Manage tools (MCP)

What's a tool? What's MCP?

A tool lets an assistant do something in another system — send a Slack message, file a Jira ticket, look up a customer in your CRM — instead of just talking about it.

Tools connect using a standard called MCP (Model Context Protocol). So when you see "an MCP server," read it as "one connected tool."

Connect a tool

Register the tool once, by name and address:

oc mcp create --name slack --endpoint https://slack-mcp.internal
oc mcp list
oc mcp get <id>

Give it credentials (safely)

A tool usually needs to authenticate to the system it talks to. OpenCrane stores and brokers those credentials for the assistant — they're never handed to the assistant or the browser:

# Per-user sign-in (each person authorizes with their own account):
oc mcp cred add <id> --display-name "Slack (per user)" --mode obo

# Or a single shared credential:
oc mcp cred add <id> --display-name "Shared key" --mode static --secret-ref my-secret

• obo ("on behalf of") — each person connects with their own account, so the assistant acts as them.
• static — one shared credential for everyone.

Decide who can use it

A connected tool isn't available to anyone until you grant it. Allow it for a person, team, or whole department — see Control access.

Going deeper

How tool calls are routed, scoped, and audited is covered in the MCP gateway deep dive.