed digests. get_slo_integration reads automatic-deployment evidence; it does not expose a new pause/resume mutation tool.
• Remote HTTP/OAuth is available as an opt-in experimental resource-server profile. See configuration, scopes, client conformance and limits. This page describes the default stdio adapter.

Use the CLI as a skill

For a deterministic authoring workflow:

nines validate --offline -f examples/request-success.slo.yaml
nines rules generate --offline -f examples/request-success.slo.yaml --tenant production
nines telemetry verify -f examples/request-success.slo.yaml --context production --agent
nines plan -f examples/request-success.slo.yaml --context production --agent

• The first two commands require no server.
  • Connected verification and planning use the selected tenant context. --agent selects structured output; it does not create an identity or elevate permissions.
  • Provide NINES_API_KEY through the automation environment and retain the explicit review boundary before apply.
• See CLI reference, intents, identity setup and current experimental boundaries.

Measurement quality and budget decisions

• Use slo_quality to inspect saved freshness, count, coverage and source-lineage checks.
  • Set cohorts: true only for an explicit bounded provider read. slo_budget_decision reads the current configured response and its evidence; it changes no policy or deployment.
  • Both tools are tenant-bound and accept expectedRevision. slo_context includes the same quality and budget decision.
  • Neither an observed percentage nor a frozen proposal-time decision is current release permission.
• The read-only verify_intent_changes tool also returns the last saved post-change observation, including rule activation/output, quality, measured SLI and review/rollback guidance. It makes no provider call. Approval, corrective-work exceptions and rollback remain human-controlled. See agent change safety.

Resume an intent workflow

• Call read-only get_intent_workflow_status with the saved conversation id for the next operation, exact version/digests, human-review gate and recorded runtime outcome.
• Use get_intent_review_artifact to retrieve an audit-verified review snapshot, or get_intent_conversation for the full saved conversation. Artifacts can contain sensitive definitions and reviewer notes. A suggested action is not authorization, and MCP does not grant approval or application capabilities.
• See headless workflows for CLI/API human review and the complete browser-free lifecycle.

Native SLO reads

• native_slo_results: exact current native revision, explicit id, from and to; independent vendor results, not Nines measurement or alert-delivery proof.
• list_native_slos: pass the configured connection name as id; bounded Datadog/New Relic catalog, without account/route overrides.
• draft_native_slo_import: source, nativeID, new Nines name, project and service; returns experimental YAML and limitations. Does not save, adopt or modify vendor resources. Review through plan_slo before separately authorized application.

All three tools are read-only and available without enabling write tools. See supported profiles and bounds.