MCP Server

Portway hosts an MCP server over HTTP. Endpoints with Mcp.Exposed: true are registered as tools for MCP clients (e.g. Claude Desktop, VS Code Copilot, custom agents) and the built-in Chat UI. Every tool call runs under the caller's token, scopes and environments.

Enable the MCP server ​

Setting Mcp:Enabled: true in appsettings.json enables the server at Mcp:Path (default /mcp).

"Mcp": {
  "Enabled": true,
  "Path": "/mcp",
  "RequireAuthentication": true,
  "ChatEnabled": true
}

Expose an endpoint as an MCP tool ​

Setting Mcp.Exposed: true in entity.json registers one tool per HTTP method of the endpoint.

{
  "DatabaseObjectName": "OutstandingItems",
  "DatabaseSchema": "dbo",
  "AllowedEnvironments": ["500","700"],
  "AllowedMethods": ["GET"],
  "Mcp": {
    "Exposed": true,
    "Instruction": "Always include a $filter on AccountCode. Results are paginated; use $top and $skip."
  }
}

Tool names follow {namespace}_{name}_{method}, or {name}_{method} without a namespace (e.g. products_GET). Instruction changes only the model-facing description, not the Explorer summary.

Tools for endpoints with tenant headers list them in GetEndpointInfo (TenantHeaders) and accept their values in the tenants argument of CallEndpoint, e.g. {"X-Company-Id": "ACME"}.

Namespaces ​

The Explorer and ListEndpoints group tools by Namespace; tools without one are listed under default.

{
  "Namespace": "inventory",
  "Mcp": {
    "Exposed": true
  }
}

Configuration: Namespaces.

Built-in server tools ​

Connect an MCP client ​

http(s)://{host}{Mcp:Path}

With RequireAuthentication: true, requests include a Portway Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer {token}

Scope agent tokens to the required endpoints and environments: Access Tokens.

Web UI ​

Console views under MCP:

• Explorer (/ui/mcp/explorer): registered tools by namespace, with methods and endpoint links; requires only Mcp:Enabled: true
• Chat (/ui/mcp/chat): an AI model calling Portway tools; requires Chat configuration

Next steps ​

• MCP Chat
• Access Tokens
• Namespaces
• Entity configuration: full entity.json reference including Exposed