For many AI clients — Claude or ChatGPT on a team or enterprise plan — adding an MCP server is a privileged action that not every member can perform. In those setups an administrator connects the gateway once so it’s available to the whole team. This walkthrough is that connection, whether you’re doing it for yourself or on behalf of others. Connecting requires the Authenticate via OAuth capability, and you’ll only ever reach the gateways your team membership grants. See the Connection Experience for what the gateway does on the other side.
What you’ll need
- Access to a gateway on the Gateways page. Everything you need to connect — the per-client links and commands, and the gateway URL itself — comes from its Connect this gateway menu.
- An MCP-capable client: Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code, or another.
- An MCP Manager account (you’ll sign in during the flow).
Step 1: Open the Connect menu and add the gateway to your client
Open your gateway from the Gateways page and click Connect this gateway in the page header. The menu lists Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and a Custom client option, plus a Connect via URL section with the gateway’s URL. Pick your client — MCP Manager hands you the exact deep link to open or command to run, already carrying this gateway’s name and URL, so there’s nothing to substitute by hand. The gateway URL it gives you includes the gateway ID in its path (.../gateway/v1/mcp/<your-gateway-id>), which pins the connection to that specific gateway.
- Claude
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- Codex
- VS Code / other
Click Claude. A new browser tab opens Claude’s Add custom connector dialog with the connector name and gateway URL already filled in — confirm to add it. Claude marks connectors added this way with an “added by an external link” notice; that’s expected and safe to accept.
A gateway URL you saved earlier in the
?gateway=<your-gateway-id> query form still works — there’s nothing to change. The Connect this gateway menu now hands out the path form above because some clients (Claude Code among them) compare connectors by URL with the query string stripped, which can collapse multiple gateways into one; the path form keeps each gateway distinct.Step 2: Authorize in the browser
The first time your client connects, it opens MCP Manager in a browser to authorize.1
Sign in
MCP Manager either sends a one-time code to your work email, or — if your domain is set up with an identity provider — sends you to that provider to log in and back. Enter the code or complete the provider’s login.
2
Bring an identity for any server that needs one
MCP Manager checks whether any server in the gateway needs you to authenticate with the downstream service, and walks you through them one at a time. For each, you can reuse an identity you’ve already added to MCP Manager or set up a new one:
- If the server supports OAuth, it’s a quick web-based approval — for example, clicking Approve on the provider’s page.
- If the server uses header-based auth, such as a GitHub personal access token, MCP Manager prompts you to paste the header values.
3
Allow
Review what the gateway includes and click Allow. (When servers need your identity, the button reads Next and steps you through them first.) Your client lands back connected.
Step 3: Use the tools
Return to your client and ask it to do something the gateway’s tools cover — for example, search a connected knowledge base or list your assigned issues. The tools appear automatically; there’s nothing else to configure.Your client is connected through a governed gateway, and every call you make is logged. When your administrator adds or removes tools, they show up or disappear on your next session restart. If they unassign a server from the gateway, its tools stop working right away. And if they add a new server that requires authentication, you won’t be able to use its tools until you disconnect and reconnect — reconnecting runs the authorize flow above and adds a step to provide that server’s identity.
Further reading
Build a team gateway
The administrator side: how the gateway you just connected to is built and scoped.
Connection Experience
What MCP Manager does during the authorize flow, and why there’s no half-connected state.
Gateway Deployment Strategies
How administrators distribute gateway URLs across an organization.
Run a headless agent
Connect from a script or CI job with a token instead of a browser.