MCP tools

Register your organization’s MCP servers in Altrum, control which tools each AI system and key can use, and use them from coding agents and applications.

This is in development. Details may change before it is available.

MCP servers give models tools: search a ticket system, read a repository, query a database. Register them once in Altrum, and every tool call goes through the same governance as model requests: access rules, guardrails and logs.

Register an MCP server

Owners and admins open AI Gateway, then MCP servers, and choose Add server. Give it:

• Name: letters, digits and underscores, starting with a letter. Tools are named after it, for example github_search_issues.
• Address: the server’s URL, for example https://mcp.example.com/mcp.
• Transport: Streamable HTTP or Server-sent events.
• Authentication: how Altrum connects to it.

Authentication	Who connects
None	Nobody: the server is open.
Shared headers	An admin enters headers, such as an API key, once for the organization.
Shared sign in	An admin signs in once, straight after choosing Add and sign in, and the organization uses that connection.
Each person signs in	Each person signs in with their own account, such as their own GitHub, under My connections.
Each person enters headers	Each person enters their own key for the server under My connections. You name the headers and give your own values once, so Altrum can check the server takes them.

For a server that signs people in, the client id, client secret, sign in page, token page and scopes are optional: leave them empty and Altrum finds them from the server.

Switch on Available to every key to let every key of the organization use the server. Otherwise give it to keys one by one, under MCP tools on each key.

Headers and secrets are stored encrypted and never shown again. The address and the authentication cannot change: add a new server, then delete the old one. Edit changes the name, the tools the server may serve, whether it is used, whether every key may use it, and replaces shared headers. Reconnect connects again straight away, and Delete removes the server and every person’s connection to it.

Each server shows its state (Connected, Unstable, Sign in again, Waiting for sign in, Off or Not reachable) and the tools it has.

Servers that run as local processes are not supported. Altrum refuses addresses on private networks, and checks the address again every time it connects, so a name that later points somewhere private is refused too. Code mode, running tools without your application asking, and skipping the server’s certificate check are not offered.

Connect your own account

For servers that act as each person, open AI Gateway, then My connections. Choose Connect: a server you sign in to opens its own sign in page and brings you back, and a server that takes headers asks for your values. Disconnect removes your connection. Tool calls made with your personal key then run as you. A request made with an organization or AI system key cannot use a per-person server, and My connections says so when you have no personal key yet.

Choose who can use which tools

A list of servers and tools can be set at three levels. A key sees only the tools every level allows. A server that is not ticked in a list is not reachable, and leaving a server’s tools empty allows every tool (*).

Level	Where
The organization’s own keys	AI Gateway, then MCP servers, under Organization keys: switch on Limit which MCP tools these keys reach.
Every key of an AI system	The AI system’s AI Gateway tab, under MCP tools.
One key	The key’s MCP tools, when you create or edit it.

Use the tools

Coding agents

Add Altrum’s MCP endpoint, https://api.altrum.ai/mcp, to your coding agent with your personal key. The agent sees the tools your key allows, across all your organization’s servers. MCP servers shows the setup with your organization’s address under Connect your agent. See also Coding agents.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http altrum https://api.altrum.ai/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer your-personal-key"

Your applications

Altrum adds the allowed tools to your chat requests. When the model asks for a tool, your application asks Altrum to run it and sends the result back to the model.

When a tool cannot run

A server that works with each person’s own account needs a personal key. Two answers explain what is missing, word for word:

• <server> needs a personal key: it works with each person's own account, which a shared key does not have. Use a personal key to call it. The tool is also left out of the list an organization or AI system key sees.
• Your account is not connected to <server>. Connect it in Altrum under AI Gateway, My connections, then try again.

Governance on every call

• Tool arguments are checked by your guardrails before the tool runs, and results before they return to the model. See Guardrails at runtime.
• Every call is logged: the tool, the server, who called it, how long it took and whether it worked. Arguments and results are kept only when content logging is on. See Request logs.