MCP

Introduction

Standard MCP servers come in two variants:

• Remote HTTP: connect to an MCP server that is publicly accessible on the internet
• Executable App: run an uvx or npx MCP server as a Local server in your Gateway

Remote HTTP

Remote servers are MCP servers that are publicly accessible over the internet. These servers are already running and hosted by third parties, so you simply need to connect to them via their URL. Remote servers in Gatana support the following transports:

• HTTP Streaming
• Server-Sent Events (SSE)

The following configuration options are available:

• URL
• Headers

See the Credentials page for information about how to configure authorization and credentials.

Executable Apps

Many MCP servers today are provided either as an uvx or npx command. These one-liners download and install a Python or NodeJS application and start it. These are fully supported in Gatana.

The server application may provide one of the following transports:

• Standard I/O: the common transport for local servers
• HTTP Streaming or SSE: some local servers use HTTP as a transport. This is particularly useful when using OAuth credentials

The following configuration options are available:

• Command (for example uvx workspace-mcp)
• Environment Variables
• Headers (in case of HTTP transport)
• Files (the provided files will be available in the same folder as the app is running)
• Persistent Storage (a data volume at /data that keeps files across restarts, see Persistent Storage)
• Tailscale (lets the app reach hosts on your private tailnet, see Tailscale)

Credentials are accessed using these expressions:

• API Keys: {{ credentials.keys.MY_API_KEY }}
• OAuth Access Token: {{ credentials.accesstoken }}

See the Credentials documentation for information about credentials.

Deployment and Output

When you create or update a server, Gatana will automatically deploy the server. You can click on Deployment tab in the Gatana App to see the status of the current revision.

The output can be viewed in the server details view, under the Server Logs section. In the dropdown, select a revision, and the browser will begin to stream the logs to your browser. When the server runs next to a sidecar (for example Tailscale), a Container selector above the log view picks whose log to read.

Environment and Isolation

The operating system is Debian Bookworm. Each local server is executed in a virtual machine environment using Kata Containers, which provides a very strong layer of security and isolation.

Tailscale VPN

Gatana supports connecting to Tailscale, so you can access services inside your Tailnet. For more information, see Tailscale Docs.