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Allowed Agents

Choose which MCP servers the gateway serves to each AI client, such as Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT.

Go to Settings > AI Gateway > MCP Gateway and click Allowed Agents in the header. The drawer reads: "Agents are matched by their User-Agent keyword. Open an agent to choose exactly which MCP servers the gateway serves to that client."

How matching works​

Every AI client sends a User-Agent header. When the header contains an agent's keyword, the gateway treats the request as coming from that agent and serves only the servers turned on for it. Matching ignores case.

Each row shows the agent name, its User-Agent keyword and how many servers it can reach, for example 12 of 40 servers.

A request with no User-Agent header is allowed only when the server allows every agent, built-in and custom. A request from an agent that is turned off for the server is refused with the error <agent name> is not allowed to access this MCP server.

What this control does and does not do​

  • It identifies clients; it does not authenticate them. The User-Agent header is set by the client, and any client can send any value. Use Allowed Agents to steer which servers well-behaved clients see, not as a security boundary. Who may connect is decided by the user's sign-in or API token and by Server access.
  • Keywords are substrings. A keyword such as code would also match vscode, cortex-code and opencode. Pick distinctive custom keywords.
  • It applies only to traffic through the gateway. A client that connects to an MCP server directly bypasses it. To find servers used outside the gateway, see An MCP server outside the gateway.
  • Changes apply to new sessions.
  • With the Policy Engine on for the MCP Gateway, agent rules are expressed as Policy Engine conditions on the agent name instead. See the Policy Engine overview.

Built-in agents​

AgentUser-Agent keyword
OpenAI / ChatGPTopenai (also matches chatgpt)
Claudeclaude
Cursorcursor
Geminigemini
OpenAI Codexcodex
VS Code IDEvscode (also matches visual studio code)
Cortex Codecortex-code (also matches cortex code)
OpenCodeopencode
Windsurfwindsurf
Kirokiro
Amazon Qamazonq (also matches amazon q, amazon-q, q-cli)
Postmanpostman
n8nn8n

New servers allow every built-in agent until you disable an agent for the server.

Choose servers for an agent​

  1. Click the agent's row to expand it.
  2. Turn the switch next to each server on or off.

Each switch saves immediately. Turning a server off for an agent also removes that agent from the server's Allowed agents list in Access control, and vice versa. Both places edit the same setting.

Add a custom agent​

Use a custom agent for any client that is not built in, such as an internal bot.

  1. Click Add agent.
  2. Enter an Agent name.
  3. Enter a User-Agent keyword. Requests whose User-Agent contains this keyword match the agent.
  4. Click Allow agent.

Custom agents show a Custom tag. To remove one, click its delete icon and confirm Delete agent. The gateway stops matching that keyword and the agent's server selections are removed with it.

Custom agents also appear when you create an API token or set Allowed agents on a server.

  • Access control - allow or deny smart groups and users on one server.
  • API Tokens - issue a direct-connection token for an agent.
  • OneMCP - one endpoint for every server an agent can reach.

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