# Valuable references for the reviewer:
- Docs PR: https://github.com/ArcadeAI/docs/pull/583
- Implements Phase 1 of the following planning doc:
https://linear.app/arcadedev/project/arcade-mcp-supports-mcp-auth-front-door-auth-7cbaa20cb054/overviewhttps://github.com/user-attachments/assets/79ad43fd-f5e8-4793-a1dd-18b35acefdc3
# PR Description
Adds OAuth 2.1 Resource Server authentication to arcade-mcp-server,
enabling HTTP MCP servers to validate Bearer tokens on every request.
This unlocks tool-level authorization and secrets support for HTTP
servers.
- Multiple authorization server support
- Granular token validation options (verify_exp, verify_iat, verify_iss)
- Environment variable configuration
- OAuth discovery metadata endpoint
(/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource)
- Extracts sub claim from token as context.user_id
- Lifts transport restrictions for tools requiring auth/secrets on HTTP
when protected
```python
from arcade_mcp_server import MCPApp
from arcade_mcp_server.resource_server import ResourceServerAuth, AuthorizationServerEntry
resource_server_auth = ResourceServerAuth(
canonical_url="http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp",
authorization_servers=[
AuthorizationServerEntry(
authorization_server_url="https://auth.example.com",
issuer="https://auth.example.com",
jwks_uri="https://auth.example.com/jwks",
)
],
)
app = MCPApp(name="my_server", version="1.0.0", auth=resource_server_auth)
```
# Testing
Beyond the comprehensive unit tests, I also manually tested end-to-end
with WorkOS Authkit (DCR) and KeyCloak (non-DCR).
# Future Work
- CIMD support
- An `ArcadeResourceServer` to make adding front-door auth super easy
when using Arcade's Auth Server
<!-- CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
---
> [!NOTE]
> Adds OAuth 2.1 front-door auth (JWKS validation + OAuth discovery) and
propagates user identity to tools, enabling auth/secret-requiring tools
over HTTP.
>
> - **Authentication (Front-Door OAuth 2.1)**
> - New `resource_server` module with `ResourceServerAuth`
(multi-authorization-server, metadata) and `JWKSTokenValidator`
(JWKS-based JWT validation) plus granular validation options.
> - ASGI `ResourceServerMiddleware` validates Bearer tokens on every
HTTP request and injects `resource_owner`.
> - OAuth discovery endpoint via FastAPI router at
`/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource[/<path>]`.
> - **Integration**
> - `MCPApp`/`worker` accept `auth`/`resource_server_validator`, mount
middleware, expose discovery; logs accepted auth servers.
> - HTTP transport (`http_streamable`) carries `SessionMessage` with
`resource_owner` from request → session.
> - `Context`/`Session`/`Server` plumb `resource_owner`; `Server`
selects `user_id` preferring token `sub`.
> - **Behavior Changes**
> - HTTP transport restriction lifted for tools requiring
`authorization`/`secrets` when request is authenticated; otherwise
blocked with actionable error.
> - **Configuration**
> - Env-var based auth config via `MCP_RESOURCE_SERVER_*` in
`MCPSettings.ResourceServerSettings`; `.env` auto-load.
> - **Telemetry**
> - Usage tracking records `resource_server_type` on server start.
> - **Examples**
> - New `examples/mcp_servers/authorization` sample server (HTTP auth,
secrets, Reddit tool) with Docker setup.
> - **Tests**
> - Extensive unit tests for validators, middleware, env config,
multi-AS, transport rules, and app integration.
> - **Version**
> - Bump `arcade-mcp-server` to `1.12.0`; minor docstring tweak in
`__init__.py`.
>
> <sup>Written by [Cursor
Bugbot](https://cursor.com/dashboard?tab=bugbot) for commit
d1116cdcafb0c7cb8f91e66682eb1fbae380da31. This will update automatically
on new commits. Configure
[here](https://cursor.com/dashboard?tab=bugbot).</sup>
<!-- /CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
Resolves TOO-152
<!-- CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
> [!NOTE]
> Adds --workers to HTTP mode with validation, refactors server
startup/discovery for multi-process uvicorn, and removes all
Docker-related files/configs.
>
> - **MCP Server (HTTP mode)**
> - Add `--workers` arg to run multiple uvicorn workers; block `workers
> 1` with `stdio`, and `reload` with multiple workers.
> - Refactor startup: move tool discovery/config into
`create_arcade_mcp_factory()` driven by env vars; use `uvicorn.run(...,
workers=...)` for multi-worker/reload; retain `serve_with_force_quit()`
only for single-worker.
> - Adjust CLI to only discover tools in `stdio` path; HTTP path now
delegates discovery to the factory.
> - **MCPApp**
> - Minor run path cleanup; continue using `serve_with_force_quit()` for
single-worker HTTP.
> - **Ops/Packaging**
> - Remove `docker/` directory and all Dockerfiles, compose/configs, and
docs.
>
> <sup>Written by [Cursor
Bugbot](https://cursor.com/dashboard?tab=bugbot) for commit
c5700ac8855173c1e82c6f7e41b30ca173aaec14. This will update automatically
on new commits. Configure
[here](https://cursor.com/dashboard?tab=bugbot).</sup>
<!-- /CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
This PR does three things:
1. Executes synchronous tool calls in thread pool allowing for up to 4 +
# of CPUs executions in parallel.
2. Makes force quitting via double SIGINT/SIGTERM possible and via
single SIGINT/SIGTERM + graceful shutdown timeout expiry possible, even
if there are active connections.
3. Sets `timeout_graceful_shutdown` to
`ARCADE_UVICORN_TIMEOUT_GRACEFUL_SHUTDOWN` env var if set, else defaults
to 15.
4. Disable the worker health check span to reduce noise
Tradeoffs:
Since this PR introduces executing synchronous tools via `await
asyncio.to_thread(func, **func_args)`, this means that there is no way
for the thread to be killed until it finishes. The ramifications of this
is that the force quitting logic that is also implemented in this PR has
to be very harsh `os._exit(1)` just in case there is a sync tool
actively executing. This means that `MCPApp` teardown logic will not
execute when force quitting is required. Although this was already the
case because we weren't previously able to force quit! This tradeoff is
justified for now since "parallel" tool executions will relieve us of
many worker timeouts that we are seeing in prod.
Future work:
Minimize/eliminate the need for `os._exit(1)` such that `MCPApp`
teardown logic will always execute, even when force quitting. The
solution will likely be moving away from `await asyncio.to_thread(func,
**func_args)` (while maintaining "parallelism" and then utilize the
`TaskTrackerMiddleware` introduced in this PR to cancel all of the
active HTTP requests.
Resolves PLT-713
Previously, MCPApp did not truly have reload capabilities. Instead, if
`reload=True`, then under the hood we would just change over to the
module execution code path (e.g., `arcade mcp`, or `python -m
arcade_mcp_server`). This was bad because custom `MCPApp` startup code
was not being executed and tools that were not added to `MCPApp`'s
catalog were being discovered and added to the server.
`MCPApp` now contains its own custom reload logic. It doesn't use
uvicorn's reload because uvicorn's discovery & factory pattern wasn't
the best fit for `MCPApp`'s self-contained pattern.
Now when `MCPApp.run(reload=True)` is called, `MCPApp` becomes the
parent process that manages reload itself.
# Release Candidate 2
## This PR:
- [x] No more confusing 307 redirect logs when using `/mcp` instead of
`/mcp/` (requested by @shubcodes)
- [x] Fix bug in `arcade configure` for Python < 3.12 (reported by
@evantahler
- [x] Fix bug where tools with unsatisfied secret requirements could
still be executed (reported by @evantahler, @shubcodes)
- [x] Auth providers can now be imported via `from
arcade_mcp_server.auth import Reddit` (requested by @shubcodes)
- [x] Add complete E2E oauth flow for tool calls with informational
errors about how to log into arcade and where to go to authorize
(requested by @evantahler, @shubcodes)
- [x] Add OAuth tool in `arcade new`'s generated server (requested by
@shubcodes)
- [x] Standardize on defaulting to running servers on port 8000
- [x] Improve credentials.yaml reading logic
- [x] CLI user friendliness (requested by @Spartee)
- [x] Remove `arcade serve` CLI command
- [x] Fix race condition in `arcade logout`
- [x] Update docs for desired developer onboarding flow
## Next PRs:
- Get `arcade deploy` working for MCP servers. (Command is hidden for
now)
- Rename all occurrences of `toolkit` to `server`/`tools` and rename all
occurrences of `worker` to `server`
Versions:
* arcade-mcp\==1.0.0rc1
* arcade-mcp-server\==1.0.0rc1
* arcade-core\==2.5.0rc1
* arcade-tdk\==2.6.0rc1
* arcade-serve\==2.2.0rc1
### Summary
Adds first-class MCP support across Arcade, introduces a new MCP server
and CLI, unifies the project under the arcade-mcp name, overhauls
templates/scaffolding, and improves developer tooling, secrets
management, and examples.
### Highlights
- **MCP Server & Core**
- New MCP server with stdio and HTTP/SSE transports, session management,
resumability, and lifecycle handling.
- FastAPI-like `MCPApp` for building servers with lazy init; integrated
worker+MCP HTTP app option.
- Middleware system (logging and error handling), robust exception
hierarchy, and Pydantic-based settings.
- Async-safe managers for tools, resources, and prompts backed by
registries and locks.
- Developer-facing, transport-agnostic runtime context interfaces (logs,
tools, prompts, resources, sampling, UI, notifications).
- Conversion from Arcade ToolDefinition to MCP tool schema; OpenAI JSON
tool schema converter.
- Parser supports `@app.tool`/`@app.tool(...)` decorators.
- **CLI**
- New `mcp` command to run MCP servers with stdio or HTTP/SSE.
- New `secret` command to set/list/unset tool secrets (supports .env
input, preserves original casing for lookups).
- `new` command refactored; option to create a full toolkit package with
scaffolding.
- `chat` command removed.
- `serve.py` imports updated to `arcade_serve.fastapi.telemetry`;
version retrieval now uses `arcade-mcp`.
- `show.py` refactor to use new local catalog utilities.
- `display_tool_details` improved: adds “Default” column and handles
nested properties.
- **Configuration & Discovery**
- New `configure.py` to set up Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code to
connect to local or Arcade Cloud MCP servers.
- Discovery utilities to find/install toolkits, build `ToolCatalog`s,
analyze files for tools, load kits from directories (pyproject parsing),
and build minimal toolkits.
- Better handling of provider API key resolution and evaluation suite
loading.
- **Templates & Scaffolding**
- Reorganized template structure (minimal vs full); moved
`.pre-commit-config.yaml`, `.ruff.toml`, license, Makefile, README,
tests, and tools layout to correct paths.
- Minimal template adds `.env.example` for runtime secret injection.
- Template pyproject updated for MCP servers; includes sample server
with greeting and secret-reveal tools.
- Authorization flow in templates simplified.
- **Repo-wide Renaming & Examples**
- Migrates references from `arcade-ai` to `arcade-mcp` across READMEs,
scripts, and package metadata.
- Examples updated (LangChain/LangGraph/AI SDK/TypeScript) and package
name changed to `arcade-mcp-sdk`.
- **Evals & Core Utilities**
- Evals now use OpenAI tooling format (`OpenAIToolList`, `to_openai`);
`tool_eval` takes `provider_api_key`.
- Core utilities: fixed `does_function_return_value` by dedenting before
parse; version bump to `2.5.0rc1` and dependency cleanup.
- **Tooling & CI**
- `setup-uv-env` action splits toolkit vs contrib dependency
installation.
- Pre-commit: excludes `libs/arcade-mcp-server/mkdocs.yml` and
`libs/tests/` from YAML and Ruff hooks; Ruff per-file ignores (e.g.,
C901 in `libs/**/*.py`, TRY400 in server docs paths).
- Makefile updates for uv env setup, quality checks, tests, builds, and
new `shell` target.
- Added Makefile to MCP server library to streamline dev workflow.
- **Cleanup**
- Removed `claude.json` config.
- Simplified stdio entrypoint; removed unused imports (`arcade_gmail`,
`arcade_search`).
### Breaking Changes
- **CLI**: `chat` command removed; use `mcp`, `secret`, and updated
`new`.
- **Naming**: All users should update references from `arcade-ai` to
`arcade-mcp`.
- **Templates**: File paths moved; downstream scripts referencing old
template locations may need updates.
### Getting Started
- Run an MCP server:
- `arcade mcp --stdio --toolkits your_toolkit`
- `arcade mcp --http --toolkits your_toolkit`
- Manage secrets:
- `arcade secret set your_toolkit KEY=value`
- `arcade secret list your_toolkit`
- `arcade secret unset your_toolkit KEY`
- Configure clients:
- `arcade configure` to set up Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code for
local/Arcade Cloud MCP.
---------
Co-authored-by: Sam Partee <sam@arcade-ai.com>
Co-authored-by: Shub <125150494+shubcodes@users.noreply.github.com>
