Setting Up the DigitalOcean MCP Server in Claude Code
A short DigitalOcean tutorial on connecting Claude Code to your DigitalOcean account through their MCP server. Once it is set up, you can manage apps in plain English from the terminal instead of clicking around the control panel.
What you need
- A DigitalOcean account.
- A personal access token with the right scopes.
- Claude Code installed.
- Node.js, since the server runs through npx.
The setup
It comes down to one command that registers the server with Claude Code and passes in your token, something like claude mcp add digitalocean --env DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN=your_token -- npx -y @digitalocean/mcp. Then claude mcp list confirms it is connected. Check the current docs for the exact flags, since they have changed a bit since the tutorial went up in mid 2025.
What you can do with it
The tutorial focuses on App Platform: list your apps, deploy one from a GitHub repo, check logs and settings, and restart or delete apps. The MCP server itself also covers Droplets, databases and more if you enable those services. Keep the token out of git.
Why I saved it: a quick way to let Claude Code handle the boring parts of deploying to DigitalOcean.