MCP gateway

MCP gateway: A proxy in front of MCP servers that authenticates callers, injects upstream credentials, filters tools and logs calls. Example: Portkey's MCP Gateway logs every tool call with user, parameters and response. Next in the glossary is MCP host: The LLM application that starts client connections and asks the user for consent.

Definition

A proxy in front of MCP servers that authenticates callers, injects upstream credentials, filters tools and logs calls.

Example, with source

Portkey's MCP Gateway logs every tool call with user, parameters and response. (portkey.ai, read 4 November 2026)

Where it appears on this site

• MCP
• Hosts and gateways compared
• Tool descriptions and agent success

Neighbouring terms

• MCP client: The connector inside a host application that holds one connection to one MCP server.
• MCP host: The LLM application that starts client connections and asks the user for consent.
• MCP registry: A catalog of MCP server metadata that clients and directories read; the official one is registry.modelcontextprotocol.io.