MCP servers
External tool servers agents can use — what the Gateway screen manages, and how tools become available to agents today.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers are external tool servers: services that expose tools an agent can call at runtime — ticketing systems, chat platforms, internal APIs.
The Gateway → MCP Servers screen is disabled by default and may not be enabled in your deployment. When enabled, it is the org-level catalog for registering the MCP servers your agents may reach — endpoint plus credentials, following the console's convention that credentials are write-only (encrypted at rest, never displayed after saving).
How tools reach agents today
An agent doesn't get tools by talking to an arbitrary server — tools flow through two gates:
- The skill declares them. A skill lists the tools it uses; the conversational skill builder proposes them from what's admitted. See Skills and tools.
- The org Tool Registry admits them. Security → Tool Registry is the org-level catalog of admitted binary and MCP tools that skills may use. A tool that isn't in the registry isn't available to skills.
At runtime the agent's egress policy applies on top: outbound calls are restricted to the agent's allowlist, and blocked calls are audited as security events (see Security).
Registering an external agent instead
If the external system you want to integrate is itself an agent (it speaks the A2A protocol), don't model it as a tool server — register it under Build → Agents → Register. The console reads the agent's card, renders its declared authentication schemes (API key, bearer/basic, or a pre-issued token) as the credential form, and the registered agent becomes available to workflows alongside platform-built agents.