${VAR} env-var interpolation in MCP server config still not working on v0.5.19

[FrankTub]

Follow-up to #635 (closed as resolved in v0.5.19).

Problem

Environment variable interpolation in MCP server environment config is still not working on v0.5.19. The MCP server receives the literal string instead of the resolved value.

Config (~/.config/altimate-code/altimate-code.json)

{
 "mcp": {
 "gitlab": {
 "type": "local",
 "command": ["node", ".../gitlab-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
 "environment": {
 "GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "{env:GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN}",
 "GITLAB_API_URL": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4"
 }
 }
 }
}

Reproduction steps

1. Set GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN in the shell environment (confirmed present via echo)
2. Configure the MCP server in altimate-code.json using {env:GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN} in the environment block
3. Call any GitLab MCP tool (e.g., gitlab_get_current_user)
4. Result: MCP error -32603: This operation requires user authentication

Additional findings

• The ${GITLAB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN} syntax was also tested — same failure
• Passing the token directly via the userCredentials parameter works, confirming the MCP server itself is functional
• altimate-code --version confirms v0.5.19
• The fix in v0.5.19 (fix: ${VAR} env-var interpolation for configs (closes #635) (#655)) does not appear to resolve this case

---

Metadata

Field	Value
CLI Version	0.5.19
Platform	darwin
Architecture	arm64
OS Release	25.3.0
Category	bug
Working Directory	data-warehouse-etl-dbt
Session ID	ses_2aba8ca90ffeLGmZEZ4sNP90Ng

[anandgupta42]

Resolved in v0.5.21.