gitlab mcp problems reading joblog

Bug Description

claude mcp failed to read my gitlab ci job log at ` https://gitlabce.<redacted>.com/<redacted>/<redacted>/-/jobs/23365

I still can't read it, and it's not for lack of trying — that's a tooling dead end, not a re-read away:

- mcp__gitlabce__get_job_log returns {} for job 23365 (tried both Websites/cityzenz and project id 192, twice each) — and also for the successful job 23367, so it's the trace endpoint on that MCP server, not this job and not auth. The other gitlabce tools (list_pipelines, get_pipeline_jobs) return full data against the same credentials.

grok found the issue:

  What get_job_log actually returns

  gitlabce is GitLab’s own MCP (https://gitlabce.<redacted>.com/api/v4/mcp, server 19.3.2). get_job_log is a thin wrapper around GET /projects/:id/jobs/:job_id/trace, which is text/plain, not JSON.

  GitLab’s MCP tools normally return both:

  ┌───────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
  │ Field             │ JSON tools (get_pipeline_jobs, …) │ get_job_log            │
  ├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
  │ content[].text    │ JSON dumped as text               │ the job log            │
  ├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
  │ structuredContent │ the parsed object                 │ {} (trace is not JSON) │
  └───────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘

  What would actually fix Claude

  • GitLab: put the log in structuredContent too, e.g. { "log": "..." }, or omit structuredContent when it is empty so clients fall back to content.
  • Claude’s client: if structuredContent is {}, use content instead of treating empty object as “the result”.

  Until one of those changes, Claude cannot read job traces on this GitLab, even though the to-ol is working.

**Environment Info**
- Platform: darwin
- Terminal: Apple_Terminal
- Version: 2.1.274
- Feedback ID: 2cd5f63f-5d55-43f0-aa5c-81d5f1260720