MCP Server

Thunder Compute provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets AI coding agents manage GPU instances on your behalf. Create, monitor, modify, and tear down instances without leaving your agent workflow.

Prerequisites

A Thunder Compute account
An AI agent that supports remote MCP servers (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.)

No local installation or API tokens required — authentication is handled via OAuth in your browser.

Setup

Run this in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http thunder-compute https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp

Then start Claude Code and run /mcp to authenticate. A browser window will open for you to log in and authorize access.

Manual setup

Alternatively, add to ~/.claude.json (global) or .claude.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thunder-compute": {
      "url": "https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Run this in your terminal:

codex mcp add thunder-compute --url https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp

Codex will prompt you to authenticate via OAuth when you first use a Thunder Compute tool.

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global access):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thunder-compute": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thunder-compute": {
      "serverUrl": "https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you use an MCP client that supports Smithery, you can install directly:

npx @smithery/cli install @thunder-compute/thunder-compute

Or browse the Thunder Compute listing on Smithery and click Install for your client.

For custom integrations, the MCP server uses Streamable HTTP transport at a single endpoint. Authentication is via OAuth 2.0 with standard MCP discovery.Endpoint: https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp

curl -X POST https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <access-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "initialize",
    "params": {
      "protocolVersion": "2025-03-26",
      "capabilities": {},
      "clientInfo": { "name": "my-agent", "version": "1.0.0" }
    },
    "id": 1
  }'

Authentication

No API tokens or environment variables needed. When you first connect, a browser window opens for you to log in with your Thunder Compute account and authorize access. Tokens are refreshed automatically — you only authenticate once per session.

Available Tools

Instance Management

Tool	Description
`list_instances`	List all GPU instances with status, IP, and configuration
`create_instance`	Create a new GPU instance (specify GPU type, template, mode, etc.)
`delete_instance`	Delete an instance (irreversible)
`modify_instance`	Change instance config (GPU type, vCPUs, disk, mode)
`run_command`	Execute a shell command on a running instance and return stdout, stderr, and exit code

Information

Tool	Description
`get_specs`	Get available GPU specs (VRAM, vCPU options, storage ranges)
`get_availability`	Get current GPU availability status for each spec
`get_pricing`	Get current per-hour GPU pricing
`list_templates`	List available OS templates (Ubuntu, PyTorch, etc.)

Snapshots

Tool	Description
`list_snapshots`	List all instance snapshots
`create_snapshot`	Create a snapshot of an instance
`delete_snapshot`	Delete a snapshot (irreversible)

SSH Keys

Tool	Description
`list_ssh_keys`	List SSH keys in your organization
`create_ssh_key`	Add an SSH public key to your organization
`delete_ssh_key`	Delete an SSH key
`add_ssh_key_to_instance`	Add an SSH public key to a running instance’s authorized_keys

Port Forwarding

Tool	Description
`list_ports`	List all instances with their forwarded ports
`forward_port`	Forward HTTP ports on an instance
`delete_port`	Remove forwarded ports from an instance

Connectivity

Tool	Description
`get_ssh_command`	Get the SSH command to connect to an instance
`get_scp_command`	Get the SCP command to copy files to/from an instance

Billing & Usage

Tool	Description
`get_meter_data`	Get GPU usage metrics for a time period (hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly)
`get_upcoming_invoice`	Get estimated charges for the current billing period
`get_invoice_history`	Get historical invoices for your organization
`get_subscription`	Get subscription details including plan, status, and payment info

API Tokens

Tool	Description
`list_tokens`	List all named API tokens for your organization
`create_token`	Create a new named API token
`delete_token`	Delete a named API token

Prompts

The MCP server includes built-in prompts that guide your agent through common multi-step workflows:

Prompt	Description
`create-dev-instance`	Set up a GPU development instance with sensible defaults
`deploy-model`	Deploy an ML model (supports Ollama, vLLM, and Transformers)
`check-costs`	Review current GPU usage and costs
`snapshot-and-teardown`	Save instance state and clean up
`setup-comfyui`	Spin up a GPU instance with ComfyUI for AI image generation
`setup-jupyter`	Launch a Jupyter Lab environment on a GPU instance
`fine-tune-model`	Set up a GPU instance for fine-tuning with LoRA or full fine-tuning
`benchmark-gpu`	Run a quick GPU benchmark on an instance to verify performance

Example Usage

Once configured, you can ask your AI agent things like:

“Spin up an A100 instance with PyTorch”
“What GPU types are available and how much do they cost?”
“Which GPUs are available right now?”
“List my running instances”
“Run nvidia-smi on my instance”
“Delete instance inst-abc123”
“Forward port 8080 on my instance”
“Create a snapshot of my instance before I make changes”
“Deploy Llama 3 on a GPU”
“How much have I spent this month?”
“Show my invoice history”
“Create an API token for my CI pipeline”

Troubleshooting

Authentication fails or browser doesn’t open: Run /mcp in Claude Code to manually trigger authentication. Make sure you’re logged in to your Thunder Compute account in the browser. “Protected resource does not match” error: The URL in your MCP config must match the server’s configured resource URL exactly. Ensure you’re using https://www.thundercompute.com/mcp. “token has invalid issuer” error: This is a server-side configuration issue. The MCP authentication client must be configured with the correct Stytch Connected Apps domain. Tools not appearing: Restart your AI agent after changing MCP configuration. Most agents only read MCP config on startup.

MCP Directories

Thunder Compute is listed on major MCP directories for easy discovery:

Smithery — One-click install for supported clients
MCP Registry — The official Model Context Protocol server registry
Glama — Auto-indexed from the MCP Registry
PulseMCP — Auto-indexed from the MCP Registry

If your MCP client supports browsing directories, search for “Thunder Compute” to find and install the server directly.

Getting Started

Operations

Guides

Reference

API Reference

Prerequisites

Setup

Authentication

Available Tools

Instance Management

Information

Snapshots

SSH Keys

Port Forwarding

Connectivity

Billing & Usage

API Tokens

Prompts

Example Usage

Troubleshooting

MCP Directories

Getting Started

Operations

Guides

Reference

API Reference

​Prerequisites

​Setup

​Authentication

​Available Tools

​Instance Management

​Information

​Snapshots

​SSH Keys

​Port Forwarding

​Connectivity

​Billing & Usage

​API Tokens

​Prompts

​Example Usage

​Troubleshooting

​MCP Directories

Prerequisites

Setup

Authentication

Available Tools

Instance Management

Information

Snapshots

SSH Keys

Port Forwarding

Connectivity

Billing & Usage

API Tokens

Prompts

Example Usage

Troubleshooting

MCP Directories