MCP Unified Gateway: Enterprise-Grade MCP Orchestration Platform

Overview

The MCP Unified Gateway is a production-ready orchestration platform that provides centralized management, security, and scaling for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Designed for agencies and enterprises adopting MCP at scale, it enables secure multi-project deployments with credential isolation and comprehensive monitoring.

Core Architecture

Central Gateway Design

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    MCP Unified Gateway                      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Authentication Layer (JWT/mTLS/WorkOS)                    │
│  Authorization Layer (RBAC)                                │
│  Rate Limiting & Audit Logging                             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Server Manager                                │
│  ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐           │
│  │   Client A  │ │   Client B  │ │   Client C  │           │
│  │ MCP Servers │ │ MCP Servers │ │ MCP Servers │           │
│  │             │ │             │ │             │           │
│  │ • Filesystem│ │ • Database  │ │ • Shell     │           │
│  │ • Git       │ │ • API       │ │ • Custom    │           │
│  │ • Shell     │ │ • Shell     │ │ • Git       │           │
│  └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Multi-Transport Support

gRPC: High-performance binary protocol with TLS and mTLS
HTTP/REST: Standard web API with JSON payloads
WebSocket: Real-time bidirectional communication
Server-Sent Events (SSE): Streaming updates and notifications

Security Model

Project Isolation

Complete credential and resource isolation between projects:

servers:
  client-alpha-filesystem:
    command: node
    args: ["/opt/mcp-servers/filesystem/index.js"]
    env:
      ALLOWED_DIRECTORIES: "/projects/alpha"
      API_KEY: "${ALPHA_FILESYSTEM_KEY}"
      DATABASE_URL: "${ALPHA_DB_URL}"
    enabled: true
    
  client-beta-filesystem:
    command: node
    args: ["/opt/mcp-servers/filesystem/index.js"] 
    env:
      ALLOWED_DIRECTORIES: "/projects/beta"
      API_KEY: "${BETA_FILESYSTEM_KEY}"
      DATABASE_URL: "${BETA_DB_URL}"
    enabled: true

Authentication & Authorization

Multi-Modal Authentication:

JWT Tokens: Industry-standard with configurable issuers
Mutual TLS (mTLS): Certificate-based authentication
WorkOS Integration: Enterprise SSO with OAuth2/OIDC
API Keys: Simple authentication for service accounts

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):

security:
  authentication:
    type: jwt
    jwt_key: "${JWT_SECRET_KEY}"
    audience: mcp-gateway
    issuers:
      - https://auth.company.com
      
  authorization:
    type: rbac
    policy_file: /etc/mcp-gateway/policies.yaml

Credential Management

Environment Variable Injection:

Credentials never exposed to AI agents
Per-project environment isolation
Support for credential rotation via config hot-reload
Integration with external secret management systems

Process Isolation:

Each MCP server runs in separate OS process
Process groups enable clean resource management
Resource limits prevent interference between projects

Operational Capabilities

Health Monitoring & Quality Gates

Comprehensive Health Checks:

health_check:
  enabled: true
  interval: 30s
  timeout: 5s

Real-time Monitoring:

Process health and resource usage
Tool discovery and availability tracking
Response time and error rate monitoring
Automatic restart of failed servers

Resource Management

Per-Server Resource Limits:

resources:
  max_memory_mb: 512
  max_cpu: 2

Dynamic Port Allocation:

Automatic port assignment prevents conflicts
Configurable port ranges
Support for reserved port exclusions

Telemetry & Observability

Metrics Collection:

Prometheus/VictoriaMetrics integration
Custom business metrics
Real-time performance dashboards

Distributed Tracing:

OpenTelemetry integration
Request flow tracking across services
Performance bottleneck identification

Structured Logging:

JSON-formatted logs with correlation IDs
Configurable log levels and rotation
Centralized log aggregation support

Audit Logging:

audit:
  enabled: true
  file: /var/log/mcp-gateway/audit.log
  max_size_mb: 100
  max_backups: 10
  max_age_days: 30

Deployment & Scaling

Kubernetes-Native

Container Orchestration:

Multi-stage Docker builds with distroless final image
Kubernetes manifests with security contexts
Service mesh integration (Istio/Linkerd)
ConfigMap and Secret management

Scaling Capabilities:

Horizontal: Multiple gateway instances with load balancing
Vertical: Resource scaling per individual MCP servers
Auto-scaling: HPA based on CPU/memory/custom metrics

Service Discovery

Multiple Discovery Backends:

service_discovery:
  type: kubernetes
  namespace: mcp-system
  labels:
    app: mcp-gateway
    version: v1

Supported Backends:

Kubernetes service discovery
Consul service mesh
File-based static configuration
Custom discovery plugins

CI/CD Integration

GitOps Workflow:

ArgoCD application manifests
Environment-specific configuration overlays
Automated deployment pipelines
Configuration validation and testing

Enterprise Features

Multi-Tenancy

Project-Based Isolation:

Separate MCP server instances per project/client
Independent credential management
Resource quotas and limits per tenant
Usage tracking and billing integration

Configuration Management

Hot Reload Support:

# Add new client without restart
servers:
  new-client-database:
    command: python
    args: ["-m", "mcp_server_postgres"]
    env:
      DATABASE_URL: "${NEW_CLIENT_DB_URL}"
    enabled: true

Environment Variable Substitution:

Integration with external secret stores
Credential rotation without service restart
Environment-specific configuration

Rate Limiting & Traffic Management

Configurable Rate Limits:

rate_limit:
  enabled: true
  requests_per_second: 100.0
  burst: 200

Traffic Shaping:

Per-project rate limiting
Circuit breaker patterns
Request timeout management
Load balancing strategies

Use Cases

Agency/Consultancy

Multi-Client Management: Isolated environments per client
Credential Security: Never expose client APIs to AI agents
Resource Control: Prevent one client from affecting others
Billing Integration: Track usage per client for billing

Enterprise IT

Department Isolation: Separate MCP servers per business unit
Compliance: Audit logging and access control
Integration: Connect to existing authentication systems
Monitoring: Comprehensive observability for production operations

Development Teams

Environment Management: Dev/staging/production isolation
Tool Sharing: Central registry of available MCP tools
Development Workflow: GitOps-based configuration management
Testing: Isolated environments for testing new MCP servers

Production Readiness

Security Hardening

Non-root container execution
Read-only filesystem support
Security context enforcement
Network policy integration

Reliability

Graceful shutdown handling
Circuit breaker patterns
Automatic retry logic
Health check integration

Performance

Native Go implementation for high concurrency
Connection pooling and reuse
Efficient JSON-RPC communication
Optimized resource utilization

Monitoring

SLA/SLO tracking
Performance baseline establishment
Capacity planning metrics
Alert routing and escalation

Getting Started

Basic Configuration

version: "1.0"
gateway:
  name: mcp-unified-gateway
  environment: production
  max_servers: 50

servers:
  filesystem:
    command: node
    args: ["/opt/mcp-servers/filesystem/index.js"]
    env:
      ALLOWED_DIRECTORIES: "/workspace"
    enabled: true

transports:
  grpc:
    enabled: true
    port: 0  # Dynamic allocation
  http:
    enabled: true
    port: 0

security:
  authentication:
    type: jwt
  rate_limit:
    enabled: true
    requests_per_second: 100

Deployment

# Build and deploy
make build
make docker-build
kubectl apply -k deployment/kubernetes/

The MCP Unified Gateway provides enterprise-grade MCP orchestration with the security, scalability, and operational features needed for production deployments across agencies, enterprises, and development organizations. EOF < /dev/null

dwillitzer/mcp-unified-gateway-overview.md