ROS MCP Server 🧠⇄🤖

March 31, 2026 · View on GitHub

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ROS-MCP-Server connects large language models (such as Claude, GPT, and Gemini) to robots, enabling bidirectional communication with no changes to existing robot source code.

Why ROS-MCP?

  • No robot source code changes → just add the rosbridge node to your existing ROS setup.
  • True two-way communication → LLMs can both control robots and observe everything happening on the Robot.
  • Full context → publish & subscribe to topics, call services & actions, set parameters, read sensor data, and monitor robot state in real time.
  • Deep ROS understanding → guides the LLM to discover available topics, services, actions, and their types (including custom ones) — enabling it to use them with the right syntax without manual configuration.
  • Works with any MCP client → built on the open MCP standard, supporting Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more.
  • Works across ROS versions → compatible across ROS 2 (Jazzy, Humble, and others) and ROS 1 distros.

🎥 Examples in Action

🖥️ Example - Controlling the MOCA mobile manipulator in NVIDIA Isaac Sim
Commands are entered into Claude Desktop, which uses the MCP server to control the simulated robot.

🐕 Example - Controlling Unitree Go2 with natural language (video)
The MCP server enables Claude to interpret images from the robot's cameras, and then command the robot based on human natural language commands.

🏭 Example - Debugging an industrial robot (Video)

  • Connecting to an industrial robot enables the LLM to browse all ROS topics and services to assess the robot state.
  • With no predefined context, the MCP server enables the LLM to query details about custom topic and service types and their syntax (00:28).
  • Using only natural language, the operator calls the custom services to test and debug the robot (01:42).

Testing and debugging an industrial robot

🛠 Getting Started

Follow the installation guide to get started.

ROS-MCP works with Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

📚 More Examples & Tutorials

Browse our examples to see the server in action.
We welcome community PRs with new examples and integrations!

🤝 Contributing

We love contributions of all kinds:

  • Bug fixes and documentation updates
  • New features (e.g., Action support, permissions)
  • Additional examples and tutorials

Check out the contributing guidelines and see issues tagged good first issue to get started.

📜 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.