Rootly MCP

Rootly + AI - for Claude, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and any agent that speaks MCP

Unofficial. Community-built Claude Code Skill and MCP server for the Rootly API. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Rootly, Inc..

[Rootly demo - animated preview]

_{▶ Watch the 30-second demo - demo data is simulated; every command shown exists in the real CLI.}

Every Rootly incident, alert, and on-call object as a typed command - plus a local SQLite mirror that answers related-incident, MTTR, coverage-gap, and on-call questions offline and instantly. Works with the AI you already use - ChatGPT (desktop app), Claude Desktop, Codex, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and GitHub Copilot - plus Gemini CLI. Free, open source, runs on your laptop. Built for MSP owners. No code required.

Works with your agent

Security note (until this connector is reprinted). Do not run HTTP mode (--transport http), not even on localhost. This build has no password, listens on every network interface, and predates the browser-rebinding guard, so a web page you open can reach it. The MCP tools can also make changes with your credentials. Use the default stdio transport. If you set up a tunnel for a remote agent, shut it down. A fix is on the way.

The six agents MSP owners actually use (self-serve, works today):

The ChatGPT desktop app runs rootly-mcp locally and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI). ChatGPT on the web needs a remote (HTTP) server, and this connector's HTTP mode is paused until it is reprinted (see the security note in mcp-install.md), so msp-skills does not support it yet. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list.

Also for the Microsoft and Google stacks

Big install base, but an honest heads-up: Gemini CLI runs the local binary you just installed, while Microsoft 365 Copilot and the Gemini app need a remote server, which msp-skills does not support yet.

Skill-native agents (also covered): Hermes and OpenClaw read this skill's SKILL.md directly and speak MCP - see their install sections below. Also works with Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue.dev, and Zed via MCP. Full per-tool wire-up: docs/which-agent.md.

Run more than one agent? Install across all 51+ supported agents in one command: npx skills add Servosity/msp-skills@latest (requires Node.js, then run the per-skill installer for the CLI/MCP binaries). See docs/which-agent.md.

Install in 60 seconds

Fastest for Claude Desktop - one-click .mcpb

Claude Desktop bundle: the .mcpb launches on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows x64 and Linux x64. Every tool shells out to the companion rootly-cli. Releases cut from 2026-09-18 on ship that CLI inside the bundle; older bundles contain only the MCP server, so if yours lacks the companion, run the Path A or Path B installer below first (or set ROOTLY_CLI_PATH to an existing binary). Details: #331.

Download Rootly MCP (.mcpb) - then open Claude Desktop > Settings > Extensions and select the file. One click, no JSON, no shell. (Browse every Rootly release on the releases page.)

Prefer the Claude Code plugin? Add the marketplace once, then install - works immediately, no directory listing required:

/plugin marketplace add Servosity/msp-skills/plugin install rootly@msp-skills

Path A - paste one prompt into your AI agent (recommended)

Copy this into Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Claude Cowork:

Install the Rootly Skill and MCP server from Servosity/msp-skills in this agent workspace. If this workspace uses a POSIX shell (macOS, Linux, WSL, or Bash), run bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.sh). If it uses Windows PowerShell, run iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.ps1 | iex. Then authenticate per the README and run rootly-cli --help to explore.

The same prompt works in any agent that can run shell.

Path B - run the installer yourself

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.sh)

The installer drops both rootly-cli (the CLI) and rootly-mcp (the MCP server) into your user bin path. Claude Code, Codex, and Cowork discover the Skill via SKILL.md in this directory.

Verify:

rootly-cli --version

Upgrade to the latest version

The installer always fetches the current release - re-run it to upgrade:

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.sh)

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/rootly/install.ps1 | iex

Claude Desktop .mcpb users: download the latest .mcpb (top of this section) and re-select it in Settings > Extensions. Claude Code plugin users: /plugin update rootly@msp-skills.

Add to Claude Desktop, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, or another MCP client

After the installer runs, see mcp-install.md and docs/which-agent.md for the per-agent wire-up - one section per agent, including the GitHub Copilot servers key and the ChatGPT desktop app. Claude Desktop's Settings > Extensions panel is the simplest path; the MCP config block (for users who prefer editing JSON) is documented in mcp-install.md.

Install for Hermes

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/rootly --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/rootly --force

Hermes speaks MCP natively, so it can also use the rootly-mcp server directly - same install path, same env vars.

Install for OpenClaw

Tell your OpenClaw agent (copy this):

Install the rootly skill from https://github.com/servosity/msp-skills/tree/main/skills/rootly. The skill defines how its required CLI (rootly-cli) can be installed via the openclaw: frontmatter block.

OpenClaw isn't generally available yet; the frontmatter wiring is pre-shipped and will activate the moment OpenClaw launches.

Authenticate

Set the credentials the CLI needs (from your Rootly portal):

ROOTLY_API_KEY=<value> ROOTLY_API_TOKEN=<value> rootly-cli doctor

doctor confirms the credentials work before you run anything that touches data. It exits 0 even when the credential is rejected, so scripts should add --fail-on error.

What this skill does

Full command reference: guide.md. For the AI-agent operating contract (--agent, --dry-run, when to confirm before mutating), see AGENTS.md.

What makes this different

Most Rootly integrations and MCP servers proxy each question into a live API call. That's fine for one record. It dies at scale, when you're asking "what's our MTTR by service across the quarter?" or "which past incidents are most similar to this one?" - questions that otherwise mean a call per object or Rootly's own analytics surface.

This skill syncs Rootly into a local SQLite mirror with full-text search. Aggregate questions become one local SQL join: instant, offline, and the AI sees the answer, not the raw data. Compound commands like related, mttr, and coverage-gaps join across incidents, services, schedules, and on-call shifts - work a stateless API wrapper can't do.

The pain this closes

On-call is where good teams quietly bleed out. Recurring on-call burnout and alert-fatigue threads on r/sysadmin and r/sre - and the industry's annual Catchpoint SRE Report - tell the same story: responders field a flood of pages, only a handful matter, and the real incident hides in the noise. Then at the reliability review, the numbers leadership wants - MTTA, MTTR, who's carrying the on-call load - get hand-stitched from exports. And nobody notices the gap in next week's schedule until an incident finds it first.

For an MSP running incident response across many client services, that's three open loops at once: too much noise to triage, no cheap way to report on it, and no early warning when coverage lapses. This skill closes them from the terminal:

• rootly-cli oncall-now - who's on call right now across every schedule and service, escalation tier included.
• rootly-cli mttr --by service --since 90d - MTTA and MTTR per service, computed offline from synced incidents. Review numbers without the portal expedition.
• rootly-cli coverage-gaps --days 14 - future windows where a schedule has nobody on call, before a page is missed.
• rootly-cli related <incident-id> and rootly-cli fixed-last-time <service> - surface how this class of problem played out before and what actually resolved it.

See pain-point.md for the longer narrative.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with ChatGPT?

Yes, in the ChatGPT desktop app. It runs MCP servers locally (STDIO), the way rootly-mcp runs, and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI): add rootly-mcp under Settings > MCP servers as a STDIO server, or add it once to Codex's ~/.codex/config.toml. ChatGPT on the web is not supported by msp-skills yet: it needs a remote (HTTP) server, and this connector's HTTP mode is paused until it is reprinted; the security note in mcp-install.md explains why. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list.

Does this work with Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, or Gemini?

Yes - all of them speak MCP. Cross-tool install commands are in the matrix above and the deep-dive in docs/which-agent.md.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The recommended install is to paste one sentence into Claude Code or Codex - your agent reads SKILL.md and does the install. The fallback is a one-line installer per OS (bash or PowerShell). Neither path requires writing code. You'll enter your Rootly credentials once.

Is my Rootly data safe?

Your data stays on your machine. The CLI and MCP server are local binaries. The SQLite mirror sits in a directory under your user account. The AI agent only sees what the CLI returns - typically a query result, not raw bulk data. Credentials are read from your environment or your agent's config; never bundled into this repo or transmitted anywhere by MSP Skills.

Will this hit my Rootly API rate limits?

Rarely. Read questions run against the local SQLite mirror, not the API - you sync once, then analytics, search, and the on-call views are offline. Only sync and live writes call Rootly.

How is this different from Rootly's own AI and analytics?

Rootly's AI and analytics live in the web app. This skill puts the post-incident math - MTTA/MTTR, incident similarity, resolution mining, on-call coverage and escalation-gap checks - in your terminal and your AI agent, computed offline from data any API key can read. It complements the Rootly portal; it does not replace your account.

Do I need to be a Rootly customer?

Yes - you authenticate with your own Rootly API key against your own account. The skill is an unofficial, community-built connector; it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Rootly.

What does it cost?

Free. Apache-2.0 licensed. You pay only for whichever AI agent you use (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, etc.), and that's billed by your AI provider, not by us.

Safety model

The strongest control is the scope you grant the Rootly credentials - the CLI can only do what the credentials are permitted to do. Full details, including how to lock it down, are in governance.md.

Status

Beta. Validated against the Rootly API surface and being validated with MSPs running it live against their own production tenant in our weekly Build Sessions. RSVP at compoundingteams.com/build-sessions.

Standards. Conforms to the open Agent Skills spec (Anthropic, Dec 2025; 40+ agents). MCP-compatible - works with any MCP-capable agent including Hermes. OpenClaw-ready (frontmatter pre-wired, awaiting OpenClaw launch).

Maintained by Servosity. Apache-2.0 licensed. Built with CLI Printing Press. Last updated: 2026-06-06.