Publish a tool server to the internal MCP catalog¶
Draft outline: not validated
Drafted with AI from official sources on 16 Oct 2026. Do not use on a live system until it is written, dry-run by someone other than the author and signed off (planned 2026-12-03). Author: Sandeep Velu · dry-run: Yasar · sign-off: Sivaraj. Work items: AGT-10-T17, AGT-10-T18, AGT-10-T19, AGT-10-T20.
1. Summary¶
Before any MCP server is shared beyond the team that built it, and at each quarterly catalog review.
Risk: Medium (a poorly reviewed tool becomes a supply-chain risk for every agent). Typical duration: 2-3 hours.
2. When to use and when not to¶
Use it when: Before any MCP server is shared beyond the team that built it, and at each quarterly catalog review.
Do not use it when: to be written by the author.
3. What you must know first¶
- OWASP ASI02 Tool Misuse and ASI04 Agentic Supply Chain Vulnerabilities apply to shared tools
- API Center registers remote servers with a runtime URL and environment, and local servers as packages
- Each catalog entry must say which tools write and which only read
4. Checklist¶
- Confirm tool names, descriptions and schemas follow the naming guide.
- Tag every tool read-only or write and list required scopes.
- Confirm auth: token audience validated and no token passthrough.
- Confirm secrets come from Key Vault and have expiry dates.
- Confirm tracing and alerts exist for tool errors.
- Register the server in API Center with owner, environment and supported revisions.
- Get security review sign-off for any write tool.
- Announce the entry to agent teams with an example agent configuration.
Draft snippet: Catalog entry metadata for one MCP server
{
"name": "orion-invoice-tools",
"owner": "agent-lead@orion",
"environment": "shared-nonprod",
"runtimeUrl": "${MCP_SERVER_URL}",
"transport": "streamable-http",
"protocolRevisions": ["2026-07-28", "2025-11-25"],
"auth": {"type": "oauth", "audience": "${MCP_SERVER_URL}", "scopes": ["invoices.read"]},
"tools": [
{"name": "get_invoice_status", "access": "read"},
{"name": "flag_invoice_for_review", "access": "write", "securityReview": "2026-10-01"}
],
"secretsExpireBy": "2027-01-15",
"reviewDate": "2027-01-31"
}
Snippets to add:
snippets/catalog/orion-invoice-tools.json: Catalog entry metadata (json)snippets/catalog/publish-checklist.md: Publish checklist (markdown)
5. Known issues and fixes¶
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Server not visible to developers in API Center | Missing environment or deployment record | Add the environment and deployment, then check portal visibility |
| Two catalog entries for the same system | Teams registered servers independently | Merge into one owned server and retire the duplicate |
| Write tool published without review | Checklist skipped | Unpublish and run the security review |
6. Monitoring and alerts¶
| Signal | Alert when | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog entries without an owner or review date | Any | Notify the agent lead to assign one within 5 days |
| Catalog servers with failing contract tests | Any failure on the nightly run | Notify the owner and mark the entry degraded |
7. AWS and open-source equivalents¶
On AWS, AgentCore Gateway targets act as a managed tool catalogue with policy. Open-source teams use the public MCP registry format for internal registries.
8. Validation record¶
Pending. Planned dry-run scenario: A second engineer publishes the sandbox demo server using the checklist only. Pass: the entry is discoverable in API Center, write tools have review dates and a test agent connects using the documented configuration.