Manage tools with MCP

A tool lets an agent reach into another system — send a message, update a record, search a calendar. OpenCrane uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to register those integrations, and keeps the credentials, the approval decision and the record of every call outside the runtime that executes it: a compromised or misbehaving agent run can't walk off with a live integration credential.

Both kinds of agent use the same tool machinery — your personal assistant can only use the tools granted to you; a managed agent can only use the tools its published revision was configured with.

Register a tool

Use the authenticated /api/v1/mcp-servers surface to register and review MCP definitions. Retrieve current payloads through the API reference.

Grant it

A registration is not a grant. Allow the required tool revision for both the acting subject and the agent service. New runs freeze the resulting capability set.

Execute safely

The runtime proposes a tool call. OpenCrane validates the run proof and arguments, opens an approval when required and reserves the invocation. After approval the runtime executes the call directly against Obot with a short-lived attempt-scoped key and reports back only a result digest. Integration credentials stay with Obot; they never enter the runtime or browser.

INFO

The registration, grant, approval, receipt, custody and direct-invocation authorities are present. The Obot transports compose only when the deployment mounts the Obot service credential; without it execution fails closed after reservation. Live-Obot qualification remains gated on issue #337.

TIP

Revoking a grant changes future decisions. It does not rewrite the evidence of an action that an earlier run already completed.

Going deeper

See the MCP gateway deep dive.