Bifrost MCP Gateway

Content

Bifrost is an Apache-licensed AI gateway from Maxim that includes MCP client and MCP server capabilities. In gateway deployments, it can connect to downstream MCP servers over stdio, HTTP, or SSE, discover their tools, and expose the selected tools through a single /mcp endpoint for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, and other MCP-compatible clients.

The MCP docs distinguish two common modes. Bifrost can act as an MCP client for external servers, and it can also act as an MCP server that publishes an aggregated tool registry to external MCP hosts. The gateway endpoint supports JSON-RPC POST requests and SSE connections, with optional virtual-key authentication and per-key tool filtering.

Source Review

• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/README.md
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/LICENSE
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/docs/mcp/overview.mdx
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/docs/mcp/gateway.mdx
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/docs/mcp/connecting-to-servers.mdx
• https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/blob/main/docs/mcp/auth/overview.mdx
• https://hub.docker.com/r/maximhq/bifrost

These sources were reviewed on 2026-06-06. Prefer the live repository, MCP overview, MCP gateway docs, connection docs, auth docs, Docker image page, and license file for current version requirements, deployment options, auth behavior, and MCP endpoint details.

Features

• Connect Bifrost to downstream MCP servers over stdio, HTTP, or SSE.
• Expose aggregated MCP tools through Bifrost's /mcp gateway endpoint.
• Support JSON-RPC POST and SSE gateway connections for compatible MCP clients.
• Configure virtual-key-specific MCP servers and per-key tool allowlists.
• Use server-level headers, OAuth, per-user OAuth, or per-user header auth for HTTP and SSE upstreams.
• Manage downstream MCP clients through the web UI, API, or config.json.
• Inspect connected MCP tools and enable or disable selected tools.
• Store per-user MCP credentials against user, virtual-key, or session identities.
• Combine MCP routing with Bifrost's provider gateway, logging, metrics, governance, and config stores.
• Register in-process custom tools when embedding Bifrost as a Go SDK application.

Installation

The README documents npx and Docker gateway startup paths. The shortest local start is:

npx -y @maximhq/bifrost

After the gateway starts, register downstream MCP clients through the MCP Gateway UI, the management API, or the mcp.client_configs section in config.json. Use environment references for sensitive connection strings and secrets.

For external MCP clients, configure the client to connect to the Bifrost MCP gateway endpoint and include any required virtual-key auth header:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bifrost": {
      "url": "BIFROST_MCP_URL",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${BIFROST_VIRTUAL_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

The upstream docs note that Bifrost's MCP gateway feature requires the Gateway deployment and v1.4.0-prerelease1 or newer.

Use Cases

• Give Claude one governed endpoint for a curated group of internal MCP tools.
• Publish separate MCP tool sets for production, development, admin, or analyst virtual keys.
• Connect local stdio tools, remote HTTP tools, and SSE tools behind one gateway.
• Require per-user OAuth or header credentials before a downstream tool executes.
• Use Bifrost's provider gateway and MCP gateway together in agent workflows.
• Audit MCP traffic through gateway logs, metrics, sessions, and config stores.
• Filter risky file, database, browser, shell, or production tools before exposing them to a client.
• Host custom in-process tools in a Go application that embeds Bifrost.

Safety and Privacy

Bifrost is gateway infrastructure. A single MCP endpoint can expose many downstream tools, so configure virtual keys, tool allowlists, auth modes, network access, TLS, and host-side approval rules before sharing it with agent clients. Be especially careful with downstream servers that can read or write files, run shell commands, change infrastructure, query production databases, or modify third-party accounts.

The docs emphasize that default LLM tool calls are not executed automatically without an explicit tool execution call, but agent mode can be configured for automatic execution. In pure MCP gateway mode, the external host decides whether tool calls need user approval. Review the approval settings in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, or any custom MCP client that connects to Bifrost.

Bifrost can handle provider credentials, virtual keys, MCP auth headers, OAuth tokens, per-user credentials, prompts, model responses, tool arguments, tool results, request logs, traces, metrics, and config-store data. Treat those stores as sensitive, keep secrets out of committed config, and define log retention before routing production traffic through the gateway.

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