mcp-context-forge

# MCP Gateway > Model Context Protocol gateway & proxy - unify REST, MCP, and A2A with federation, virtual servers, retries, security, and an optional admin UI.  <!-- === CI / Security / Build Badges === --> [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/python-package.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/codeql.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/bandit.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/dependency-review.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/pytest.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/lint.yml) <!-- === Container Build & Deploy === --> [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/docker-image.yml)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/actions/workflows/ibm-cloud-code-engine.yml) <!-- === Package / Container === --> [](https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html) [](LICENSE)&nbsp; [](https://pypi.org/project/mcp-contextforge-gateway/)&nbsp; [](https://github.com/ibm/mcp-context-forge/pkgs/container/mcp-context-forge)&nbsp; ContextForge MCP Gateway is a feature-rich gateway, proxy and MCP Registry that federates MCP and REST services - unifying discovery, auth, rate-limiting, observability, virtual servers, multi-transport protocols, and an optional Admin UI into one clean endpoint for your AI clients. It runs as a fully compliant MCP server, deployable via PyPI or Docker, and scales to multi-cluster environments on Kubernetes with Redis-backed federation and caching.  --- <!-- vscode-markdown-toc --> ## Table of Contents * 1. [Table of Contents](#table-of-contents) * 2. [🚀 Overview & Goals](#-overview--goals) * 3. [Quick Start - PyPI](#quick-start---pypi) * 3.1. [1 - Install & run (copy-paste friendly)](#1---install--run-copy-paste-friendly) * 4. [Quick Start - Containers](#quick-start---containers) * 4.1. [🐳 Docker](#-docker) * 4.1.1. [1 - Minimum viable run](#1---minimum-viable-run) * 4.1.2. [2 - Persist the SQLite database](#2---persist-the-sqlite-database) * 4.1.3. [3 - Local tool discovery (host network)](#3---local-tool-discovery-host-network) * 4.2. [🦭 Podman (rootless-friendly)](#-podman-rootless-friendly) * 4.2.1. [1 - Basic run](#1---basic-run) * 4.2.2. [2 - Persist SQLite](#2---persist-sqlite) * 4.2.3. [3 - Host networking (rootless)](#3---host-networking-rootless) * 5. [Testing `mcpgateway.wrapper` by hand](#testing-mcpgatewaywrapper-by-hand) * 5.1. [🧩 Running from an MCP Client (`mcpgateway.wrapper`)](#-running-from-an-mcp-client-mcpgatewaywrapper) * 5.1.1. [1 - Install `uv` (`uvx` is an alias it provides)](#1---install-uv-uvx-is-an-alias-it-provides) * 5.1.2. [2 - Create an on-the-spot venv & run the wrapper](#2---create-an-on-the-spot-venv--run-the-wrapper) * 5.1.3. [Claude Desktop JSON (runs through **uvx**)](#claude-desktop-json-runs-through-uvx) * 5.2. [🚀 Using with Claude Desktop (or any GUI MCP client)](#-using-with-claude-desktop-or-any-gui-mcp-client) * 6. [🚀 Quick Start: VS Code Dev Container](#-quick-start-vs-code-dev-container) * 6.1. [1 - Clone & Open](#1---clone--open) * 6.2. [2 - First-Time Build (Automatic)](#2---first-time-build-automatic) * 7. [Quick Start (manual install)](#quick-start-manual-install) * 7.1. [Prerequisites](#prerequisites) * 7.2. [One-liner (dev)](#one-liner-dev) * 7.3. [Containerized (self-signed TLS)](#containerized-self-signed-tls) * 7.4. [Smoke-test the API](#smoke-test-the-api) * 8. [Installation](#installation) * 8.1. [Via Make](#via-make) * 8.2. [UV (alte