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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

All supported MCP clients use the same JSON configuration block to describe the colab-mcp server, but the file path and the mechanism for loading that file differ between clients. The sections below walk through the exact steps for each supported client.
Gemini CLI reads MCP server definitions from ~/.gemini/settings.json for user-wide configuration, or from a project-level mcp.json file in the current working directory.Add the following block to whichever file you prefer:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "colab-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["git+https://github.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp"],
      "timeout": 30000
    }
  }
}
Googlers: If your environment points to a non-standard default PyPI index, uvx may fail to resolve the package. Add "--index" and "https://pypi.org/simple" to the args array to force resolution against the public index:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "colab-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "git+https://github.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp",
        "--index",
        "https://pypi.org/simple"
      ],
      "timeout": 30000
    }
  }
}
The timeout: 30000 value (30 seconds) is intentional and important. When an MCP client first starts colab-mcp, the server process must launch, open a local WebSocket port, and wait for you to open the Colab notebook in your browser and establish the browser-side connection. This handshake can take several seconds, and a shorter timeout may cause the client to give up before the connection is fully established.

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Local development config

If you have cloned the colab-mcp repository locally and want to run directly from source (for example, to test a change), use uv run instead of uvx: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "colab-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "colab-mcp"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/github/colab-mcp",
      "timeout": 30000
    }
  }
}
Replace /path/to/github/colab-mcp with the absolute path to your local clone. The cwd field tells the client where to invoke uv run so it picks up the project’s pyproject.toml and virtual environment.

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