MCP Gateway

Model Context Protocol gateway & proxy — unify REST, MCP, and A2A with federation, virtual servers, retries, security, and an optional admin UI.

ContextForge MCP Gateway is a feature-rich gateway & proxy that federates MCP and REST services - unifying discovery, auth, rate-limiting, observability, virtual servers, multi-transport protocols, and an optional live Admin UI into one clean endpoint for your AI clients. It runs as a fully compliant MCP server, deployable via PyPI or Docker, and scales to multi-cluster environments on Kubernetes with Redis-backed federation and caching.

🚀 Overview & Goals

ContextForge MCP Gateway is a production-grade gateway, registry, and proxy that sits in front of any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server or REST API—exposing a unified endpoint for all your AI clients.

It supports:

Federation across multiple MCP and REST services
Virtualization of legacy APIs as MCP-compliant tools and servers
Transport over HTTP, JSON-RPC, WebSocket, SSE, and stdio
A live Admin UI for real-time management and configuration
Built-in auth, observability, retries, and rate-limiting
Scalable deployments via Docker or PyPI, Redis-backed caching, and multi-cluster federation

For a list of upcoming features, check out the ContextForge MCP Gateway Roadmap

🔌 Gateway Layer with Protocol Flexibility

Sits in front of any MCP server or REST API
Lets you choose your MCP protocol version (e.g., 2025-03-26)
Exposes a single, unified interface for diverse backends

🌐 Federation of Peer Gateways

Auto-discovers or configures peer gateways (via mDNS or manual)
Performs health checks and merges remote registries transparently
Supports Redis-backed syncing and fail-over

🧩 Virtualization of REST/gRPC Services

Wraps non-MCP services as virtual MCP servers
Registers tools, prompts, and resources with minimal configuration

🔁 REST-to-MCP Tool Adapter

Adapts REST APIs into tools with:
- Automatic JSON Schema extraction
- Support for headers, tokens, and custom auth
- Retry, timeout, and rate-limit policies

🧠 Unified Registries

Prompts: Jinja2 templates, multimodal support, rollback/versioning
Resources: URI-based access, MIME detection, caching, SSE updates
Tools: Native or adapted, with input validation and concurrency controls

📈 Admin UI, Observability & Dev Experience

Live Admin UI built with HTMX + Alpine.js
Auth: Basic, JWT, or custom schemes
Structured logs, health endpoints, metrics
400+ tests, Makefile targets, live reload, pre-commit hooks

Quick Start: PyPi

MCP Gateway is published on PyPi as mcp-contextforge-gateway. You can install and start a server with:

# Create a virtual environment and activate it
mkdir mcpgateway && cd mcpgateway # directory to store Python venv and mcp.db
python3 -m venv .venv
. ./.venv/bin/activate

# Install mcp-contextforge-gateway
pip install mcp-contextforge-gateway # from pypi
#pip install .                        # or install from latest github code after cloning repo

# Run mcpgateway with default options (binds to 127.0.0.1:4444) with admin:changeme
mcpgateway  # login to http://127.0.0.1:4444

# Optional: run in background with configured password/key and listen to all IPs
BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=password JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key mcpgateway --host 0.0.0.0 --port 4444 & bg

# List all options
mcpgateway --help

# Generate your JWT token from the key
export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token --username admin --exp 10080 --secret my-test-key)

# Run a local MCP Server (github) listening on SSE http://localhost:8000/sse
pip install uvenv
npx -y supergateway --stdio "uvenv run mcp-server-git" # requires node.js and npx
# or time: npx -y supergateway --stdio "uvenv run mcp_server_time -- --local-timezone=Europe/Dublin" --port 8002

#--------------------------------------------
# Register the MCP Server with the gateway and test it
# The curl steps can also from the admin ui: http://localhost:4444/admin
# For more info on the API see /docs and /redoc *after* login to /admin
#---------------------------------------------
# Test the API (assume you have curl and jq installed)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/version | jq

# Register the MCP server as a new gateway provider
curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"github_mcp_server","url":"http://localhost:8000/sse"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/gateways

# List gateways - you should see [{"id":1,"name":"github_mcp_server","url":"http://localhost:8000/sse" ...
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/gateways | jq

# Get gateway by ID
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/gateways/1

# List the global tools
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/tools | jq

# Create a virtual server with tool 1,2,3 form global tools catalog
# You can configure virtual servers with multiple tools/resources/prompts from registered MCP server (gateways)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"devtools_mcp_server","description":"My developer tools","associatedTools": ["1","2","3"]}' \
     http://localhost:4444/servers

# List servers
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/servers

# Get an individual server
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/servers/1

# You can now use http://localhost:4444/servers/1 as an SSE server with the configured JWT token in any MCP client

# To stop the running process, you can either:
fg # Return the process to foreground, you can not Ctrl + C, or:
pkill mcpgateway

# Optionally, test the stdio wrapper to mirror tools from the gateway:
# This lets you connect to the gateway with tools that don't support SSE:
export MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN}
export MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://localhost:4444/servers/1
python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

See .env.example for full list of ENV variables you can use to override the configuration.

Quick Start (Pre-built Container Image)

If you just want to run the gateway using the official OCI container image from GitHub Container Registry:

docker run -d --name mcpgateway \
  -p 4444:4444 \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key \
  -e BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin \
  -e BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e AUTH_REQUIRED=true \
  -e DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./mcp.db \
  ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:latest

docker logs mcpgateway

You can now access the UI at http://localhost:4444/admin

💡 You can also use --env-file .env if you have a config file already. See the provided .env.example 💡 To access local tools, consider using --network=host 💡 Consider using a stable / release version of the image, ex: ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:v0.1.1

Optional: Mount a local volume for persistent SQLite storage

-v $(pwd)/data:/app

Generate a token for API access

export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(docker exec mcpgateway python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token --username admin --exp 100800 --secret my-test-key)
echo ${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN}

Smoke-test the running container

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/health | jq
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/tools | jq
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/version | jq

Running the MCP Gateway stdio wrapper

The mcpgateway.wrapper lets you connect to the gateway over stdio, while retaining authentication using the JWT token when the wrapper connect to a remote gateway. You should run this from a MCP client. You can test this from a shell with:

# Set environment variables
export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token --username admin --exp 10080 --secret my-test-key)
export MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN}
export MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS='http://localhost:4444/servers/1'
export MCP_TOOL_CALL_TIMEOUT=120
export MCP_WRAPPER_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG  # or OFF to disable logging

# Run the wrapper from the installed module
python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

Or using the container image:

docker run --rm -i \
  -e MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=$MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN \
  -e MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://host.docker.internal:4444/servers/1 \
  -e MCP_TOOL_CALL_TIMEOUT=120 \
  -e MCP_WRAPPER_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG \
  ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:latest \
  python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

Testing mcpgateway.wrapper by hand:

Because the wrapper speaks JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout, you can interact with it using nothing more than a terminal or pipes.

# Run a time server, then register it in your gateway..
pip install mcp-server-time
npx -y supergateway --stdio "uvenv run mcp_server_time -- --local-timezone=Europe/Dublin"

# Start the MCP Gateway Wrapper
export MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN}
export MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://localhost:4444/servers/1
python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

Initialize the protocol

# Initialize the protocol
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-03-26","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"demo","version":"0.0.1"}}}

# Then after the reply:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized","params":{}}

# Get prompts
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":4,"method":"prompts/list"}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":5,"method":"prompts/get","params":{"name":"greeting","arguments":{"user":"Bob"}}}

# Get resources
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":6,"method":"resources/list"}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":7,"method":"resources/read","params":{"uri":"https://example.com/some.txt"}}

# Get / call tools
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_current_time","arguments":{"timezone":"Europe/Dublin"}}}

Expected responses from mcpgateway.wrapper

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":{"protocolVersion":"2025-03-26","capabilities":{"experimental":{},"prompts":{"listChanged":false},"resources":{"subscribe":false,"listChanged":false},"tools":{"listChanged":false}},"serverInfo":{"name":"mcpgateway-wrapper","version":"0.1.1"}}}

# When there's no tools
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"result":{"tools":[]}}

# After you add some tools and create a virtual server
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"result":{"tools":[{"name":"get_current_time","description":"Get current time in a specific timezones","inputSchema":{"type":"object","properties":{"timezone":{"type":"string","description":"IANA timezone name (e.g., 'America/New_York', 'Europe/London'). Use 'America/New_York' as local timezone if no timezone provided by the user."}},"required":["timezone"]}}]}}

# Running the time tool:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"result":{"content":[{"type":"text","text":"{'content': [{'type': 'text', 'text': '{\\n  \"timezone\": \"Europe/Dublin\",\\n  \"datetime\": \"2025-06-08T21:47:07+01:00\",\\n  \"is_dst\": true\\n}'}], 'is_error': False}"}],"isError":false}}

🧩 Running from an MCP Client (`mcpgateway.wrapper`)

The mcpgateway.wrapper exposes everything your Gateway knows about over stdio, so any MCP client that can't (or shouldn't) open an authenticated SSE stream still gets full tool-calling power.

Remember to substitute your real Gateway URL (and server ID) for http://localhost:4444/servers/1. When inside Docker/Podman, that often becomes http://host.docker.internal:4444/servers/1 (macOS/Windows) or the gateway container's hostname (Linux).

🐳 Docker / Podman

docker run -i --rm \
  --network=host \
  -e MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://localhost:4444/servers/1 \
  -e MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN} \
  -e MCP_TOOL_CALL_TIMEOUT=120 \
  ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:latest \
  python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

📦 pipx (one-liner install & run)

# Install gateway package in its own isolated venv
pipx install --include-deps mcp-contextforge-gateway

# Run the stdio wrapper
MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN} \
MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://localhost:4444/servers/1 \
python3 -m mcpgateway.wrapper

Claude Desktop JSON (uses the host Python that pipx injected):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpgateway-wrapper": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["-m", "mcpgateway.wrapper"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_AUTH_TOKEN": "<your-token>",
        "MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS": "http://localhost:4444/servers/1",
        "MCP_TOOL_CALL_TIMEOUT": "120"
      }
    }
  }
}

⚡ uv / uvenv (light-speed venvs)

1 · Install `uv` (`uvenv` is an alias it provides)

# (a) official one-liner
curl -Ls https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# (b) or via pipx
pipx install uv

2 · Create an on-the-spot venv & run the wrapper

# Create venv in ~/.venv/mcpgateway (or current dir if you prefer)
uv venv ~/.venv/mcpgateway
source ~/.venv/mcpgateway/bin/activate

# Install the gateway package using uv
uv pip install mcp-contextforge-gateway

# Launch wrapper
MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN} \
MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS=http://localhost:4444/servers/1 \
uv python -m mcpgateway.wrapper # Use this just for testing, as the Client will run the uv command

(You can swap uv python for plain python if the venv is active.)

Claude Desktop JSON (runs through uvenv run)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpgateway-wrapper": {
      "command": "uvenv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--",
        "python",
        "-m",
        "mcpgateway.wrapper"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_AUTH_TOKEN": "<your-token>",
        "MCP_SERVER_CATALOG_URLS": "http://localhost:4444/servers/1"
    }
  }
}

🚀 Using with Claude Desktop (or any GUI MCP client)

Edit Config → File ▸ Settings ▸ Developer ▸ Edit Config
Paste one of the JSON blocks above (Docker / pipx / uvenv).
Restart the app so the new stdio server is spawned.
Open logs in the same menu to verify mcpgateway-wrapper started and listed your tools.

Need help? See:

MCP Debugging Guide – https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/tools/debugging

Quick Start (VS Code Dev Container)

For the fastest development setup, use the provided VS Code Dev Container configuration. This provides a fully configured development environment with Python 3.11, Docker CLI, and all project dependencies pre-installed.

Prerequisites

VS Code with the Dev Containers extension
Docker or Podman installed and running

Using the Dev Container

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ibm/mcp-context-forge.git
cd mcp-context-forge

Open in VS Code:
```
code .
```
Reopen in Container:
- VS Code will detect the .devcontainer configuration
- Click "Reopen in Container" when prompted, or
- Use Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P) → "Dev Containers: Reopen in Container"
Wait for setup:
- The container will build automatically (first time may take a few minutes)
- Development dependencies will be installed via make install-dev
- Tests will run automatically to verify the setup

Start developing:

make dev  # Start development server
make test # Run tests
make lint # Run linting

GitHub Codespaces

You can also use this project with GitHub Codespaces for cloud-based development:

Click the "Code" button on the GitHub repository page
Select "Codespaces" tab
Click "Create codespace on main"
Wait for the environment to be ready (same setup as local dev container)

The devcontainer includes:

Python 3.11 with all project dependencies
Docker CLI for container management
VS Code extensions for Python and Docker development
Pre-configured environment variables for development mode
Automatic setup of .env file from .env.example

Quick Start (manual install)

Prerequisites

Python ≥ 3.10
GNU Make (optional, but all common workflows are available as Make targets)
Optional: Docker / Podman for containerised runs

One-liner (dev)

make venv install serve

What it does:

Creates / activates a .venv in your home folder ~/.venv/mcpgateway
Installs the gateway and necessary dependencies
Launches Gunicorn (Uvicorn workers) on http://localhost:4444

For development, you can use:

make install-dev # Install development dependencies, ex: linters and test harness
make lint          # optional: run style checks (ruff, mypy, etc.)

Containerised (self-signed TLS)

You can use docker or podman, ex:

make podman            # build production image
make podman-run-ssl    # run at https://localhost:4444
# or listen on port 4444 on your host directly, adds --network=host to podman
make podman-run-ssl-host

Smoke-test the API

curl -k -sX GET \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     https://localhost:4444/tools | jq

You should receive [] until you register a tool.

Installation

Via Make

make venv install          # create .venv + install deps
make serve                 # gunicorn on :4444

UV (alternative)

uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e '.[dev]' # IMPORTANT: in zsh, quote to disable glob expansion!

pip (alternative)

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Optional (PostgreSQL adapter)

You can configure the gateway with SQLite, PostgreSQL (or any other compatible database) in .env.

When using PostgreSQL, you need to install psycopg2 driver.

uv pip install psycopg2-binary   # dev convenience
# or
uv pip install psycopg2          # production build

Quick Postgres container

docker run --name mcp-postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=mcp \
  -p 5432:5432 -d postgres

A make compose-up target is provided along with a docker-compose.yml file to make this process simpler.

Configuration (`.env` or env vars)

⚠️ If any required .env variable is missing or invalid, the gateway will fail fast at startup with a validation error via Pydantic.

You can get started by copying the provided .env.example to .env and making the necessary edits to fit your environment.

🔧 Environment Configuration Variables

Basic

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`APP_NAME`	Gateway / OpenAPI title	`MCP Gateway`	string
`HOST`	Bind address for the app	`0.0.0.0`	IPv4/IPv6
`PORT`	Port the server listens on	`4444`	1–65535
`DATABASE_URL`	SQLAlchemy connection URL	`sqlite:///./mcp.db`	any SQLAlchemy dialect
`APP_ROOT_PATH`	Subpath prefix for app (e.g. `/gateway`)	(empty)	string
`TEMPLATES_DIR`	Path to Jinja2 templates	`mcpgateway/templates`	path
`STATIC_DIR`	Path to static files	`mcpgateway/static`	path

💡 Use APP_ROOT_PATH=/foo if reverse-proxying under a subpath like https://host.com/foo/.

Authentication

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`BASIC_AUTH_USER`	Username for Admin UI login and HTTP Basic authentication	`admin`	string
`BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD`	Password for Admin UI login and HTTP Basic authentication	`changeme`	string
`AUTH_REQUIRED`	Require authentication for all API routes	`true`	bool
`JWT_SECRET_KEY`	Secret key used to sign JWT tokens for API access	`my-test-key`	string
`JWT_ALGORITHM`	Algorithm used to sign the JWTs (`HS256` is default, HMAC-based)	`HS256`	PyJWT algs
`TOKEN_EXPIRY`	Expiry of generated JWTs in minutes	`10080`	int > 0
`AUTH_ENCRYPTION_SECRET`	Passphrase used to derive AES key for encrypting tool auth headers	`my-test-salt`	string

🔐 BASIC_AUTH_USER/PASSWORD are used for:

Logging into the web-based Admin UI

Accessing APIs via Basic Auth (curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN")

🔑 JWT_SECRET_KEY is used to:
Sign JSON Web Tokens (Authorization: Bearer <token>)
Generate tokens via:
python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token -u admin -e 10080 > token.txt
export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(cat token.txt)
Tokens allow non-interactive API clients to authenticate securely.
🧪 Set AUTH_REQUIRED=false during development if you want to disable all authentication (e.g. for local testing or open APIs) or clients that don't support SSE authentication. In production, you should use the SSE to stdio mcpgateway-wrapper for such tools that don't support authenticated SSE, while still ensuring the gateway uses authentication.

🔐 AUTH_ENCRYPTION_SECRET is used to encrypt and decrypt tool authentication credentials (auth_value). You must set the same value across environments to decode previously stored encrypted auth values. Recommended: use a long, random string.

UI Features

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`MCPGATEWAY_UI_ENABLED`	Enable the interactive Admin dashboard	`true`	bool
`MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED`	Enable API endpoints for admin ops	`true`	bool

🖥️ Set both to false to disable management UI and APIs in production.

Security

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`SKIP_SSL_VERIFY`	Skip upstream TLS verification	`false`	bool
`ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	CORS allow‐list	`["http://localhost","http://localhost:4444"]`	JSON array
`CORS_ENABLED`	Enable CORS	`true`	bool

Note: do not quote the ALLOWED_ORIGINS values, this needs to be valid JSON, such as: ALLOWED_ORIGINS=["http://localhost", "http://localhost:4444"]

Logging

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`LOG_LEVEL`	Minimum log level	`INFO`	`DEBUG`…`CRITICAL`
`LOG_FORMAT`	Log format	`json`	`json`, `text`
`LOG_FILE`	Log output file	(none)	path or empty

Transport

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`TRANSPORT_TYPE`	Enabled transports	`all`	`http`,`ws`,`sse`,`stdio`,`all`
`WEBSOCKET_PING_INTERVAL`	WebSocket ping (secs)	`30`	int > 0
`SSE_RETRY_TIMEOUT`	SSE retry timeout (ms)	`5000`	int > 0

Federation

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`FEDERATION_ENABLED`	Enable federation	`true`	bool
`FEDERATION_DISCOVERY`	Auto‐discover peers	`false`	bool
`FEDERATION_PEERS`	Comma-sep peer URLs	`[]`	JSON array
`FEDERATION_TIMEOUT`	Gateway timeout (secs)	`30`	int > 0
`FEDERATION_SYNC_INTERVAL`	Sync interval (secs)	`300`	int > 0

Resources

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`RESOURCE_CACHE_SIZE`	LRU cache size	`1000`	int > 0
`RESOURCE_CACHE_TTL`	Cache TTL (seconds)	`3600`	int > 0
`MAX_RESOURCE_SIZE`	Max resource bytes	`10485760`	int > 0
`ALLOWED_MIME_TYPES`	Acceptable MIME types	see code	JSON array

Tools

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`TOOL_TIMEOUT`	Tool invocation timeout (secs)	`60`	int > 0
`MAX_TOOL_RETRIES`	Max retry attempts	`3`	int ≥ 0
`TOOL_RATE_LIMIT`	Tool calls per minute	`100`	int > 0
`TOOL_CONCURRENT_LIMIT`	Concurrent tool invocations	`10`	int > 0

Prompts

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`PROMPT_CACHE_SIZE`	Cached prompt templates	`100`	int > 0
`MAX_PROMPT_SIZE`	Max prompt template size (bytes)	`102400`	int > 0
`PROMPT_RENDER_TIMEOUT`	Jinja render timeout (secs)	`10`	int > 0

Health Checks

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`HEALTH_CHECK_INTERVAL`	Health poll interval (secs)	`60`	int > 0
`HEALTH_CHECK_TIMEOUT`	Health request timeout (secs)	`10`	int > 0
`UNHEALTHY_THRESHOLD`	Fail-count before peer deactivation,	`3`	int > 0
	Set to -1 if deactivation is not needed.

Database

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`DB_POOL_SIZE`	SQLAlchemy connection pool size	`200`	int > 0
`DB_MAX_OVERFLOW`	Extra connections beyond pool	`10`	int ≥ 0
`DB_POOL_TIMEOUT`	Wait for connection (secs)	`30`	int > 0
`DB_POOL_RECYCLE`	Recycle connections (secs)	`3600`	int > 0

Cache Backend

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`CACHE_TYPE`	Backend (`memory`/`redis`)	`memory`	`none`, `memory`,`redis`
`REDIS_URL`	Redis connection URL	(none)	string or empty
`CACHE_PREFIX`	Key prefix	`mcpgw:`	string

🧠 none disables caching entirely. Use memory for dev, database for persistence, or redis for distributed caching.

Development

Setting	Description	Default	Options
`DEV_MODE`	Enable dev mode	`false`	bool
`RELOAD`	Auto-reload on changes	`false`	bool
`DEBUG`	Debug logging	`false`	bool

Running

Makefile

 make serve               # Run production Gunicorn server on
 make serve-ssl           # Run Gunicorn behind HTTPS on :4444 (uses ./certs)

Script helper

To run the development (uvicorn) server:

make dev
# or
./run.sh --reload --log debug --workers 2

run.sh is a wrapper around uvicorn that loads .env, supports reload, and passes arguments to the server.

Key flags:

Flag	Purpose	Example
`-e, --env FILE`	load env-file	`--env prod.env`
`-H, --host`	bind address	`--host 127.0.0.1`
`-p, --port`	listen port	`--port 8080`
`-w, --workers`	gunicorn workers	`--workers 4`
`-r, --reload`	auto-reload	`--reload`

Manual (Uvicorn)

uvicorn mcpgateway.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 4444 --workers 4

Authentication examples

# Generate a JWT token using JWT_SECRET_KEY and export it as MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN
# Note that the module needs to be installed. If running locally use:
# python3 mcpgateway/utils/create_jwt_token.py
export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token)

# Use the JWT token in an API call
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/tools

☁️ AWS / Azure / OpenShift

Deployment details can be found in the GitHub Pages.

☁️ IBM Cloud Code Engine Deployment

This project supports deployment to IBM Cloud Code Engine using the ibmcloud CLI and the IBM Container Registry.

☁️ IBM Cloud Code Engine Deployment

🔧 Prerequisites

Podman or Docker installed locally
IBM Cloud CLI (use make ibmcloud-cli-install to install)
An IBM Cloud API key with access to Code Engine & Container Registry
Code Engine and Container Registry services enabled in your IBM Cloud account

📦 Environment Variables

Create a .env file (or export the variables in your shell). The first block is required; the second provides tunable defaults you can override:

# ── Required ─────────────────────────────────────────────
IBMCLOUD_REGION=us-south
IBMCLOUD_RESOURCE_GROUP=default
IBMCLOUD_PROJECT=my-codeengine-project
IBMCLOUD_CODE_ENGINE_APP=mcpgateway
IBMCLOUD_IMAGE_NAME=us.icr.io/myspace/mcpgateway:latest
IBMCLOUD_IMG_PROD=mcpgateway/mcpgateway
IBMCLOUD_API_KEY=your_api_key_here   # Optional – omit to use interactive `ibmcloud login --sso`

# ── Optional overrides (sensible defaults provided) ──────
IBMCLOUD_CPU=1                       # vCPUs for the app
IBMCLOUD_MEMORY=4G                   # Memory allocation
IBMCLOUD_REGISTRY_SECRET=my-regcred  # Name of the Container Registry secret

✅ Quick check: make ibmcloud-check-env

🚀 Make Targets

Target	Purpose
`make ibmcloud-cli-install`	Install IBM Cloud CLI and required plugins
`make ibmcloud-login`	Log in to IBM Cloud (API key or SSO)
`make ibmcloud-ce-login`	Select the Code Engine project & region
`make ibmcloud-tag`	Tag the local container image
`make ibmcloud-push`	Push the image to IBM Container Registry
`make ibmcloud-deploy`	Create or update the Code Engine application (uses CPU/memory/secret)
`make ibmcloud-ce-status`	Show current deployment status
`make ibmcloud-ce-logs`	Stream logs from the running app
`make ibmcloud-ce-rm`	Delete the Code Engine application

📝 Example Workflow

make ibmcloud-check-env
make ibmcloud-cli-install
make ibmcloud-login
make ibmcloud-ce-login
make ibmcloud-tag
make ibmcloud-push
make ibmcloud-deploy
make ibmcloud-ce-status
make ibmcloud-ce-logs

API Endpoints

You can test the API endpoints through curl, or Swagger UI, and check detailed documentation on ReDoc:

Swagger UI → http://localhost:4444/docs
ReDoc → http://localhost:4444/redoc

Generate an API Bearer token, and test the various API endpoints.

🔐 Authentication & Health Checks

# Generate a bearer token using the configured secret key (use the same as your .env)
export MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN=$(python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token -u admin --secret my-test-key)
echo ${MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN}

# Quickly confirm that authentication works and the gateway is healthy
curl -s -k -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" https://localhost:4444/health
# {"status":"healthy"}

# Quickly confirm the gateway version & DB connectivity
curl -s -k -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" https://localhost:4444/version | jq

🧱 Protocol APIs (MCP) /protocol

# Initialize MCP session
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "protocol_version":"2025-03-26",
           "capabilities":{},
           "client_info":{"name":"MyClient","version":"1.0.0"}
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/protocol/initialize

# Ping (JSON-RPC style)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"ping"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/protocol/ping

# Completion for prompt/resource arguments (not implemented)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "ref":{"type":"ref/prompt","name":"example_prompt"},
           "argument":{"name":"topic","value":"py"}
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/protocol/completion/complete

# Sampling (streaming) (not implemented)
curl -N -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "messages":[{"role":"user","content":{"type":"text","text":"Hello"}}],
           "maxTokens":16
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/protocol/sampling/createMessage

🧠 JSON-RPC Utility /rpc

# Generic JSON-RPC calls (tools, gateways, roots, etc.)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"list_tools"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/rpc

Handles any method name: list_tools, list_gateways, prompts/get, or invokes a tool if method matches a registered tool name .

🔧 Tool Management /tools

# Register a new tool
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "name":"clock_tool",
           "url":"http://localhost:9000/rpc",
           "description":"Returns current time",
           "input_schema":{
             "type":"object",
             "properties":{"timezone":{"type":"string"}},
             "required":[]
           }
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/tools

# List tools
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/tools

# Get tool by ID
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/tools/1

# Update tool
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{ "description":"Updated desc" }' \
     http://localhost:4444/tools/1

# Toggle active status
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/tools/1/toggle?activate=false
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/tools/1/toggle?activate=true

# Delete tool
curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/tools/1

🌐 Gateway Management /gateways

# Register an MCP server as a new gateway provider
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"peer_gateway","url":"http://peer:4444"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/gateways

# List gateways
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/gateways

# Get gateway by ID
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/gateways/1

# Update gateway
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"description":"New description"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/gateways/1

# Toggle active status
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/gateways/1/toggle?activate=false

# Delete gateway
curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/gateways/1

📁 Resource Management /resources

# Register resource
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "uri":"config://app/settings",
           "name":"App Settings",
           "content":"key=value"
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/resources

# List resources
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/resources

# Read a resource
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/resources/config://app/settings

# Update resource
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"content":"new=value"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/resources/config://app/settings

# Delete resource
curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/resources/config://app/settings

# Subscribe to updates (SSE)
curl -N -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/resources/subscribe/config://app/settings

📝 Prompt Management /prompts

# Create prompt template
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "name":"greet",
           "template":"Hello, {{ user }}!",
           "argument_schema":{
             "type":"object",
             "properties":{"user":{"type":"string"}},
             "required":["user"]
           }
         }' \
     http://localhost:4444/prompts

# List prompts
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/prompts

# Get prompt (with args)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"user":"Alice"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/prompts/greet

# Get prompt (no args)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/prompts/greet

# Update prompt
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"template":"Hi, {{ user }}!"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/prompts/greet

# Toggle active
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/prompts/5/toggle?activate=false

# Delete prompt
curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/prompts/greet

🌲 Root Management /roots

# List roots
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/roots

# Add root
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"uri":"/data","name":"Data Root"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/roots

# Remove root
curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/roots/%2Fdata

# Subscribe to root changes (SSE)
curl -N -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/roots/changes

🖥️ Server Management /servers

# List servers
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/servers

# Get server
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/servers/1

# Create server
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name":"db","description":"Database","associatedTools": ["1","2","3"]}' \
     http://localhost:4444/servers

# Update server
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"description":"Updated"}' \
     http://localhost:4444/servers/1

# Toggle active
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" \
     http://localhost:4444/servers/1/toggle?activate=false

📊 Metrics /metrics

# Get aggregated metrics
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/metrics

# Reset metrics (all or per-entity)
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/metrics/reset
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/metrics/reset?entity=tool&id=1

📡 Events & Health

# SSE: all events
curl -N -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCPGATEWAY_BEARER_TOKEN" http://localhost:4444/events

# WebSocket
wscat -c ws://localhost:4444/ws \
      -H "Authorization: Basic $(echo -n admin:changeme|base64)"

# Health check
curl http://localhost:4444/health

Full Swagger UI at /docs.

🛠️ Sample Tool

uvicorn sample_tool.clock_tool:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"get_time","params":{"timezone":"UTC"}}' \
     http://localhost:9000/rpc

Testing

make test            # Run unit tests
make lint            # Run lint tools

Project Structure

📁 Directory and file structure for mcpgateway

# ────────── CI / Quality & Meta-files ──────────
├── .bumpversion.cfg                # Automated semantic-version bumps
├── .coveragerc                     # Coverage.py settings
├── .darglint                       # Doc-string linter rules
├── .dockerignore                   # Context exclusions for image builds
├── .editorconfig                   # Consistent IDE / editor behaviour
├── .env                            # Local runtime variables (git-ignored)
├── .env.ce                         # IBM Code Engine runtime env (ignored)
├── .env.ce.example                 # Sample env for IBM Code Engine
├── .env.example                    # Generic sample env file
├── .env.gcr                        # Google Cloud Run runtime env (ignored)
├── .eslintrc.json                  # ESLint rules for JS / TS assets
├── .flake8                         # Flake-8 configuration
├── .gitattributes                  # Git attributes (e.g. EOL normalisation)
├── .github                         # GitHub settings, CI/CD workflows & templates
│   ├── CODEOWNERS                  # Default reviewers
│   └── workflows/                  # Bandit, Docker, CodeQL, Python Package, Container Deployment, etc.
├── .gitignore                      # Git exclusion rules
├── .hadolint.yaml                  # Hadolint rules for Dockerfiles
├── .htmlhintrc                     # HTMLHint rules
├── .markdownlint.json              # Markdown-lint rules
├── .pre-commit-config.yaml         # Pre-commit hooks (ruff, black, mypy, …)
├── .pycodestyle                    # PEP-8 checker settings
├── .pylintrc                       # Pylint configuration
├── .pyspelling.yml                 # Spell-checker dictionary & filters
├── .ruff.toml                      # Ruff linter / formatter settings
├── .spellcheck-en.txt              # Extra dictionary entries
├── .stylelintrc.json               # Stylelint rules for CSS
├── .travis.yml                     # Legacy Travis CI config (reference)
├── .whitesource                    # WhiteSource security-scanning config
├── .yamllint                       # yamllint ruleset

# ────────── Documentation & Guidance ──────────
├── CHANGELOG.md                    # Version-by-version change log
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md              # Community behaviour guidelines
├── CONTRIBUTING.md                 # How to file issues & send PRs
├── DEVELOPING.md                   # Contributor workflows & style guide
├── LICENSE                         # Apache License 2.0
├── README.md                       # Project overview & quick-start
├── SECURITY.md                     # Security policy & CVE disclosure process
├── TESTING.md                      # Testing strategy, fixtures & guidelines

# ────────── Containerisation & Runtime ──────────
├── Containerfile                   # OCI image build (Docker / Podman)
├── Containerfile.lite              # FROM scratch UBI-Micro production build
├── docker-compose.yml              # Local multi-service stack
├── podman-compose-sonarqube.yaml   # One-liner SonarQube stack
├── run-gunicorn.sh                 # Opinionated Gunicorn startup script
├── run.sh                          # Uvicorn shortcut with arg parsing

# ────────── Build / Packaging / Tooling ──────────
├── MANIFEST.in                     # sdist inclusion rules
├── Makefile                        # Dev & deployment targets
├── package-lock.json               # Deterministic npm lock-file
├── package.json                    # Front-end / docs tooling deps
├── pyproject.toml                  # Poetry / PDM config & lint rules
├── sonar-code.properties           # SonarQube analysis settings
├── uv.lock                         # UV resolver lock-file

# ────────── Kubernetes & Helm Assets ──────────
├── charts                          # Helm chart(s) for K8s / OpenShift
│   ├── mcp-stack                   # Umbrella chart
│   │   ├── Chart.yaml              # Chart metadata
│   │   ├── templates/…             # Manifest templates
│   │   └── values.yaml             # Default values
│   └── README.md                   # Install / upgrade guide
├── k8s                             # Raw (non-Helm) K8s manifests
│   └── *.yaml                      # Deployment, Service, PVC resources

# ────────── Documentation Source ──────────
├── docs                            # MkDocs site source
│   ├── base.yml                    # MkDocs "base" configuration snippet (do not modify)
│   ├── mkdocs.yml                  # Site configuration (requires base.yml)
│   ├── requirements.txt            # Python dependencies for the MkDocs site
│   ├── Makefile                    # Make targets for building/serving the docs
│   └── theme                       # Custom MkDocs theme assets
│       └── logo.png                # Logo for the documentation theme
│   └── docs                        # Markdown documentation
│       ├── architecture/           # ADRs for the project
│       ├── articles/               # Long-form writeups
│       ├── blog/                   # Blog posts
│       ├── deployment/             # Deployment guides (AWS, Azure, etc.)
│       ├── development/            # Development workflows & CI docs
│       ├── images/                 # Diagrams & screenshots
│       ├── index.md                # Top-level docs landing page
│       ├── manage/                 # Management topics (backup, logging, tuning, upgrade)
│       ├── overview/               # Feature overviews & UI documentation
│       ├── security/               # Security guidance & policies
│       ├── testing/                # Testing strategy & fixtures
│       └── using/                  # User-facing usage guides (agents, clients, etc.)
│       ├── media/                  # Social media, press coverage, videos & testimonials
│       │   ├── press/              # Press articles and blog posts
│       │   ├── social/             # Tweets, LinkedIn posts, YouTube embeds
│       │   ├── testimonials/       # Customer quotes & community feedback
│       │   └── kit/                # Media kit & logos for bloggers & press
├── dictionary.dic                  # Custom dictionary for spell-checker (make spellcheck)

# ────────── Application & Libraries ──────────
├── agent_runtimes                  # Configurable agentic frameworks converted to MCP Servers
├── mcpgateway                      # ← main application package
│   ├── __init__.py                 # Package metadata & version constant
│   ├── admin.py                    # FastAPI routers for Admin UI
│   ├── cache
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── resource_cache.py       # LRU+TTL cache implementation
│   │   └── session_registry.py     # Session ↔ cache mapping
│   ├── config.py                   # Pydantic settings loader
│   ├── db.py                       # SQLAlchemy models & engine setup
│   ├── federation
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── discovery.py            # Peer-gateway discovery
│   │   ├── forward.py              # RPC forwarding
│   │   └── manager.py              # Orchestration & health checks
│   ├── handlers
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── sampling.py             # Streaming sampling handler
│   ├── main.py                     # FastAPI app factory & startup events
│   ├── mcp.db                      # SQLite fixture for tests
│   ├── py.typed                    # PEP 561 marker (ships type hints)
│   ├── schemas.py                  # Shared Pydantic DTOs
│   ├── services
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── completion_service.py   # Prompt / argument completion
│   │   ├── gateway_service.py      # Peer-gateway registry
│   │   ├── logging_service.py      # Central logging helpers
│   │   ├── prompt_service.py       # Prompt CRUD & rendering
│   │   ├── resource_service.py     # Resource registration & retrieval
│   │   ├── root_service.py         # File-system root registry
│   │   ├── server_service.py       # Server registry & monitoring
│   │   └── tool_service.py         # Tool registry & invocation
│   ├── static
│   │   ├── admin.css               # Styles for Admin UI
│   │   └── admin.js                # Behaviour for Admin UI
│   ├── templates
│   │   └── admin.html              # HTMX/Alpine Admin UI template
│   ├── transports
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── base.py                 # Abstract transport interface
│   │   ├── sse_transport.py        # Server-Sent Events transport
│   │   ├── stdio_transport.py      # stdio transport for embedding
│   │   └── websocket_transport.py  # WS transport with ping/pong
│   ├── types.py                    # Core enums / type aliases
│   ├── utils
│   │   ├── create_jwt_token.py     # CLI & library for JWT generation
│   │   ├── services_auth.py        # Service-to-service auth dependency
│   │   └── verify_credentials.py   # Basic / JWT auth helpers
│   ├── validation
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── jsonrpc.py              # JSON-RPC 2.0 validation
│   └── version.py                  # Library version helper
├── mcpgateway-wrapper              # Stdio client wrapper (PyPI)
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   ├── README.md
│   └── src/mcpgateway_wrapper/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── server.py               # Wrapper entry-point
├── mcp-servers                     # Sample downstream MCP servers
├── mcp.db                          # Default SQLite DB (auto-created)
├── mcpgrid                         # Experimental grid client / PoC
├── os_deps.sh                      # Installs system-level deps for CI

# ────────── Tests & QA Assets ──────────
├── test_readme.py                  # Guard: README stays in sync
├── tests
│   ├── conftest.py                 # Shared fixtures
│   ├── e2e/…                       # End-to-end scenarios
│   ├── hey/…                       # Load-test logs & helper script
│   ├── integration/…               # API-level integration tests
│   └── unit/…                      # Pure unit tests for business logic

API Documentation

Swagger UI → http://localhost:4444/docs
ReDoc → http://localhost:4444/redoc
Admin Panel → http://localhost:4444/admin

Makefile targets

This project offer the following Makefile targets. Type make in the project root to show all targets.

🔧 Available Makefile targets

🐍 MCP CONTEXT FORGE  (An enterprise-ready Model Context Protocol Gateway)
🔧 SYSTEM-LEVEL DEPENDENCIES (DEV BUILD ONLY)
os-deps              - Install Graphviz, Pandoc, Trivy, SCC used for dev docs generation and security scan
🌱 VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT & INSTALLATION
venv                 - Create a fresh virtual environment with uv & friends
activate             - Activate the virtual environment in the current shell
install              - Install project into the venv
install-dev          - Install project (incl. dev deps) into the venv
install-db           - Install project (incl. postgres and redis) into venv
update               - Update all installed deps inside the venv
check-env            - Verify all required env vars in .env are present
▶️ SERVE & TESTING
serve                - Run production Gunicorn server on :4444
certs                - Generate self-signed TLS cert & key in ./certs (won't overwrite)
serve-ssl            - Run Gunicorn behind HTTPS on :4444 (uses ./certs)
dev                  - Run fast-reload dev server (uvicorn)
run                  - Execute helper script ./run.sh
test                 - Run unit tests with pytest
test-curl            - Smoke-test API endpoints with curl script
pytest-examples      - Run README / examples through pytest-examples
clean                - Remove caches, build artefacts, virtualenv, docs, certs, coverage, SBOM, etc.
📊 COVERAGE & METRICS
coverage             - Run tests with coverage, emit md/HTML/XML + badge
pip-licenses         - Produce dependency license inventory (markdown)
scc                  - Quick LoC/complexity snapshot with scc
scc-report           - Generate HTML LoC & per-file metrics with scc
📚 DOCUMENTATION & SBOM
docs                 - Build docs (graphviz + handsdown + images + SBOM)
images               - Generate architecture & dependency diagrams
🔍 LINTING & STATIC ANALYSIS
lint                 - Run the full linting suite (see targets below)
black                - Reformat code with black
autoflake            - Remove unused imports / variables with autoflake
isort                - Organise & sort imports with isort
flake8               - PEP-8 style & logical errors
pylint               - Pylint static analysis
markdownlint         - Lint Markdown files with markdownlint (requires markdownlint-cli)
mypy                 - Static type-checking with mypy
bandit               - Security scan with bandit
pydocstyle           - Docstring style checker
pycodestyle          - Simple PEP-8 checker
pre-commit           - Run all configured pre-commit hooks
ruff                 - Ruff linter + formatter
ty                   - Ty type checker from astral
pyright              - Static type-checking with Pyright
radon                - Code complexity & maintainability metrics
pyroma               - Validate packaging metadata
importchecker        - Detect orphaned imports
spellcheck           - Spell-check the codebase
fawltydeps           - Detect undeclared / unused deps
wily                 - Maintainability report
pyre                 - Static analysis with Facebook Pyre
depend               - List dependencies in ≈requirements format
snakeviz             - Profile & visualise with snakeviz
pstats               - Generate PNG call-graph from cProfile stats
spellcheck-sort      - Sort local spellcheck dictionary
tox                  - Run tox across multi-Python versions
sbom                 - Produce a CycloneDX SBOM and vulnerability scan
pytype               - Flow-sensitive type checker
check-manifest       - Verify sdist/wheel completeness
yamllint            - Lint YAML files (uses .yamllint)
jsonlint            - Validate every *.json file with jq (‐‐exit-status)
tomllint            - Validate *.toml files with tomlcheck
🕸️  WEBPAGE LINTERS & STATIC ANALYSIS (HTML/CSS/JS lint + security scans + formatting)
install-web-linters  - Install HTMLHint, Stylelint, ESLint, Retire.js & Prettier via npm
lint-web             - Run HTMLHint, Stylelint, ESLint, Retire.js and npm audit
format-web           - Format HTML, CSS & JS files with Prettier
osv-install          - Install/upgrade osv-scanner (Go)
osv-scan-source      - Scan source & lockfiles for CVEs
osv-scan-image       - Scan the built container image for CVEs
osv-scan             - Run all osv-scanner checks (source, image, licence)
📡 SONARQUBE ANALYSIS
sonar-deps-podman    - Install podman-compose + supporting tools
sonar-deps-docker    - Install docker-compose + supporting tools
sonar-up-podman      - Launch SonarQube with podman-compose
sonar-up-docker      - Launch SonarQube with docker-compose
sonar-submit-docker  - Run containerised Sonar Scanner CLI with Docker
sonar-submit-podman  - Run containerised Sonar Scanner CLI with Podman
pysonar-scanner      - Run scan with Python wrapper (pysonar-scanner)
sonar-info           - How to create a token & which env vars to export
🛡️ SECURITY & PACKAGE SCANNING
trivy                - Scan container image for CVEs (HIGH/CRIT). Needs podman socket enabled
dockle               - Lint the built container image via tarball (no daemon/socket needed)
hadolint             - Lint Containerfile/Dockerfile(s) with hadolint
pip-audit            - Audit Python dependencies for published CVEs
📦 DEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT
deps-update          - Run update-deps.py to update all dependencies in pyproject.toml and docs/requirements.txt
containerfile-update - Update base image in Containerfile to latest tag
📦 PACKAGING & PUBLISHING
dist                 - Clean-build wheel *and* sdist into ./dist
wheel                - Build wheel only
sdist                - Build source distribution only
verify               - Build + twine + check-manifest + pyroma (no upload)
publish              - Verify, then upload to PyPI (needs TWINE_* creds)
🦭 PODMAN CONTAINER BUILD & RUN
podman-dev           - Build development container image
podman               - Build container image
podman-prod          - Build production container image (using ubi-micro → scratch). Not supported on macOS.
podman-run           - Run the container on HTTP  (port 4444)
podman-run-shell     - Run the container on HTTP  (port 4444) and start a shell
podman-run-ssl       - Run the container on HTTPS (port 4444, self-signed)
podman-run-ssl-host  - Run the container on HTTPS with --network-host (port 4444, self-signed)
podman-stop          - Stop & remove the container
podman-test          - Quick curl smoke-test against the container
podman-logs          - Follow container logs (⌃C to quit)
podman-stats         - Show container resource stats (if supported)
podman-top           - Show live top-level process info in container
podman-shell         - Open an interactive shell inside the Podman container
🐋 DOCKER BUILD & RUN
docker-dev           - Build development Docker image
docker               - Build production Docker image
docker-prod          - Build production container image (using ubi-micro → scratch). Not supported on macOS.
docker-run           - Run the container on HTTP  (port 4444)
docker-run-ssl       - Run the container on HTTPS (port 4444, self-signed)
docker-stop          - Stop & remove the container
docker-test          - Quick curl smoke-test against the container
docker-logs          - Follow container logs (⌃C to quit)
docker-stats         - Show container resource usage stats (non-streaming)
docker-top           - Show top-level process info in Docker container
docker-shell         - Open an interactive shell inside the Docker container
🛠️ COMPOSE STACK     - Build / start / stop the multi-service stack
compose-up           - Bring the whole stack up (detached)
compose-restart      - Recreate changed containers, pulling / building as needed
compose-build        - Build (or rebuild) images defined in the compose file
compose-pull         - Pull the latest images only
compose-logs         - Tail logs from all services (Ctrl-C to exit)
compose-ps           - Show container status table
compose-shell        - Open an interactive shell in the "gateway" container
compose-stop         - Gracefully stop the stack (keep containers)
compose-down         - Stop & remove containers (keep named volumes)
compose-rm           - Remove *stopped* containers
compose-clean        - ✨ Down **and** delete named volumes (data-loss ⚠)
☁️ IBM CLOUD CODE ENGINE
ibmcloud-check-env          - Verify all required IBM Cloud env vars are set
ibmcloud-cli-install        - Auto-install IBM Cloud CLI + required plugins (OS auto-detected)
ibmcloud-login              - Login to IBM Cloud CLI using IBMCLOUD_API_KEY (--sso)
ibmcloud-ce-login           - Set Code Engine target project and region
ibmcloud-list-containers    - List deployed Code Engine apps
ibmcloud-tag                - Tag container image for IBM Container Registry
ibmcloud-push               - Push image to IBM Container Registry
ibmcloud-deploy             - Deploy (or update) container image in Code Engine
ibmcloud-ce-logs            - Stream logs for the deployed application
ibmcloud-ce-status          - Get deployment status
ibmcloud-ce-rm              - Delete the Code Engine application
🧪 MINIKUBE LOCAL CLUSTER
minikube-install      - Install Minikube (macOS, Linux, or Windows via choco)
helm-install          - Install Helm CLI (macOS, Linux, or Windows)
minikube-start        - Start local Minikube cluster with Ingress + DNS + metrics-server
minikube-stop         - Stop the Minikube cluster
minikube-delete       - Delete the Minikube cluster
minikube-image-load   - Build and load ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:latest into Minikube
minikube-k8s-apply    - Apply Kubernetes manifests from k8s/
minikube-status       - Show status of Minikube and ingress pods
🛠️ HELM CHART TASKS
helm-lint            - Lint the Helm chart (static analysis)
helm-package         - Package the chart into dist/ as mcp-stack-<ver>.tgz
helm-deploy          - Upgrade/Install chart into Minikube (profile mcpgw)
helm-delete          - Uninstall the chart release from Minikube
🏠 LOCAL PYPI SERVER
local-pypi-install   - Install pypiserver for local testing
local-pypi-start     - Start local PyPI server on :8084 (no auth)
local-pypi-start-auth - Start local PyPI server with basic auth (admin/admin)
local-pypi-stop      - Stop local PyPI server
local-pypi-upload    - Upload existing package to local PyPI (no auth)
local-pypi-upload-auth - Upload existing package to local PyPI (with auth)
local-pypi-test      - Install package from local PyPI
local-pypi-clean     - Full cycle: build → upload → install locally
🏠 LOCAL DEVPI SERVER
devpi-install        - Install devpi server and client
devpi-init           - Initialize devpi server (first time only)
devpi-start          - Start devpi server
devpi-stop           - Stop devpi server
devpi-setup-user     - Create user and dev index
devpi-upload         - Upload existing package to devpi
devpi-test           - Install package from devpi
devpi-clean          - Full cycle: build → upload → install locally
devpi-status         - Show devpi server status
devpi-web            - Open devpi web interface

🔍 Troubleshooting

Port publishing on WSL2 (rootless Podman & Docker Desktop)

Diagnose the listener

# Inside your WSL distro
ss -tlnp | grep 4444        # Use ss
netstat -anp | grep 4444    # or netstat

Seeing :::4444 LISTEN rootlessport is normal – the IPv6 wildcard socket (::) also accepts IPv4 traffic when net.ipv6.bindv6only = 0 (default on Linux).

Why localhost fails on Windows

WSL 2's NAT layer rewrites only the IPv6 side of the dual-stack listener. From Windows, http://127.0.0.1:4444 (or Docker Desktop's "localhost") therefore times-out.

Fix (Podman rootless)

# Inside the WSL distro
echo "wsl" | sudo tee /etc/containers/podman-machine
systemctl --user restart podman.socket

ss should now show 0.0.0.0:4444 instead of :::4444, and the service becomes reachable from Windows and the LAN.

Fix (Docker Desktop > 4.19)

Docker Desktop adds a "WSL integration" switch per-distro. Turn it on for your distro, restart Docker Desktop, then restart the container:

docker restart mcpgateway

Gateway starts but immediately exits ("Failed to read DATABASE_URL")

Copy .env.example to .env first:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit DATABASE_URL, JWT_SECRET_KEY, BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD, etc. Missing or empty required vars cause a fast-fail at startup.

Contributing

Fork the repo, create a feature branch.
Run make lint and fix any issues.
Keep make test green and 100% coverage.
Open a PR – describe your changes clearly.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Changelog

A complete changelog can be found here: CHANGELOG.md

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 – see LICENSE

Core Authors and Maintainers

Mihai Criveti - Distinguished Engineer, Agentic AI

Special thanks to our contributors for helping us improve ContextForge MCP Gateway:

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 272 Commits
.devcontainer		.devcontainer
.github		.github
charts		charts
docs		docs
k8s		k8s
mcpgateway		mcpgateway
tests		tests
.bumpversion.cfg		.bumpversion.cfg
.coveragerc		.coveragerc
.darglint		.darglint
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.env.ce.example		.env.ce.example
.env.example		.env.example
.eslintrc.json		.eslintrc.json
.flake8		.flake8
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.hadolint.yaml		.hadolint.yaml
.htmlhintrc		.htmlhintrc
.markdownlint.json		.markdownlint.json
.pre-commit-config.yaml		.pre-commit-config.yaml
.pycodestyle		.pycodestyle
.pylintrc		.pylintrc
.pyspelling.yml		.pyspelling.yml
.ruff.toml		.ruff.toml
.spellcheck-en.txt		.spellcheck-en.txt
.stylelintrc.json		.stylelintrc.json
.travis.yml		.travis.yml
.whitesource		.whitesource
.yamllint		.yamllint
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Containerfile		Containerfile
Containerfile.lite		Containerfile.lite
DEVELOPING.md		DEVELOPING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
MANIFEST.in		MANIFEST.in
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
TESTING.md		TESTING.md
__init__		__init__
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
gunicorn.config.py		gunicorn.config.py
os_deps.sh		os_deps.sh
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
podman-compose-sonarqube.yaml		podman-compose-sonarqube.yaml
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
run-gunicorn-v2.sh		run-gunicorn-v2.sh
run-gunicorn.sh		run-gunicorn.sh
run.sh		run.sh
smoketest.py		smoketest.py
sonar-code.properties		sonar-code.properties
test_readme.py		test_readme.py
uv.lock		uv.lock

License

IBM/mcp-context-forge

Folders and files

Latest commit

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MCP Gateway

🚀 Overview & Goals

Quick Start: PyPi

Quick Start (Pre-built Container Image)

Optional: Mount a local volume for persistent SQLite storage

Generate a token for API access

Smoke-test the running container

Running the MCP Gateway stdio wrapper

🧩 Running from an MCP Client (mcpgateway.wrapper)

1 · Install uv (uvenv is an alias it provides)

2 · Create an on-the-spot venv & run the wrapper

Claude Desktop JSON (runs through uvenv run)

🚀 Using with Claude Desktop (or any GUI MCP client)

Quick Start (VS Code Dev Container)

Prerequisites

Using the Dev Container

GitHub Codespaces

Quick Start (manual install)

Prerequisites

One-liner (dev)

Containerised (self-signed TLS)

Smoke-test the API

Installation

Via Make

UV (alternative)

pip (alternative)

Optional (PostgreSQL adapter)

Quick Postgres container

Configuration (.env or env vars)

Basic

Authentication

UI Features

Security

Logging

Transport

Federation

Resources

Tools

Prompts

Health Checks

Database

Cache Backend

Development

Running

Makefile

Script helper

Manual (Uvicorn)

Authentication examples

☁️ AWS / Azure / OpenShift

☁️ IBM Cloud Code Engine Deployment

🔧 Prerequisites

📦 Environment Variables

🚀 Make Targets

📝 Example Workflow

API Endpoints

Testing

Project Structure

API Documentation

Makefile targets

🔍 Troubleshooting

Diagnose the listener

Why localhost fails on Windows

Fix (Podman rootless)

Fix (Docker Desktop > 4.19)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Changelog

License

Core Authors and Maintainers

Star History and Project Activity

About

Topics

Resources

License

🧩 Running from an MCP Client (`mcpgateway.wrapper`)

1 · Install `uv` (`uvenv` is an alias it provides)

Configuration (`.env` or env vars)

Packages