MCP gateway
Definition
An MCP gateway is an infrastructure component in front of one or more MCP servers that handles authentication, rate limits, routing and protocol translation - comparable to an API gateway. A gateway governs technical access; the business question of which action needs human approval is typically not one it answers.
Gateway and compliance layer complement each other: the gateway decides who may talk at all, the workflow and evidence layer behind it decides which individual action may pass, who approves it and how that is evidenced. From an audit perspective, segregation of duties even argues for two instances: the layer that controls and attests should not belong to the same system that executes. Conflating the two means buying logging and believing it is enforcement.
Related terms
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