The Tool Desk
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An MCP gateway is an application layer between MCP clients and one or more MCP servers. It can route requests and enforce shared policy; it does not replace or extend the MCP protocol. Start with a small routing proxy if you only need to connect clients to registered servers. Add process management, a control plane, or Kubernetes components only when your deployment needs them.
Decide what your gateway must do
Before selecting a framework or deployment platform, write down the gateway’s boundaries. A per-developer proxy, a shared multi-user service, and a Kubernetes control plane solve different problems. The MCP protocol does not require a gateway, backend lifecycle management, or any particular hosting model.
- Clients: Which MCP clients will connect, and which protocol version must they support?
- Backends: Will the gateway connect to local stdio processes, remote Streamable HTTP servers, or both?
- Identity: Is access tied to an individual user, a machine identity, or both? Which tools use each model?
- Tenancy: Must users or organizations be isolated from one another?
- Lifecycle: Does the gateway only route to existing servers, or must it start, update, and stop them?
- Operations: What auditing, metrics, rate limits, and availability expectations apply?
AWS guidance treats local, remote, and gateway hosting as options with different identity and operational trade-offs—not as a single required pattern. Choose based on your deployment and trust boundaries.
Choose the backend transport and hosting model
The transport decision affects process supervision, networking, and where credentials are held. A gateway that launches local processes has different responsibilities from one that forwards requests to remote servers.
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| Decision | Option | What to account for |
|---|---|---|
| Backend transport | Local stdio process | The gateway or local host must launch and supervise the process. Constrain its environment and lifecycle, and define how it receives only the credentials it needs. Microsoft’s example documents launching stdio servers with a command and arguments. |
| Backend transport | Remote Streamable HTTP | Define the network boundary, backend identity, and streaming behavior. The gateway forwards over the network rather than treating the backend as a local process. Microsoft’s example also documents forwarding to remote Streamable HTTP endpoints. |
| Hosting | Local, per user | Can keep setup and access close to the user, but leaves deployment and updates distributed. |
| Hosting | Shared remote service | Centralizes policy and operations, but requires explicit caller authentication, authorization, and tenant isolation. |
| Gateway scope | Routing proxy | Routes to a static or otherwise managed set of backends. This is the smaller starting point when another system owns server deployment. |
| Gateway scope | Proxy plus lifecycle or control plane | Adds the ability to create, update, or delete adapters. It also adds operational complexity; Microsoft’s project separates routing from lifecycle management. |
| Deployment | Single process with static configuration | Suitable when one service and a fixed registry meet isolation and operations needs. |
| Deployment | Kubernetes routing and control-plane components | Consider when the platform needs adapter lifecycle management or integration with existing Kubernetes controls. Kuadrant’s project is one reference design, not a requirement for every gateway. |
Define the request path and registry
Keep the security and routing decisions visible in the request path. A useful baseline is:
- Receive the request over the supported transport and validate its MCP or JSON-RPC envelope.
- Authenticate the caller when the deployment requires it.
- Authorize the requested tool or resource against the caller’s validated identity and policy.
- Resolve the stable tool or backend identifier in the registry.
- Select the backend credential appropriate to that tool and identity model.
- Forward the request, then validate and normalize the backend response without silently changing protocol behavior.
- Return the response and emit operational or audit events that do not expose secrets.
Start with a registry that maps a stable backend or tool identifier to its endpoint, transport, allowed tools, and credential reference. Keep routing, caller authorization, and backend credential selection as separate decisions. Microsoft’s reference project describes a tool router separately from request routing and lifecycle management.
Validate tool arguments before forwarding them. Reject unknown identifiers and requests that violate the declared schema or policy rather than guessing a destination or silently widening access. Document the protocol versions you accept and how the proxy handles streaming, cancellation, notifications, and upstream errors.
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Pin protocol compatibility and handle state explicitly
The MCP basic specification cited here is dated July 28, 2026. Its request model requires needed metadata to be carried per request: a server must not infer context such as protocol version or client identity from earlier requests on the same connection. State that must span calls needs an explicit identifier supplied by the client on each request.
Consequently, do not use a persistent connection as a substitute for task identity, protocol metadata, or authorization context. If an operation continues across calls, define and validate its explicit identifier and decide which caller is allowed to use it.
Check compatibility across the actual clients, gateway, and servers you intend to deploy. The README for the cited Microsoft implementation says that its documented release requires MCP 2026-07-28 clients and adapters and does not provide legacy initialization, transport sessions, or protocol downgrade. That is a constraint of that version-specific implementation, not a general rule for every MCP gateway.
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Implement authorization at the server boundary
For an HTTP deployment, follow MCP’s authorization discovery framework rather than inventing a discovery or token-validation scheme. The MCP authorization tutorial describes a 401 challenge directing clients to Protected Resource Metadata, followed by authorization-server metadata discovery. Depending on the authorization server, client setup may use pre-registration or Dynamic Client Registration where supported.
Use well-tested libraries for token validation and authorization decisions. Validate that a presented token is appropriate for the gateway, including its audience and other relevant claims, before using its identity in policy decisions. Authentication establishes who is making a request; authorization decides whether that identity may invoke the specific tool or access the specific resource.
Enforce policy in gateway or backend server code on every request. Do not rely on a model selecting only permitted tools: OpenAI’s developer guidance says annotations do not replace authorization, validation, or confirmation. Keep authorization independent of tool descriptions and other model-visible content.
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Choose caller and backend identity deliberately
Caller-to-gateway credentials and gateway-to-backend credentials serve different trust relationships. Use user-delegated identity when access or data ownership is user-specific; use a service identity for authorized machine-to-machine work. Record which model applies to each tool or group of tools, and grant only the permissions that model requires. AWS recommends making this choice per tool or grouping tools that share an authentication pattern.
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Keep upstream credentials out of tool descriptions, model-visible content, ordinary logs, and unprotected configuration. Store them in a secret manager or an equivalent protected mechanism, then give the gateway a reference rather than exposing the secret broadly. The Microsoft example recommends storing static upstream header credentials in Key Vault and passing a secret reference; its described configuration also rejects raw proxy-header values. Prefer an upstream provider’s OAuth flow when one is available.
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Restrict network egress to known backend destinations. If adapters communicate with one another, apply narrow network policy to that traffic as well. For stdio backends, constrain the process environment and permissions; for remote backends, ensure that the gateway reaches only the intended destinations.
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Add governance and operational controls
Routing alone does not provide a governance plan. Set policies and operational measures before exposing a shared gateway:
- Tool catalog: Use stable, understandable names; prevent collisions; and keep the catalog bounded enough for clients and users to navigate.
- Access: Define per-tool permissions and separation of duties rather than granting broad access to every registered backend.
- Traffic: Set rate limits to protect downstream services and define how rejected or throttled requests are reported.
- Observability: Track request volume, latency, errors, denied calls, and backend health. Avoid logging tokens or other secrets.
- Lifecycle: Decide who updates backend versions, how changes are rolled out, and when processes or adapters are shut down.
- Audit: Record the identity, policy outcome, route, and result needed for accountability, while minimizing sensitive data in event records.
A static registry can be enough when a small service routes to a fixed set of servers. If a platform needs to create, update, or delete adapters centrally, a separate control plane may be justified. The Kuadrant project demonstrates an Envoy and Gateway API-oriented Kubernetes design with broker/router and controller components; treat it as a reference architecture, not a required starting point.
Build a narrow prototype, then expand it
A credible first version needs one supported transport path, a small explicit registry, request validation, routing, and clear behavior when a backend fails. For a local prototype, a single stdio backend can help prove the routing path. For a remote prototype, start with a single Streamable HTTP backend. Supporting both transports, multiple tenants, and backend lifecycle management at once obscures which boundary is causing a failure.
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- Define the registry: Record backend or tool identifiers, endpoints, permitted tools, transport, and credential references.
- Implement the request path: Validate the envelope and arguments, authenticate when needed, authorize the requested operation, resolve its route, and forward it.
- Preserve protocol behavior: Make supported streaming, cancellation, notifications, and error behavior explicit; test them with the chosen clients and servers.
- Integrate identity and secrets: Use a vetted authorization approach for HTTP, keep upstream credentials protected, and apply least privilege.
- Add observability and limits: Capture useful operational and audit events, establish rate limits, and monitor backend health.
- Expand only for a reason: Add more transports, tenants, a lifecycle controller, or Kubernetes components when the prototype’s actual deployment requirements call for them.
Test failure and security boundaries
Test the gateway as a policy and protocol boundary, not only as a successful forwarding path. These cases follow from the documented protocol, authorization, and routing responsibilities; they are test recommendations, not reported test results for a particular project.
Quick Recap
- Malformed MCP or JSON-RPC envelopes and invalid tool arguments.
- Unsupported protocol versions and missing per-request metadata.
- Missing, expired, or wrong-audience tokens, plus attempts to call unauthorized tools.
- Backend timeout, unavailability, malformed response, and upstream error handling.
- Streaming and cancellation behavior where the gateway claims to support them.
- Secret-store access denial and attempts to supply raw credentials through an unapproved path.
- Route changes, unknown backend identifiers, and backend shutdown or update behavior.
- Cross-tenant access attempts, including reuse of state identifiers across users.
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