A GitHub Action for running a ZAP scan against an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server using the ZAP Automation Framework and ZAP's MCP add-on.

WARNING this action will perform active attacks on the target MCP server. Only scan targets you have permission to test. Active scans send mutating tools/call requests — if your target's tools have real side effects (file writes, database changes, outbound requests), point this at a test deployment, not production.

Supply target and the action builds and runs an Automation Framework plan for you:

mcp-import → passive scan → active scan → JSON / HTML / Markdown reports

If you need full control over the AF plan, use zaproxy/action-af instead — that action takes an arbitrary AF plan file and runs it.

Required URL of the MCP server, e.g. https://example.com/mcp.

Optional Value sent in the Authorization header to the MCP server. Should be passed from a GitHub secret, e.g. security_key: ${{ secrets.MCP_TOKEN }}.

Optional ZAP Docker image to use. Defaults to ghcr.io/zaproxy/zaproxy:stable. The MCP add-on is installed at runtime via zap.sh -addoninstall mcp, so the image doesn't need to ship with it pre-installed.

Optional Names of additional environment variables (one per line) to forward into the ZAP container. The standard ZAP auth env vars (see below) are always forwarded.

Optional Relative path to a TSV rules file used to ignore specific alerts. Same format as action-api-scan.

Optional Additional command line options passed to zap.sh.

Optional Token used to create the GitHub issue containing the scan report. Defaults to ${{ github.token }}.

Optional Title for the GitHub issue. Defaults to ZAP MCP Scan Report.

Optional Fail the workflow if ZAP identifies any alerts. Defaults to false.

Optional Set to false to skip creating/updating the issue. Defaults to true.

Optional Name of the artifact attached to the workflow run. Defaults to zap_mcp_scan.

These are always forwarded into the container if set in the workflow environment:

• ZAP_AUTH_HEADER
• ZAP_AUTH_HEADER_VALUE
• ZAP_AUTH_HEADER_SITE

See ZAP authentication env vars. Use docker_env_vars to forward additional variables referenced from a custom plan.

steps:
  - name: ZAP MCP Scan
    uses: zaproxy/action-mcp-scan@v0.1.0
    with:
      target: 'https://example.com/mcp'

steps:
  - name: ZAP MCP Scan
    uses: zaproxy/action-mcp-scan@v0.1.0
    with:
      target: 'https://internal.example.com/mcp'
      security_key: ${{ secrets.MCP_TOKEN }}
      fail_action: true

Use zaproxy/action-af and point it at your own Automation Framework plan file.