Volumes

Tool Name: docker/volumes

Lists Docker volumes with driver, mountpoint (a host path) and the names of the containers, running or stopped, that mount each. Read-only: volumes are never created or removed here. pattern is a glob on the volume name. Text is a block per volume; output_format: json (also yaml/table/wide) returns an array of objects (name, driver, mountpoint, created, scope, labels, options, in_use_by), [] when empty. docker/prune with target volumes removes anonymous unused volumes only. For one volume's details use the docker-volume://<name>/inspect resource, for containers docker/containers. Always runs as root: no privileged argument, refused unless the grant has allowed: true.

In use by is computed from the container list, so it names containers whether they are running or stopped - a stopped container still holds its volume. An empty list means no container mounts it, which is the closest thing to "safe to delete" this tool will tell you; deleting it is still someone else's job.

Arguments

Argument	Type	Required	Description
`output_format`	string	no	Use json for structured output (yaml, table and wide return the same JSON); default is text
`pattern`	string	no	Only volumes whose name matches this glob

Example

Every example below shows the equivalent linuxctl command and the raw MCP JSON-RPC call it resolves to. The raw call always follows the same two-step pattern (see MCP API overview for the full explanation): open an SSE stream to get a one-time POST endpoint, then POST the JSON-RPC request there - the result streams back on the SSE connection.

linuxctl

linuxctl get docker volumes

Output (Docker-in-Docker test host):

app-data
  Driver: local | Scope: local
  Mountpoint: /var/lib/docker/volumes/app-data/_data
  In use by: web-1

Hint: For one volume's options and labels, read docker-volume://<name>/inspect

linuxctl get docker volumes -o json

Output:

[
  {
    "created": "2026-09-27T10:04:49Z",
    "driver": "local",
    "in_use_by": [
      "web-1"
    ],
    "labels": null,
    "mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/app-data/_data",
    "name": "app-data",
    "options": null,
    "scope": "local"
  }
]

curl (raw MCP JSON-RPC)

# 1. Open the SSE stream (in the background) and capture the one-time POST endpoint
curl -N -s --cacert mcpd.crt -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCP_TOKEN" https://localhost:9091/sse &
# server sends: event: endpoint / data: /message?session_id=...

# 2. POST the tools/call request to that endpoint
curl -s --cacert mcpd.crt -X POST "https://localhost:9091/message?session_id=<from step 1>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCP_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "tools/call", "params": {"name": "docker/volumes", "arguments": {}}}'

# 3. The result arrives on the SSE stream opened in step 1

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": "1",
  "result": {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "app-data\n  Driver: local | Scope: local\n  Mountpoint: /var/lib/docker/volumes/app-data/_data\n  In use by: web-1\n\nHint: For one volume's options and labels, read docker-volume://<name>/inspect\n"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Arguments​

Example​

Arguments

Example