Glossary · term

MCP Gateway / Tool Control Plane

An MCP Gateway is an intermediary layer controlling which tools an agent can discover and invoke, and with what scope of permissions, acting as a policy enforcement point between the agent and MCP servers. It is becoming the equivalent of an API gateway for agents. The open-source Docker MCP Gateway was announced in July 2025.

Agents2026Wave 2 · 2024Maturity: 1/5

Maturity rationale

single R2 source, 2025-26 neologism

References

Author: Microsoft