Try it locally
Run Open MCP Portal on your own machine with Docker Compose and a fake MCP server, register the server, build a gateway and call it.
The repository has a demo: Open MCP Portal, PostgreSQL and a fake MCP server in Docker Compose, with development sign-in so you don't need an identity provider. You need Docker with Compose and a clone of the repository.
Development only
The demo uses development sign-in (anyone can pick a persona) and the public example keys from .env.example. The portal accepts them only because the demo's APP_URL is a loopback address, and the port is published on 127.0.0.1 only. Never expose the demo or reuse its settings for a real install: see Install with Docker Compose.
Start it
git clone https://github.com/ncecere/open-mcp-portal
cd open-mcp-portal
make demo # docker compose -f compose.demo.yaml up --buildThe first build compiles the web app and the Go binary, so it takes a few minutes. Then open http://localhost:8090. To use another port, set OMP_DEMO_PORT (for example OMP_DEMO_PORT=8095 make demo). make demo-down stops the demo and deletes its data.
Walk through it
Sign in
Under Development accounts, choose Dev Platform Admin (admin). The other personas are auditor (platform auditor) and user, alex, blair and casey (no platform role). Each signs in with sample identity-provider groups, so you can try group grants: admin is in platform-admins, auditor in auditors, user and alex in engineering, blair and casey in support, and everyone in everyone.
Create a team
Switch to Admin, open Teams and create a team with yourself (admin@localhost) as owner. Switch back to Workspace and pick the team in the team switcher.
Register the fake MCP server
Open MCP servers › Add server. Enter a name, a slug such as status, and the URL:
http://127.0.0.1:8091/mcpThe fake server shares the portal's network namespace in the demo, so this is a loopback address to the portal, which development mode allows. Leave the authentication at None and save. The portal reads its capabilities at once: the tools check_outage, search_tickets and create_ticket (plus whoami, provider_token and echo for trying the portal's features), a resource, a resource template and a prompt.
Build a gateway
Open Gateways › Create gateway, give it a slug such as demo, and choose a few capabilities, including status__whoami. A team gateway can use the team's own servers without publishing them.
Create a key and call it
Open your account menu › API keys › Create API key, and copy the key. Then:
curl -s http://localhost:8090/mcp/demo -H "Authorization: Bearer omp_..." \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"status__whoami","arguments":{}}}'whoami answers with the identity token the fake server received: the header it arrived in, its claims and whether it verified against the portal's keys. That is what every MCP server gets with each call. See The identity token.
Connect a real client
The gateway's Overview tab and My gateways show snippets for Claude Code, VS Code and Cursor. With OAuth sign-in, the client opens localhost:8090 in your browser and you approve it there.
Running from source
For development on the portal itself, the repository's Makefile runs it outside Docker:
make deps-up # PostgreSQL on 127.0.0.1:55442
cp -n .env.example .env # DEV_AUTH=true, APP_URL=http://localhost:8088, example keys
make web && make build # build the web app into the binary
make run # http://localhost:8088
make fake-mcp # the fake MCP server on http://127.0.0.1:8091/mcp (another terminal)
make fake-oauth # a fake OAuth provider on http://127.0.0.1:8092 (another terminal)
make dev-seed # team "demo", a published server and two gatewaysmake dev-seed creates the team demo (owner admin@localhost, member user@localhost), the server demo-tools pointing at the fake MCP server and published to the catalog, the team gateway demo and the platform gateway company, granted to the demo team. make fake-oauth stands in for a provider such as GitHub when you try tools that act as a person.