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By the end of this quickstart you’ll have added a real MCP server to MCP Manager, exposed it through a gateway, connected your AI client, called a tool, and watched that exact call show up in your audit log attributed to you. In MCP Manager every tool call routes through a governed gateway, so you can answer who did what, through which tool from day one. The server you’ll connect is MCP Manager’s own public documentation server, which needs no credentials. The whole path takes about five minutes.
This tutorial uses Basic server management (to add a server), Basic gateway management (to create a gateway), and View and export logs (to see the call). If you don’t see the Add button or the Logs page, your role lacks that capability — access depends on the capability, not on a role name. See the capabilities reference.

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What you’ll need

  • An MCP Manager workspace you can sign in to.
  • An MCP client to connect at the end. This tutorial shows Claude Code, but use Claude, Cursor, Codex, or whatever MCP-compatible client you already have.
  • About five minutes.

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Step 1: Add the docs MCP server

1

Open the add-server flow

Go to MCP Servers and click Add. The Add an MCP server dialog opens.
2

Enter the server URL

In the Server URL field, paste the MCP Manager docs server:
Server URL
Click Continue. MCP Manager connects to the URL and detects how it wants to authenticate.
3

Continue without authentication

The docs server is public, so MCP Manager offers a no-credentials path. Under Server doesn’t require authentication?, click Continue without authentication.
Most servers do require auth. MCP Manager can detect the authentication style automatically for certain servers, simplifying your experience. If it detects that the MCP Server requires auth but can’t determine which kind, you’ll see OAuth Pre-registration or Token / Headers instead. Those paths are covered in Remote MCP Servers.
4

Name it and finish

In Server name, enter MCP Manager Docs, then continue. MCP Manager discovers the server’s tools and shows Server added.
Adding a server puts it in MCP Manager and makes it available to add to gateways — think of it as staged behind the curtain. It isn’t something anyone can connect to yet. A gateway is what brings it on stage.

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Step 2: Put the server behind a gateway

A gateway is the only thing users connect to. You’ll create one and assign the docs server to it.
1

Create the gateway

Go to Gateways and click Add. In the Add a gateway dialog, set Gateway name to Quickstart.
2

Provision it to your team

Under Provision access to teams, choose a team. Most workspaces start with a default team that you’re already on — if it’s there, select it and move on. Click Save this gateway.
3

Assign the docs server

Open the Quickstart gateway, go to its Servers tab, and click Assign a server. Find the MCP Manager Docs server from Step 1 in the list and select it. MCP Manager shows a screen previewing the capabilities that server provides. Confirm to add it.

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Step 3: Connect your AI client to the gateway

Open the Quickstart gateway and click Connect this gateway in the page header. The menu gives you a ready link or command for each client, plus a Connect via URL copy of the gateway URL. This quickstart uses Claude Code:
1

Pick Claude Code

In the Connect this gateway menu, click Claude Code, then choose This project only — the narrowest scope, which is all you need to try this out.
2

Run the command

Copy the command the menu shows and run it in your terminal. It already carries this gateway’s name and URL, so there’s nothing to paste in:
terminal
Using a different client? Pick it from the same menu — Claude and Cursor hand off with a single click, Codex gives you a command like the one above, and Connect via URL copies the raw gateway URL for anything else. The first time your client connects, it opens a browser to MCP Manager. Sign in if prompted. Because the URL already points at the Quickstart gateway, you won’t be asked to choose a gateway — just click Allow, and your client lands back with the docs server’s tools ready.

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Step 4: Call a tool

In your client, ask a question that makes it reach for the docs server:
Your client calls a tool from the MCP Manager Docs server through your gateway and answers from the live documentation. That request just made a full round trip through MCP Manager.

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Step 5: See the call in your audit log

1

Open the logs

Go to Logs. The newest entries are at the top.
2

Find your tool call

Look for a row whose Method is tools/call. You’ll also see entries for tools/list (your client discovering what’s available) and initialize (the connection handshake).
3

Open the entry

Click the row to open Log details. The Fields section shows it was called by you (User name, User email), through the Quickstart gateway, on the MCP Manager Docs server, with the Duration and Response code. The Body and Headers sections hold the actual request and response.
You added a server, exposed it through a gateway, called a tool, and found that call in the log — tied to your identity. That attribution is what makes an MCP Manager rollout auditable: every action traces back to a real person, through a known gateway, on a known server.

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What’s next

You ran the whole loop with one public server and the default settings. The next tutorials add the parts a real rollout needs:

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Further reading

Connect your AI client to a gateway

The end-user side of Step 3, for every client and across teams.

Remote MCP Servers

The authentication paths real servers use — OAuth and token/header auth.

MCP Gateways

What a gateway is and how it brokers identity and applies rules.

Viewing Logs

The full reference for the audit log you just used.