Manifold

One interface. Many connections. Manifold.

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Manifold is a gateway that acts as an MCP server while connecting to multiple external MCP servers and OpenAPI / Swagger-compliant REST APIs on the backend.

Why "Manifold"?

The name Manifold comes from an engine's intake manifold.

An intake manifold is the component that distributes air and fuel evenly and efficiently from a single inlet to multiple cylinders. We named this project Manifold because its structure is similar.

Related MCP server: MCP Context Forge Gateway

Architecture

MCP Client
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│   Manifold  │   ← this server
└─────────────┘
    │       │
    ▼       ▼
External  OpenAPI / Swagger
MCP       REST API Server
Server

Features

• OpenAPI / Swagger → MCP conversion: Automatically generates MCP tools from OpenAPI 3.x / Swagger 2.x specifications

• MCP backend aggregation: Transparent reverse proxy to external MCP servers

• Built-in OAuth 2.1 server: Authorization server with PKCE (S256) support

• Pluggable backend authentication: Choose one of static header (authValue) / OAuth 2.0 (oauth2) / API key Token Exchange (tokenExchange)

• Resource links: Stores binary content from tool responses in S3 and returns download URLs (resource links)

• Lazy connection: Connects to backends on first request (no backend dependency at gateway startup)

• Selectable storage: Session / token management backed by Redis or SQLite

• OpenTelemetry support: OTLP export of traces, metrics, and logs (metrics also support Prometheus-style pull)

Requirements

• Go 1.26+

• Redis or SQLite (for session management)

Installation

Download binary

Download the latest binary from Releases.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/nonchan7720/manifold.git
cd manifold
go build -o manifold .

Docker

docker pull ghcr.io/nonchan7720/manifold:latest

Usage

Start the gateway

# Run the binary
manifold gateway

# Specify a config file explicitly (-c / --config, config name without extension)
manifold gateway -c config

# Run from source
go run main.go gateway

# Docker (working directory is /home/nonroot)
docker run -p 9999:9999 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/home/nonroot/config.yaml \
  ghcr.io/nonchan7720/manifold:latest

Docker Compose (development)

Starts a development environment including Redis.

docker compose up -d

Ready-to-run configuration examples are available in the examples/ directory.

Configuration

Place a configuration file (config.yaml) in the current directory or in a config/ subdirectory. Configuration values support environment variable expansion in the form ${VAR} or ${VAR:-default}.

Connecting to an MCP backend

Expose an external MCP server through Manifold.

gateway:
  port: 9999
  # openssl rand -base64 32
  encryptKey: ${ENCRYPT_KEY}

mcpServers:
  my-mcp-server:
    description: External MCP server
    transport: http
    url: http://localhost:8080/mcp

sqlite:
  path: ./tmp/manifold.db

Connecting to an OpenAPI / Swagger backend

Automatically generate MCP tools from an OpenAPI specification.

gateway:
  port: 9999
  encryptKey: ${ENCRYPT_KEY}

mcpServers:
  my-api:
    description: Sample REST API
    spec: https://example.com/api/openapi.json
    baseURL: https://example.com

OpenAPI backend with OAuth 2.0 authentication

gateway:
  port: 9999
  encryptKey: ${ENCRYPT_KEY}

mcpServers:
  my-api:
    description: OAuth-protected API
    spec: https://example.com/api/openapi.json
    baseURL: https://example.com
    oauth2:
      clientID: YOUR_CLIENT_ID
      clientSecret: YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET
      authURL: https://example.com/oauth/authorize
      tokenURL: https://example.com/oauth/token
      scopes:
        - read
        - write

redis:
  addrs:
    - "${REDIS_ADDRS:-localhost:6379}"
  db: ${REDIS_DB:-0}

Configuration reference

gateway

mcpServers.<name>

Server names (<name>) are used in URL paths, so only alphanumerics, _, and - are allowed.

authValue / oauth2 / tokenExchange are mutually exclusive; only one may be configured at a time.

mcpServers.<name>.oauth2

mcpServers.<name>.tokenExchange

Exchanges the API key received from the client for an OAuth token at the specified token exchange endpoint, and uses it for backend requests. Exchange results are cached, and rate limits (429) are respected.

redis

sqlite

Either redis or sqlite must be configured.

storage

Stores content included in OpenAPI/Swagger tool responses (images, binaries, etc.) in external storage and returns resource links (download URLs). When unset, no storage is used.

storage:
  type: s3
  hostURL: https://manifold.example.com
  s3:
    bucket: my-bucket
    keyPrefix: manifold/media

fileFetch

When a URL is passed to a file input field of an OpenAPI/Swagger tool, Manifold downloads the file from that URL. As an SSRF countermeasure, connections to private/loopback/link-local IPs and the http:// scheme are rejected by default.

Each field can also be overridden via environment variables (FILEFETCH_MAXSIZE, FILEFETCH_ALLOWLOCAL, FILEFETCH_ALLOWEDHOSTS).

fileFetch:
  allowLocal: false
  maxSize: 524288000 # 500MiB
  # allowedHosts:
  #   - example.com
  #   - files.example.com:8443

telemetry

Output settings for traces, metrics, and logs via OpenTelemetry.

For the http / grpc exporters, specify addr (host:port) or url. grpc also accepts insecure. With metrics.exporterType: pull, Prometheus-format metrics are exposed at the /metrics endpoint instead of OTLP push.

telemetry:
  serviceName: manifold
  trace:
    enabled: true
    grpc:
      addr: localhost:4317
      insecure: true
  metrics:
    enabled: true
    exporterType: push
    grpc:
      addr: localhost:4317
      insecure: true
  logs:
    enabled: true
    grpc:
      addr: localhost:4317
      insecure: true

HTTP endpoints

The HTTP endpoints exposed by Manifold.

MCP

OAuth 2.1

Other

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to set up a development environment and submit changes.

Test

make test

Lint

make lint

Inspiration

This project is inspired by the Agent / MCP Gateway of LiteLLM.

Just as LiteLLM's MCP Gateway provides a unified access point to multiple MCP servers, Manifold aims to be a gateway that connects a single MCP interface to many MCP servers / REST APIs.

License

MIT License