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Liferay Docker Manager (LDM) AI & MCP Guide

LDM now includes intelligent AI-Assisted Orchestration, powered by Google Gemini, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. These tools allow you to converse directly with an AI assistant that can seamlessly access your Liferay Docker environments, analyze configurations, and diagnose issues.

1. Prerequisites

To use the AI features, you will need a free Google Gemini API Key.

  1. Go to Google AI Studio.
  2. Generate an API Key.
  3. The first time you run an ldm ai command, you will be prompted for this key, and it will be securely saved to your local config.

2. Using the LDM AI CLI (ldm ai)

The ldm ai command provides a built-in chatbot that can troubleshoot your environments for you.

Example Use Cases:

  • "Why is my liferay-custom project failing to start?"
  • "Show me the database password for the latest project I created."
  • "Check the logs for out of memory errors."

Usage:

ldm ai "Analyze the logs for my project and tell me why it crashed."

The AI will automatically invoke local MCP tools (like fetching logs or reading portal-ext.properties), analyze the output, and respond with a solution.

3. Using the LDM MCP Server (ldm mcp)

If you prefer to use your own MCP-compatible client (like Claude Desktop, Cursor, or the Anthropic CLI), you can connect it directly to LDM's Diagnostic Server.

Available Tools:

  • get_projects: Lists all managed Liferay Docker environments and their status.
  • get_logs: Retrieves recent logs for a specific Liferay project container.
  • Arguments:
    • project_id (string, required): The project ID or container name.
    • lines (integer, optional, default: 200): Number of trailing log lines to retrieve.
    • grep (string, optional): A regular expression pattern to filter logs.
    • grep_i (boolean, optional, default: false): Run a case-insensitive regex match.
    • grep_v (boolean, optional, default: false): Invert regex match logic (exclude matches).
    • level (string, optional): Severity threshold filter (e.g., WARN, ERROR, FATAL). Shows lines matching or exceeding this level, preserving stack traces.
  • start_project: Starts the Liferay stack (containers) for a specific project.
  • Arguments:
    • project_id (string, required): The project ID or container name.
  • stop_project: Stops the Liferay stack (containers) for a specific project.
  • Arguments:
    • project_id (string, required): The project ID or container name.
  • restart_project: Restarts specific services or the entire stack for a project.
  • Arguments:
    • project_id (string, required): The project ID or container name.
    • service (string, optional): The name of a service to restart (e.g., liferay, db). Restarts the entire stack if omitted.
  • get_config: Retrieves properties, configuration metadata, and environment details for a project.
  • get_cli_help: Retrieves LDM CLI subcommand manual and flags usage description to prevent command option hallucinations.
  • Arguments:
    • command (string, optional): A specific LDM subcommand (e.g., run, hydrate, logs, config) to retrieve usage and flags for. Returns overall LDM CLI help if omitted.

Usage:

You can start the MCP server natively via:

ldm mcp

(Note: Since it communicates over stdio, you configure your MCP client to invoke ldm mcp rather than running it interactively).

Last Updated: 2026-08-05 | Last Reviewed: 2026-07-02