Model Context Gateway Features & Documentation Index

Home > Features Overview

Welcome to the Model Context Gateway (MCG) feature directory and documentation hub. Model Context Gateway routes, transforms, and secures communication for the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

This overview organizes MCG's capabilities and technical documentation following the Diátaxis framework into four distinct quadrants: Tutorials, How-To Guides, Reference, and Explanation.

---

                       LEARNING-ORIENTED
                             │
            Tutorials        │       Explanation
      (Getting Started)      │      (Architecture)
                             │
  PROBLEM- ──────────────────┼────────────────── INFORMATION-
  ORIENTED                   │                     ORIENTED
           How-To Guides     │        Reference
            (Task-based)     │      (Specifications)
                             │
                       ACTION-ORIENTED

---

1. Tutorials (Learning-Oriented)

Step-by-step guides designed to get you up and running with Model Context Gateway quickly.

• Single-User & Home-Lab Quickstart Deploy MCG for personal automation or homelab environments with zero external dependencies.
• Universal Setup Skill (mcg-setup) Use AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Antigravity, Cursor) to guide you through installing and configuring MCG in any workspace.
• Evaluation Guide Evaluate MCG features, performance benchmarks, and security boundaries.

---

2. How-To Guides (Task & Goal-Oriented)

Practical recipes to help you accomplish specific goals and operational tasks.

Server & Connection Management

• Dynamic Server Management Add and configure backend MCP servers via Web UI, JSON seeding (custom_servers.json), environment variables, or Docker container labels (mcp.*).
• Client Setup & IDE Integration Connect AI clients and IDEs to MCG:
  • Cursor IDE Integration
  • Claude Desktop Integration
  • Cline & VS Code Integration
  • Antigravity CLI Integration

Administration & Automation

• Admin MCP Server & Agent Automation Automate gateway configuration using AI agents via the built-in Admin MCP Server (/admin, /mcg-admin).
• Universal Admin MCP Automation Skill (mcg-admin) 7-phase automation skill for zero-dashboard programmatic provisioning.
• Interactive Developer Test Bench Inspect JSON-RPC traffic, test tools with dynamic form builders, simulate semantic search, and view live logs:
  • Tool Execution Tester
  • Virtual Resources & Prompts
  • Semantic Search Simulator
  • Raw Console & Live Logs

Deployment & Hosting

• Docker & Container Deployment
• Windows Server IIS In-Process Hosting
• Windows Service (SCM) & DPAPI
• Multi-Provider Database Setup

---

3. Reference (Information & Specification-Oriented)

Detailed technical specifications, parameter matrices, and API references.

Gateway Tools & Scopes

• Admin MCP Tools Reference Complete reference for the 10 consolidated administrative tools (manage_servers, manage_appkeys, manage_policies, manage_group_mappings, manage_providers, manage_settings, manage_custom_files, manage_system, test_tool_call, manage_clients).
• AppKey Taxonomy & Scopes Base62 AppKey character formats, entropy, fast lookup design, and scope granularity (all, server:<id>, category:<name>, tool:<name>).

Protocols & Standards Alignment

• MCP 2026-07-28 Specification Alignment Support for resultType, Multi Round-Trip Requests (MRTR), ttlMs/cacheScope cacheable metadata, and JSON-RPC error taxonomy.
• RFC 9728 Protected Resource Metadata & Discovery Zeroconf client discovery via /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and standard 401 WWW-Authenticate handshakes.
• RFC 7591 Dynamic Client Registration OAuth 2.1 client registration with mandatory application_type validation.

Platform Infrastructure

• Database Providers & ERD 12-table Entity-Relationship Diagram and multi-provider support matrix (SQLite, MSSQL, MySQL).
• Secret Retrievers & Key Management Vault KV v2, Windows DPAPI, Environment, User-Provided (BYOK), and RFC 8693 Token Exchange configuration reference.
• Data Model Specification Detailed C# entity schemas and relational definitions.
• Software Requirements & Test Catalog (SRS) Automated requirement traceability matrix and test proof mapping.

---

4. Explanation & Architecture (Understanding-Oriented)

Deep-dive explanations of core architectural concepts, security pipelines, and subsystem mechanics.

Core Routing & Processing

• Architecture Overview High-level system topology, module boundaries, and request lifecycle.
• Routing & Meta-Mode Engine Slash formatting ({serverId}/{toolName}), dual-key routing, context window token reduction in Meta-Mode, and Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) hybrid search combining SIMD vector embeddings with lexical search.
• Transports & Subprocess Execution Stateful SSE, stateless HTTP, and STDIO subprocess execution models (including the batteries-included latest-full container image).

Security & Authentication Pipelines

• Authentication Architecture Unified identity resolution across Windows Integrated Auth, JWT, and reverse proxies.
• Unified Authorization Pipeline 5-level security pipeline enforcing AppKey scopes, administrator SIDs, database access policies, and discovery filtering across tools, prompts, resources, and completions.
• Active Directory & LDAPS Domain Setup Domain integration, LDAPS TLS port 636, service credentials, and tokenGroups transitive group resolution.
• Multi-Level RBAC & Access Control Policies Group mappings, SID evaluation, role definitions, and server/tool level access rules.
• Windows Integrated Authentication & IIS Negotiate/Kerberos handshakes, IIS in-process hosting, and Windows SCM hosting.
• Downstream Auth & Identity Delegation Outbound identity delegation via X-Forwarded-User, Kerberos impersonation, OAuth2 OBO token exchange, and BYOK credentials.
• Per-User OAuth Delegation & Connected Accounts 3LO OAuth callback orchestrator, background token refresh, and encrypted user vault storage.
• Observability, PII Sanitization & Audit LoggingPiiSanitizer token masking and database audit log stored procedures.