What is Mcpport

mcpport is a lightweight gateway and registry for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), designed to enable standardized connectivity for AI applications.

Use cases

Use cases for mcpport include connecting AI models to data sources, enabling real-time event streaming, and facilitating communication between different AI services in a microservices architecture.

How to use

To use mcpport, start the MCP Gateway with the command ‘uvx mcpport gateway’. Register your MCP Server to the Gateway using the provided registration command, specifying the server details and gateway URL.

Key features

Key features of mcpport include support for WebSocket and HTTP endpoints, IPv6 support, customizable gateway options (like host, port, log level), and a simple registration process for MCP servers.

Where to use

mcpport can be used in various fields where AI applications require standardized communication and data exchange, such as machine learning, data processing, and real-time analytics.

mcpport

mcpport — A lightweight gateway & registry for Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling standardized connectivity for AI applications.

Quick Start

1. Start your MCP Gateway

uvx mcpport gateway

It will start the gateway on port 8765 by default. And the common access points are:

• ws://localhost:8765/mcp/register is the registration endpoint.
• http://localhost:8765/sse is the event stream endpoint(SSE).
• http://localhost:8765/messages is the message endpoint(HTTP).

2. Register your MCP Server to the Gateway

uvx mcpport register \
--stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./" \
--gateway-url "ws://localhost:8765/mcp/register" \
--server-name "file"

It will register a MCP server named file to the gateway. The server is a simple file system server, which is implemented by @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem.

Authentication

You can use --auth-token to set the auth token for the gateway.

uvx mcpport gateway --auth-token "my-token1" --auth-token "my-token2"

The default authentication method is Bearer token(Set to Authorization header).

If you set the auth token for the gateway, you need to set the same auth token for the MCP server when you register it.

uvx mcpport register \
--stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./" \
--gateway-url "ws://localhost:8765/mcp/register" \
--server-name "file" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer my-token1"

And you must set the auth token for SSE connections. You can set the auth token in the Authorization header.

Architecture

The architecture of the MCP gateway is as follows:

NAT Traversal Architecture for Cross-Network MCP Tool Access

The MCPPort solution enables edge devices to seamlessly provide MCP services through secure NAT traversal. By establishing persistent bidirectional WebSocket connections between MCPPort Clients (running on edge devices) and the central MCPPort Gateway, the system creates secure tunnels that bypass firewall restrictions.

Advanced Usage

ipv6 Support

Start Your MCP Gateway With ipv6 Support

uvx mcpport gateway --host "::" --ipv6

SSL Support

You can use --ssl-enabled to enable SSL support for the gateway.

uv run mcpport gateway \
--ssl-enabled \
--ssl-keyfile {path_to_your_keyfile} \
--ssl-certfile {path_to_your_certfile}

Then you can register your MCP server to the gateway with wss:// protocol. And access the SSE and message endpoints with https:// protocol.

uvx mcpport register \
--stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./" \
--gateway-url "wss://localhost:8765/mcp/register" \
--server-name "file" 

If you want to disable the SSL verification, you can use --no-ssl-verify option.

uvx mcpport register \
--stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./" \
--gateway-url "wss://localhost:8765/mcp/register" \
--server-name "file" \
--no-ssl-verify

Note: This is not safe and should only be used for testing purposes.

SSL Support With CA Cert

You use your own CA cert to sign the server certificate. It is recommended if you not have a trusted CA cert.

Fist, you need to generate a CA cert and sign the server certificate with it. We have a script to do this. You can find it in the scripts folder.

./scripts/generate-certs.sh --domain localhost

The all generated files will be in the certs folder. It will generate the following files:

ls certs     
ca.crt  ca.key  ca.srl  index.txt  openssl.cnf  serial  server.crt  server.csr  server.key

Then start the gateway with the CA cert.

uvx mcpport gateway \
--ssl-enabled \
--ssl-keyfile ./certs/server.key \
--ssl-certfile ./certs/server.crt

Then register your MCP server to the gateway with the CA cert.

uvx mcpport register \
--stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./" \
--gateway-url "wss://localhost:8765/mcp/register" \
--ssl-ca-cert ./certs/ca.crt

More Options

Other options are also available, you can use uvx mcpport gateway --help to get more information.

There are some options for the gateway:

• --host is the host of the gateway.
• --port is the port of the gateway, default is 8765.
• --ipv6 is to enable ipv6 support, default is false.
• --log-level is the log level of the gateway, default is INFO.
• --timeout-rpc is the timeout of communication with the MCP server, default is 10s.
• --timeout-run-tool is the timeout to run the tool, default is 120s.
• --sse-path is the path of the event stream endpoint, default is /sse.
• --messages-path is the path of the message endpoint, default is /messages.
• --auth-token is the auth token for the gateway, (can be used multiple times).
• --ssl-enabled is to enable SSL support, default is false.
• --ssl-keyfile is the path to the SSL key file.
• --ssl-certfile is the path to the SSL cert file.
• --ssl-ca-cert is the path to the SSL CA cert file.

And there are some options for the register command:

• --stdio is the command to run the MCP server, it will be run in a subprocess.
• --gateway-url is the URL of the gateway, default is ws://localhost:8765/mcp/register.
• --port Local HTTP port, 0 means don’t start local server, default is 0.
• --enable-cors is to enable CORS for the local server, default is false.
• --health-endpoint is the health endpoint of local server, default is /health.
• --server-name is the name of the MCP server, must be provided.
• --server-id is the id of the MCP server, default is uuid.
• --require-gateway Exit if unable to connect to gateway
• --log-level is the log level of the gateway, default is INFO.
• --header Add one or more headers (format: ‘Key: Value’). Can be used multiple times.
• --no-ssl-verify Disable SSL certificate verification.
• --ssl-ca-cert Path to CA certificate bundle for verification