Context Forge

Docker Compose brings up the full stack including the gateway, database, and admin UI. This is the fastest way to get a working deployment.

git clone https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge.git
cd mcp-context-forge
docker compose up -d

Configure the critical security variables before production use. At minimum, set JWT_SECRET_KEY, PLATFORM_ADMIN_EMAIL, and PLATFORM_ADMIN_PASSWORD. The gateway binds to port 4444 by default.

export JWT_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
export [email protected]
export PLATFORM_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme

Create a JWT token for authenticating MCP client requests. The --exp parameter controls expiry in minutes (10080 = 7 days).

python3 -m mcpgateway.utils.create_jwt_token \
  --username [email protected] \
  --exp 10080 \
  --secret $JWT_SECRET_KEY

Register existing MCP servers, REST APIs, or gRPC services. For REST APIs the gateway auto-extracts the schema from OpenAPI specs. For MCP servers, provide the SSE endpoint URL.

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"my_mcp_server","url":"http://localhost:8003/sse"}' \
  http://localhost:4444/gateways

Point your MCP client at the gateway's unified MCP endpoint. All registered tools are accessible through this single connection.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-context-forge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-remote", "http://localhost:4444/mcp",
               "--header", "Authorization:Bearer your-jwt-token"]
    }
  }
}

The web admin UI is available at http://localhost:4444 and the Swagger API reference at http://localhost:4444/docs. Use these to manage registered services, view metrics, and test tool calls.