feat: add cookie-based authentication support for GitLab instances 🍪 #100

mattweg · 2025-06-12T16:55:24Z

Add GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable support
Handle #HttpOnly_ prefix in cookie files properly
Enable redirect following when cookies are present
Maintain compatibility with existing token-based auth

- Add GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable support - Handle #HttpOnly_ prefix in cookie files properly - Enable redirect following when cookies are present - Maintain compatibility with existing token-based auth

- Update package name to @mattweg/gitlab-mcp - Bump version to 1.0.63-fork.1 - Add attribution to original author zereight - Add deprecation notice referencing upstream PR zereight#100 - Add repository and homepage URLs for fork

README.md

- removed the duplicate GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH from README.md

zereight · 2025-06-13T01:03:16Z

index.ts

+// Only add redirect following if we have a cookie
+if (authCookie) {
+  DEFAULT_FETCH_CONFIG.redirect = 'follow';
+}
+


It's neat code. However, I am concerned that it seems to be becoming a code that harms the immutability of constants.

I think we need to refactor it for clean code quality as a whole.

If you have a better direction, please suggest it. If not, we will distribute it after the end of the work.

Thank you

Great feedback. I'll re-approach it with immutability in mind.

@mattweg thanks so much for your enthusiastic improvement.

I was thinking about how to solve this immutably.

Option 1

// Create fetch config based on authentication method const createFetchConfig = (authCookie) => { return { ...DEFAULT_FETCH_CONFIG, // Only add redirect following if we have a cookie ...(authCookie ? { redirect: 'follow' } : {}) }; }; // Then use this function when creating the fetch configuration const fetchConfig = createFetchConfig(authCookie);

Option 2

const DEFAULT_FETCH_CONFIG = { headers: {}, redirect: 'follow' // Always follow redirects };

I don't have a strong preference. The follow setting won't really hurt anything, but it's not needed for anything other than this type of auth.

…support - Move cookie header setting outside if/else block to ensure it applies to both old (Private-Token) and new (Bearer) GitLab authentication - Fixes issue where cookies were only set for Bearer token auth - Maintains backward compatibility with existing authentication methods - Enables cookie-based authentication for all GitLab instance types Resolves authentication failures when using GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH with GitLab instances that require cookie-based authentication.

- Add fallback parsing for macOS cookie format - Handle cookie files with different structure than standard Netscape format - Maintain compatibility with existing Linux cookie parsing - Extract cookie name and value from space-separated format Resolves authentication failures when using GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH on macOS systems.

- Replace static cookie string with fetch-cookie + tough-cookie - Add proper Netscape cookie format parsing with domain context - Enable automatic cookie handling during OAuth2 redirects - Fixes authentication issues on macOS with enterprise SSO

mattweg · 2025-06-14T02:39:55Z

Sorry. The fully functional solution is too complex to be included for this edge case.

…ookies instead of count This PR fixes the cookie authentication issue by checking for specific session cookies (_gitlab_session or remember_user_token) instead of just counting the number of cookies. This ensures proper authentication with GitLab instances that use cookie-based auth. Closes zereight#100

- Move session establishment to the beginning of each request handler - Only attempt cookie authentication if GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH is set - Use dynamic base URL from GITLAB_API_URL instead of hardcoded URL - Remove redundant session establishment calls Closes zereight#100

…101) * feat: add cookie-based authentication support for GitLab instances 🍪 - Add GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable support - Handle #HttpOnly_ prefix in cookie files properly - Enable redirect following when cookies are present - Maintain compatibility with existing token-based auth * chore: prepare fork for npm publishing as @mattweg/gitlab-mcp - Update package name to @mattweg/gitlab-mcp - Bump version to 1.0.63-fork.1 - Add attribution to original author zereight - Add deprecation notice referencing upstream PR #100 - Add repository and homepage URLs for fork * fix: remove duplicate documentation line - removed the duplicate GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH from README.md * fix: move cookie header outside conditional block for universal auth support - Move cookie header setting outside if/else block to ensure it applies to both old (Private-Token) and new (Bearer) GitLab authentication - Fixes issue where cookies were only set for Bearer token auth - Maintains backward compatibility with existing authentication methods - Enables cookie-based authentication for all GitLab instance types Resolves authentication failures when using GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH with GitLab instances that require cookie-based authentication. * 1.0.63 * fix: add support for macOS cookie format in auth cookie parsing 🍪 - Add fallback parsing for macOS cookie format - Handle cookie files with different structure than standard Netscape format - Maintain compatibility with existing Linux cookie parsing - Extract cookie name and value from space-separated format Resolves authentication failures when using GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH on macOS systems. * 1.0.64 * chore: update version to 1.0.63-fork.3 * fix: implement proper cookie jar authentication for macOS - Replace static cookie string with fetch-cookie + tough-cookie - Add proper Netscape cookie format parsing with domain context - Enable automatic cookie handling during OAuth2 redirects - Fixes authentication issues on macOS with enterprise SSO * chore: update version to 1.0.63-fork.4 * feat: add cookie-based authentication support for enterprise GitLab instances Add support for Netscape cookie file authentication to enable access to enterprise GitLab instances that use SSO/OAuth2 redirects. - Add GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable - Implement cookie jar with proper domain handling for redirects - Use conditional fetch assignment: cookie-enabled when path configured - Maintains backward compatibility: no cookies = original behavior - Zero changes to existing fetch() calls throughout codebase Enables authentication flows like: curl -L -b ~/.midway/cookie Useful for enterprise environments with federated authentication. * chore: update to fork version 1.0.63-fork.5 with cookie auth support * feat: add cookie-based authentication support for enterprise GitLab instances Add support for Netscape cookie file authentication to enable access to enterprise GitLab instances that use SSO/OAuth2 redirects. - Add GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable - Implement cookie jar with proper domain handling for redirects - Use conditional fetch assignment: cookie-enabled when path configured - Maintains backward compatibility: no cookies = original behavior - Zero changes to existing fetch() calls throughout codebase Enables authentication flows like: curl -L -b ~/.midway/cookie Useful for enterprise environments with federated authentication. * feat: implement robust cookie-based authentication with hybrid parsing - Add support for Netscape cookie file format with #HttpOnly_ prefix handling - Implement hybrid approach using tough-cookie's parse() for robust cookie parsing - Add automatic session establishment for enterprise GitLab authentication - Support cookie file path via GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable - Integrate with fetch-cookie for automatic redirect handling and session persistence - Ensure compatibility with Midway enterprise authentication flow This enables seamless authentication with enterprise GitLab instances that require cookie-based authentication while maintaining clean, maintainable code using widely-supported packages (tough-cookie + fetch-cookie). * chore: bump version to 1.0.63-fork.6 with ultra-clean cookie auth * fix: correct package name to @mattweg/gitlab-mcp for proper npx dependency resolution - Fix package name mismatch that prevented npx from installing dependencies - Bump version to 1.0.63-fork.7 - This resolves cookie authentication issues by ensuring fetch-cookie and tough-cookie are properly installed * Improve cookie authentication with robust session establishment * feat: add cookie-based authentication support This feature adds support for cookie-based authentication with GitLab instances by: - Adding a new GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH environment variable to specify the path to a Netscape-format cookie file - Implementing a cookie jar parser that handles standard Netscape cookie format - Adding session establishment logic that checks for GitLab session cookies - Ensuring all API requests use the authenticated session This allows the MCP server to authenticate with GitLab instances that use cookie-based authentication, which is particularly useful for instances that require SSO or other authentication methods that don't support personal access tokens. --------- Co-authored-by: Moon (mattweg's AI assistant) <moon+ai-assistant@mattweg.dev> Co-authored-by: Matt Weg <mattweg@amazon.com>

mattweg mentioned this pull request Jun 12, 2025

Add authentication cookie support for GitLab instances requiring cook… #98

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zereight requested changes Jun 12, 2025

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README.md Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

fix: remove duplicate documentation line

e667ad8

- removed the duplicate GITLAB_AUTH_COOKIE_PATH from README.md

zereight reviewed Jun 13, 2025

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Moon (mattweg's AI assistant) and others added 2 commits June 13, 2025 14:27

mattweg force-pushed the feature/auth-cookie-support branch from 677833a to 8f4b42d Compare June 14, 2025 00:26

mattweg closed this Jun 14, 2025

mattweg mentioned this pull request Jun 14, 2025

feat: add cookie-based authentication support for enterprise GitLab #101

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feat: add cookie-based authentication support for GitLab instances 🍪 #100

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feat: add cookie-based authentication support for GitLab instances 🍪 #100

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