MCP100 RecommendedFirst-party MCP

Docker MCP Gateway

by Docker

Updated September 24, 2026

Developer ToolsSoftware & TechnologyAccess · Self-hosted

MCP100 verdict

Discover, configure, and run multiple MCP servers through Docker while centralizing profiles, credentials, tools, and execution behind one gateway.

MCP100 Assessment

Editorial verdict

Recommended for teams that want a curated local MCP gateway and can govern Docker runtime privileges, downstream network access, credentials, and enabled servers.

Reviewed July 24, 2026

Task Fit

Mapped

Developer workflows

Trust

Reviewed

A dated editorial review is published on the MCP detail page.

Maintenance

Activity observed

A dated repository or package update is available; editorial maintenance review is still pending.

Popularity

Signals available

Visible usage signals are shown for discovery only, not as proof of safety.

Best for

Running multiple MCP servers behind one stdio connection
Isolating catalog MCP servers in containers with restricted privileges and resources
Centralizing server profiles, secrets, OAuth, logs, and call traces

Not ideal for

Users who need only one simple remote MCP endpoint
Hosts where Docker Desktop or Docker Engine cannot run

Avoid if

You cannot review every downstream MCP server and profile permission
The agent must not be able to discover or add tools dynamically
Container isolation is being treated as protection from an over-privileged downstream credential

Trade-offs

Gateway isolation improves lifecycle and credential management but adds Docker runtime complexity and local resource use.
The MCP Toolkit is documented as Beta, and Dynamic MCP is experimental.
The gateway reduces direct host privileges, but network access and injected credentials still let downstream servers affect external systems.

Evidence scope

Evidence

Current source snapshot

Popularity

1.6k MCP repository stars

No MCP-specific package metric is stored

Repository identity: docker/mcp-gateway

Stars observed September 24, 2026 · Downloads observation date unavailable

Exact reviewed repository identity; current GitHub repository stars are eligible as repository-level adoption evidence.

No exact MCP-specific package metric was sufficiently verified in this snapshot; preserve existing Not measured/unknown rather than guessing.

Maintenance

Publisher activity observed September 23, 2026

Current source snapshot

Trust review

Source relationship: First-party MCP

Reviewed July 24, 2026

Sources

GitHub repository ↗

Supporting evidence (1)

Source file: security.md ↗

Evidence-backed setup

Reviewed setup

This profile has type-appropriate, source-backed setup rather than an MCP-server client connector configuration.

Show source-catalog configuration

codex mcp add MCP_DOCKER -- docker mcp gateway run --profile my_profile

Read publisher documentation

Publisher documentation

Publisher README

Original product, capability, tool, and usage documentation from the MCP publisher. Installation sections appear under Install & Agents.

View original README ↗

Docker MCP Plugin and Docker MCP Gateway

The MCP Toolkit, in Docker Desktop, allows developers to configure and consume MCP servers from the Docker MCP Catalog.

Underneath, the Toolkit is powered by a docker CLI plugin: docker-mcp. This repository is the code of this CLI plugin. It can work in Docker Desktop or independently.

The main feature of this CLI is the Docker MCP Gateway which allows easy and secure running and deployment of MCP servers. See Features for a list of all the features.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardizes how AI applications connect to external data sources and tools. It provides a secure, controlled way for language models to access and interact with various services, databases, and APIs.

Overview

Developers face criticial barriers when integrating Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools into production workflows:

Managing MCP server lifecycle Each local MCP sever in the catalog runs in an isolated Docker container. npx and uvx servers are granted minimal host privileges.
Providing a unified interface AI models access MCP servers through a single Gateway.
Handling authentication and security Keep secrets out of environment variables using Docker Desktop's secrets management.
Supports dynamic tool discovery and configuration. Each MCP client (eg VS Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.) connects to the same Gateway configuration, ensuring consistency across different clients.
Enables OAuth flows for MCPs that require OAuth access token service connections.

Features

🐳 Container-based Servers: Run MCP servers as Docker containers with proper isolation.
🔧 Server Management: List, inspect, and call MCP tools, resources and prompts from multiple servers.
🔐 Secrets Management: Secure handling of API keys and credentials via Docker Desktop.
🌐 OAuth Integration: Built-in OAuth flows for service authentication.
📋 Server Catalog: Manage and configure multiple MCP catalogs.
🔍 Dynamic Discovery: Automatic tool, prompt, and resource discovery from running servers.
📊 Monitoring: Built-in logging and call tracing capabilities.

Usage

[!NOTE] Running without Docker Desktop Feature Flags

If you encounter "Docker Desktop is not running" errors when the Docker daemon is active, you can bypass Desktop feature checks by setting:
export DOCKER_MCP_IN_CONTAINER=1
This is useful when running in WSL2, containerized environments, or Docker CE where Desktop backend sockets are unavailable.

[!NOTE] Enabling Profiles outside Docker Desktop

Profiles are enabled automatically in Docker Desktop. If you are using the CLI independently (e.g. Docker CE, WSL2, or a containerized environment), enable the profiles feature first:
docker mcp feature enable profiles

Profile Management

Servers are organized into profiles. A profile groups related MCP servers together and can be connected to clients, exported, and shared via OCI registries.

Servers in a profile can reference multiple sources:

Catalog references: catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github
OCI image references: docker://my-server:latest
MCP Registry references: https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers/<id>
Local file references: file://./server.yaml

# Make sure to `docker mcp catalog pull mcp/docker-mcp-catalog` first.

# Create a new profile
docker mcp profile create --name dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github

# Create a profile and connect it to a client
docker mcp profile create --name dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github \
  --connect cursor

# List all profiles
docker mcp profile list

# Show profile details
docker mcp profile show <profile-id>

# Remove a profile
docker mcp profile remove <profile-id>

# Export/import profiles
docker mcp profile export <profile-id> output.yaml
docker mcp profile import input.yaml

# Push/pull profiles to OCI registries
docker mcp profile push <profile-id> <oci-reference>
docker mcp profile pull <oci-reference>

Manage servers in a profile

# List servers across all profiles
docker mcp profile server ls

# Filter servers by name or profile
docker mcp profile server ls --filter name=github
docker mcp profile server ls --filter profile=dev-tools

# Add servers to a profile
docker mcp profile server add dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/notion

# Remove servers from a profile
docker mcp profile server remove dev-tools github slack

Configure servers in a profile

# Set configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>=<value>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --set github.timeout=30

# Get configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --get github.timeout

# Get all configuration
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --get-all

# Delete configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --del github.timeout

Manage tool allowlists in a profile

# Enable specific tools (dot notation: <server>.<tool>)
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable github.create_issue --enable github.list_repos

# Disable specific tools
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable github.search_code

# Enable/disable all tools for a server
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable-all github
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable-all github

Catalog Management

Manage the OCI-based catalogs available to the MCP gateway. The default catalog is the image mcp/docker-mcp-catalog.

# List catalogs
docker mcp catalog ls

# Show a catalog
docker mcp catalog show <oci-reference>

# Create a catalog from server references
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest --title "My Catalog" \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github \
  --server file://./my-server.yaml

# Create a catalog from an existing profile
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest --from-profile dev-tools

# Create a catalog from the community registry
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest \
  --from-community-registry registry.modelcontextprotocol.io

# Push/pull catalogs to OCI registries
docker mcp catalog push <oci-reference>
docker mcp catalog pull <oci-reference>

# Manage servers within a catalog
docker mcp catalog server ls <oci-reference>
docker mcp catalog server add <oci-reference> --server docker://my-server:latest
docker mcp catalog server remove <oci-reference> github
docker mcp catalog server inspect <oci-reference> <server-name>

# Remove a catalog
docker mcp catalog remove <oci-reference>

# Tag a catalog
docker mcp catalog tag <source>:<tag> <target>:<tag>

More about importing from the OSS MCP Community Registry.

MCP Gateway Operations

Start up an MCP Gateway. This can be used for one client, or to service multiple clients if using either sse or streaming transports.

# Run the MCP gateway (stdio, using the default profile)
docker mcp gateway run

# Run with a specific profile
docker mcp gateway run --profile dev-tools

# Run the MCP gateway (streaming)
docker mcp gateway run --port 8080 --transport streaming

If no --profile flag is provided, the gateway uses the default profile.

more about the MCP Gateway

Client Connection

Connect AI clients to the MCP gateway.

# List client configurations
docker mcp client ls

# Connect a client to a profile
docker mcp client connect <client-name> --profile <profile-id>

# Disconnect from a client
docker mcp client disconnect <client-name>

Secrets and OAuth

Configure MCP servers that require either secrets or OAuth.

# Manage secrets
docker mcp secret --help

# Handle OAuth flows
docker mcp oauth --help

# export any desktop secrets needed by either server1 or server2
#   (temporary requirement to export secrets for docker cloud runs - this command
#    will no longer be required once Docker Cloud can access secret stores)
docker mcp secret export server1 server2

Tool Management

# Count available tools
docker mcp tools count

# List all available MCP tools
docker mcp tools ls

# List all available MCP tools in JSON format
docker mcp tools ls --format=json

# Inspect a specific tool
docker mcp tools inspect <tool-name>

# Call a tool with arguments
docker mcp tools call <tool-name> [arguments...]

# Enable/disable tools for a server in a profile
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable <server>.<tool>
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable <server>.<tool>

Configuration

Configuration is stored in a local database. Profiles, catalogs, and server configuration are managed through the docker mcp profile and docker mcp catalog commands. Feature flags are stored in ~/.docker/config.json.

Environment Variables

The MCP CLI respects the following environment variables for client configuration:

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR: Override the default Claude Code configuration directory (~/.claude). When set, Claude Code will use $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/.claude.json instead of ~/.claude.json for its MCP server configuration. This is useful for:
- Maintaining separate Claude Code installations for work and personal use
- Testing configuration changes in isolation
- Managing multiple Claude Code profiles

Example usage:

# Set custom Claude Code configuration directory
export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/custom/config

# Connect MCP Gateway to Claude Code
docker mcp client connect claude-code --profile dev-tools --global

# Claude Code will now use /path/to/custom/config/.claude.json

Architecture

The Docker MCP CLI implements a gateway pattern:

AI Client → MCP Gateway → MCP Servers (Docker Containers)

AI Client: Language model or AI application
MCP Gateway: This CLI tool managing protocol translation and routing
MCP Servers: Individual MCP servers running in Docker containers

See docs/message-flow.md for detailed message flow diagrams.

Contributing

The build instructions are available in the contribution guide.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

Loading optional publisher documentation…

FAQ

What is Docker MCP Gateway?

Discover and run MCP servers through Docker's MCP gateway.

Can Docker MCP Gateway run multiple MCP servers?

Yes. Docker MCP Gateway is designed to discover, add, configure, remove, and execute tools from multiple MCP servers through one gateway. The servers and tools available depend on the gateway configuration.

Do I need Docker to use Docker MCP Gateway?

The gateway handles downstream server credentials and OAuth flows. The client connects locally over stdio by running `docker mcp gateway run`, optionally with a named profile.

What are the security risks of running MCP servers through Docker MCP Gateway?

Gateway safety is only as strong as the selected profile, catalog provenance, tool filters, network policy, and downstream credentials. Disable experimental Dynamic MCP unless required, use narrow profiles, verify signatures where available, inspect traces, and treat each downstream server as a separate trust decision. This review does not claim MCP100 execution testing.

Is this an official MCP?

Docker is listed as First-party MCP in MCP100’s current evidence.

Current official resources:

Publisher documentation ↗

Docker MCP Plugin and Docker MCP Gateway

The MCP Toolkit, in Docker Desktop, allows developers to configure and consume MCP servers from the Docker MCP Catalog.

Underneath, the Toolkit is powered by a docker CLI plugin: docker-mcp. This repository is the code of this CLI plugin. It can work in Docker Desktop or independently.

The main feature of this CLI is the Docker MCP Gateway which allows easy and secure running and deployment of MCP servers. See Features for a list of all the features.

What is MCP?

Overview

Developers face criticial barriers when integrating Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools into production workflows:

Managing MCP server lifecycle Each local MCP sever in the catalog runs in an isolated Docker container. npx and uvx servers are granted minimal host privileges.
Providing a unified interface AI models access MCP servers through a single Gateway.
Handling authentication and security Keep secrets out of environment variables using Docker Desktop's secrets management.
Supports dynamic tool discovery and configuration. Each MCP client (eg VS Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.) connects to the same Gateway configuration, ensuring consistency across different clients.
Enables OAuth flows for MCPs that require OAuth access token service connections.

Features

🐳 Container-based Servers: Run MCP servers as Docker containers with proper isolation.
🔧 Server Management: List, inspect, and call MCP tools, resources and prompts from multiple servers.
🔐 Secrets Management: Secure handling of API keys and credentials via Docker Desktop.
🌐 OAuth Integration: Built-in OAuth flows for service authentication.
📋 Server Catalog: Manage and configure multiple MCP catalogs.
🔍 Dynamic Discovery: Automatic tool, prompt, and resource discovery from running servers.
📊 Monitoring: Built-in logging and call tracing capabilities.

Usage

[!NOTE] Running without Docker Desktop Feature Flags

If you encounter "Docker Desktop is not running" errors when the Docker daemon is active, you can bypass Desktop feature checks by setting:
export DOCKER_MCP_IN_CONTAINER=1
This is useful when running in WSL2, containerized environments, or Docker CE where Desktop backend sockets are unavailable.

[!NOTE] Enabling Profiles outside Docker Desktop

Profiles are enabled automatically in Docker Desktop. If you are using the CLI independently (e.g. Docker CE, WSL2, or a containerized environment), enable the profiles feature first:
docker mcp feature enable profiles

Profile Management

Servers are organized into profiles. A profile groups related MCP servers together and can be connected to clients, exported, and shared via OCI registries.

Servers in a profile can reference multiple sources:

Catalog references: catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github
OCI image references: docker://my-server:latest
MCP Registry references: https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers/<id>
Local file references: file://./server.yaml

# Make sure to `docker mcp catalog pull mcp/docker-mcp-catalog` first.

# Create a new profile
docker mcp profile create --name dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github

# Create a profile and connect it to a client
docker mcp profile create --name dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github \
  --connect cursor

# List all profiles
docker mcp profile list

# Show profile details
docker mcp profile show <profile-id>

# Remove a profile
docker mcp profile remove <profile-id>

# Export/import profiles
docker mcp profile export <profile-id> output.yaml
docker mcp profile import input.yaml

# Push/pull profiles to OCI registries
docker mcp profile push <profile-id> <oci-reference>
docker mcp profile pull <oci-reference>

Manage servers in a profile

# List servers across all profiles
docker mcp profile server ls

# Filter servers by name or profile
docker mcp profile server ls --filter name=github
docker mcp profile server ls --filter profile=dev-tools

# Add servers to a profile
docker mcp profile server add dev-tools \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/notion

# Remove servers from a profile
docker mcp profile server remove dev-tools github slack

Configure servers in a profile

# Set configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>=<value>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --set github.timeout=30

# Get configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --get github.timeout

# Get all configuration
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --get-all

# Delete configuration values (<server-name>.<config-key>)
docker mcp profile config <profile-id> --del github.timeout

Manage tool allowlists in a profile

# Enable specific tools (dot notation: <server>.<tool>)
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable github.create_issue --enable github.list_repos

# Disable specific tools
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable github.search_code

# Enable/disable all tools for a server
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable-all github
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable-all github

Catalog Management

Manage the OCI-based catalogs available to the MCP gateway. The default catalog is the image mcp/docker-mcp-catalog.

# List catalogs
docker mcp catalog ls

# Show a catalog
docker mcp catalog show <oci-reference>

# Create a catalog from server references
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest --title "My Catalog" \
  --server catalog://mcp/docker-mcp-catalog/github \
  --server file://./my-server.yaml

# Create a catalog from an existing profile
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest --from-profile dev-tools

# Create a catalog from the community registry
docker mcp catalog create myorg/catalog:latest \
  --from-community-registry registry.modelcontextprotocol.io

# Push/pull catalogs to OCI registries
docker mcp catalog push <oci-reference>
docker mcp catalog pull <oci-reference>

# Manage servers within a catalog
docker mcp catalog server ls <oci-reference>
docker mcp catalog server add <oci-reference> --server docker://my-server:latest
docker mcp catalog server remove <oci-reference> github
docker mcp catalog server inspect <oci-reference> <server-name>

# Remove a catalog
docker mcp catalog remove <oci-reference>

# Tag a catalog
docker mcp catalog tag <source>:<tag> <target>:<tag>

More about importing from the OSS MCP Community Registry.

MCP Gateway Operations

Start up an MCP Gateway. This can be used for one client, or to service multiple clients if using either sse or streaming transports.

# Run the MCP gateway (stdio, using the default profile)
docker mcp gateway run

# Run with a specific profile
docker mcp gateway run --profile dev-tools

# Run the MCP gateway (streaming)
docker mcp gateway run --port 8080 --transport streaming

If no --profile flag is provided, the gateway uses the default profile.

more about the MCP Gateway

Client Connection

Connect AI clients to the MCP gateway.

# List client configurations
docker mcp client ls

# Connect a client to a profile
docker mcp client connect <client-name> --profile <profile-id>

# Disconnect from a client
docker mcp client disconnect <client-name>

Secrets and OAuth

Configure MCP servers that require either secrets or OAuth.

# Manage secrets
docker mcp secret --help

# Handle OAuth flows
docker mcp oauth --help

# export any desktop secrets needed by either server1 or server2
#   (temporary requirement to export secrets for docker cloud runs - this command
#    will no longer be required once Docker Cloud can access secret stores)
docker mcp secret export server1 server2

Tool Management

# Count available tools
docker mcp tools count

# List all available MCP tools
docker mcp tools ls

# List all available MCP tools in JSON format
docker mcp tools ls --format=json

# Inspect a specific tool
docker mcp tools inspect <tool-name>

# Call a tool with arguments
docker mcp tools call <tool-name> [arguments...]

# Enable/disable tools for a server in a profile
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --enable <server>.<tool>
docker mcp profile tools <profile-id> --disable <server>.<tool>

Configuration

Environment Variables

The MCP CLI respects the following environment variables for client configuration:

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR: Override the default Claude Code configuration directory (~/.claude). When set, Claude Code will use $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/.claude.json instead of ~/.claude.json for its MCP server configuration. This is useful for:
- Maintaining separate Claude Code installations for work and personal use
- Testing configuration changes in isolation
- Managing multiple Claude Code profiles

Example usage:

# Set custom Claude Code configuration directory
export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/custom/config

# Connect MCP Gateway to Claude Code
docker mcp client connect claude-code --profile dev-tools --global

# Claude Code will now use /path/to/custom/config/.claude.json

Architecture

The Docker MCP CLI implements a gateway pattern:

AI Client → MCP Gateway → MCP Servers (Docker Containers)

AI Client: Language model or AI application
MCP Gateway: This CLI tool managing protocol translation and routing
MCP Servers: Individual MCP servers running in Docker containers

See docs/message-flow.md for detailed message flow diagrams.

Contributing

The build instructions are available in the contribution guide.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Recommended for teams that want a curated local MCP gateway and can govern Docker runtime privileges, downstream network access, credentials, and enabled servers.

Best for

Not ideal for

Avoid if

Trade-offs

Evidence

Popularity

Maintenance

Trust review

Sources

Reviewed setup

What it does

Representative uses

Important limits

Context Footprint

Access & risk

Other options

Context7 MCP

GitHub MCP

gitkraken

Publisher README

Docker MCP Plugin and Docker MCP Gateway

What is MCP?

Overview

Features

Usage

Profile Management

Manage servers in a profile

Configure servers in a profile

Manage tool allowlists in a profile

Catalog Management

MCP Gateway Operations

Client Connection

Secrets and OAuth

Tool Management

Configuration

Environment Variables

Architecture

Contributing

License

Support

FAQ

Publisher README

Docker MCP Plugin and Docker MCP Gateway

What is MCP?

Overview

Features

Usage

Profile Management

Manage servers in a profile

Configure servers in a profile

Manage tool allowlists in a profile

Catalog Management

MCP Gateway Operations

Client Connection

Secrets and OAuth

Tool Management

Configuration

Environment Variables

Architecture

Contributing

License

Support