Use the DHI MCP server

The Docker Hardened Images (DHI) MCP server exposes the DHI catalog through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting you query repositories, inspect image metadata, retrieve SBOMs, and check CVEs directly from your AI assistant in plain language.

The MCP server is:

• Remote. No local binary to install. Your AI assistant connects directly to https://dhi.io/mcp.
• Compatible with any MCP-capable AI assistant, including Claude, Cursor, and others.

Most tools are public and require no credentials. The mirror management tools (dhi_list_mirrors, dhi_create_mirror, dhi_remove_mirror) require a Docker Hub username and personal access token (PAT) with owner access to the target organization. Credentials are passed as an HTTP Basic auth header in the MCP client configuration — they are never passed as tool arguments.

Connect your AI assistant#

Configuration varies by client. Select the tab for your AI assistant.

{{< tabs >}} {{< tab name="Claude Desktop" >}}

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dhi": {
      "url": "https://dhi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The configuration file is located at: - macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{{< /tab >}} {{< tab name="Cursor" >}}

Add the following to .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dhi": {
      "url": "https://dhi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{{< /tab >}} {{< tab name="Claude Code" >}}

Run the following command to add the DHI MCP server:

$ claude mcp add dhi --url https://dhi.io/mcp

Or add it manually to .claude/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dhi": {
      "url": "https://dhi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{{< /tab >}} {{< tab name="Docker Agent" >}}

In your Docker Agent YAML configuration, add the DHI MCP server as a remote toolset:

toolsets:
  - type: mcp
    remote:
      url: "https://dhi.io/mcp"
      transport_type: streamable

For example, to create an agent that can answer questions about the DHI catalog:

agents:
  root:
    model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5
    description: DHI catalog assistant
    instruction: |
      Help me find and evaluate Docker Hardened Images.
      Search the DHI catalog, inspect image details, check CVEs,
      and retrieve SBOMs and attestations as needed.
    toolsets:
      - type: mcp
        remote:
          url: "https://dhi.io/mcp"
          transport_type: streamable

Run the agent with:

$ docker agent run dhi-agent.yaml

{{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}}

Available tools#

The DHI MCP server provides ten tools that your AI assistant calls automatically based on what you ask:

Authenticate for mirror tools#

The mirror tools require a Docker Hub username and personal access token (PAT) with owner access to the target organization, passed as an HTTP Basic auth header. Generate the value with:

$ printf 'USERNAME:dckr_pat_...' | base64 | tr -d '\n'

Then add it to your MCP client configuration:

[!WARNING] Base64 encoding is not encryption. The value in your configuration file is effectively a plaintext password. Do not commit this file to version control or share it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dhi": {
      "url": "https://dhi.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Basic <base64-value>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Without credentials, the read-only catalog tools work normally and the mirror tools return an authentication error.

What the tools return#

Each tool returns structured data that your AI assistant can summarize, compare, or act on:

• dhi_list_repositories returns a list of repositories with display name, distributions, platforms, FIPS/STIG flags, included tools, and category.
• dhi_get_repository returns the full repository record, including all tag definitions with their tags, build configuration, image indexes, and per-platform manifest digests with vulnerability counts.
• dhi_get_tag_definition returns tags, build parameters, entrypoint, environment variables, run-as user, and per-platform manifests for a single tag definition.
• dhi_get_image_details returns the image platform, compressed size, layer count, package count, vulnerability severity counts by level, labels, and a list of attestation predicate types.
• dhi_get_image_packages returns each package in the image with its name, version, type (deb, rpm, apk, etc.), purl, licenses, and the file paths where it was found.
• dhi_get_image_cves returns each CVE affecting the image with its severity, CVSS score and vector, affected package, fix version (if any), EPSS probability score, and a flag indicating whether CISA lists it as actively exploited.
• dhi_get_image_attestations returns the predicate type and OCI reference for each attestation attached to the image digest.
• dhi_list_mirrors returns each mirror's ID, source DHI repository, destination repository, and mirroring status for the given organization.
• dhi_create_mirror starts mirroring a DHI source repository into the specified organization and destination repository name.
• dhi_remove_mirror stops mirroring for the given mirror ID. It does not delete the destination repository — only stops new images from being synced.