Nacos
an easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform for building AI cloud native applications.
What is Nacos?
Nacos is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform for building ai cloud native applications.
an easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform for building AI cloud native applications.
This server falls under the Cloud Services category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- an easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx nacosConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Nacos
Nacos (Dynamic Naming and Configuration Service) is Alibaba's open-source platform for dynamic service discovery, distributed configuration management, and service health monitoring in cloud-native and microservices architectures. It supports Kubernetes, Istio, Dubbo, and Spring Cloud ecosystems. Through its MCP registry integration, AI agents and MCP clients can discover available MCP servers registered in Nacos and dynamically route tool calls to the appropriate service — making Nacos an infrastructure-level component for managing MCP server fleets at scale.
Prerequisites
- Java 8 or later (Java 17+ recommended for recent Nacos versions)
- At least 512 MB of free RAM for standalone mode; 2+ GB for cluster mode
- An MCP-compatible client to consume services registered in Nacos
- curl or wget for downloading the release package
Download the latest Nacos release
Download the stable release archive from the Nacos GitHub releases page.
# Download (replace X.Y.Z with the latest version, e.g. 2.4.3)
wget https://github.com/alibaba/nacos/releases/download/X.Y.Z/nacos-server-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
tar -xzf nacos-server-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
cd nacosStart Nacos in standalone mode
For development and testing, run Nacos as a single-node standalone server. For production, configure a cluster.
# Linux/macOS
sh bin/startup.sh -m standalone
# Windows
bin\startup.cmd -m standaloneVerify Nacos is running
Open the Nacos console in your browser to confirm the server started successfully.
# Default credentials: nacos / nacos
open http://localhost:8848/nacosRegister an MCP server as a Nacos service
Use the Nacos HTTP API or a Nacos client SDK to register your MCP server as a discoverable service in the Nacos registry.
# Register a service via Nacos REST API
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance' \
-d 'serviceName=my-mcp-server&ip=127.0.0.1&port=3000'Discover MCP servers via the Nacos API
Query Nacos to get the current list of healthy MCP server instances available for routing.
curl 'http://localhost:8848/nacos/v1/ns/instance/list?serviceName=my-mcp-server'Nacos Examples
Client configuration
MCP client configuration entry for Nacos used as an MCP registry or management server.
{
"mcpServers": {
"nacos": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["nacos"],
"env": {
"NACOS_SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:8848/nacos",
"NACOS_USERNAME": "nacos",
"NACOS_PASSWORD": "nacos"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Prompts for using an AI assistant connected to a Nacos-backed MCP registry to manage and discover services.
- "List all healthy services currently registered in Nacos and their instance counts"
- "Show me the configuration value for the key 'database.url' in the DEFAULT_GROUP namespace"
- "Register a new service called 'translation-mcp-server' at host 192.168.1.10 on port 3000"
- "Check the health status of the 'payment-service' and alert me if any instances are down"
- "Update the configuration key 'feature.flag.new_ui' to 'true' and push it to all subscribers"Troubleshooting Nacos
Nacos fails to start with 'port 8848 already in use' error
Another process is occupying port 8848. Find and stop it with 'lsof -i :8848' on macOS/Linux or 'netstat -ano | findstr 8848' on Windows, then kill the conflicting process. Alternatively, change Nacos's port by editing conf/application.properties and setting server.port=8849.
Cannot log into the Nacos console after startup
Default credentials are nacos/nacos. If you changed them or are connecting to a cluster, update your login accordingly. If the console shows a database error, ensure the embedded Derby DB has write permissions to the Nacos data directory, or configure an external MySQL instance in conf/application.properties.
Service instances registered but not discoverable from MCP client
Confirm the Nacos server URL is reachable from the machine running the MCP client. Check that the service was registered with the correct namespace and group; queries must use the same namespace/group to find instances. Use the Nacos console to visually verify the registration.
Frequently Asked Questions about Nacos
What is Nacos?
Nacos is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform for building ai cloud native applications. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Nacos?
Follow the installation instructions on the Nacos GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Nacos?
Nacos works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Nacos free to use?
Yes, Nacos is open source and available under the Apache-2.0 license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up Nacos in Your Editor
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Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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