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by steelshot

mcp-aggregator

Builds a container image that presents any number of MCP servers to a local client as a single Streamable HTTP endpoint, collapsed behind the two tools that mcp-compress-router exposes: get_tool_schema and invoke_tool.

Agent clients cap the number of registered tools — 128 for GitHub Copilot CLI — and every registered tool consumes context. Routing servers through the compressor keeps them all reachable at a fixed cost of two tools.

Architecture

flowchart LR
	client["MCP client"]

	subgraph container["container"]
		sg["supergateway<br/>PID 1"]
		router["mcp-compress-router"]
		sg -->|stdio| router
	end

	gh["github<br/>http"]
	fs["filesystem<br/>stdio"]
	int["internal<br/>streamable-http"]
	client -->|" Streamable HTTP<br/>127.0.0.1:${PORT}/mcp "| sg
	router --> gh
	router --> fs
	router --> int
NOTE

Configuration is baked into the image at build time as build secrets, so a running container needs no host configuration beyond a state volume.

Related MCP server: MCP Proxy Server

Requirements

  • Node.js >= 24 with npm on the build host

  • Podman, or Docker as configured by build.engine

Versions

Field

Installed by

Contents

dependencies

the image, npm ci --omit=dev

supergateway, the router, and every downstream stdio server

devDependencies

the build host only

ajv and liquidjs, used by build.js; eslint and friends, used by npm run lint

TIP

RECOMMENDED: Pin dependency versions exactly; take advantage of .npmrc which sets save-exact=true

Configuration

build.json is git-ignored and validated against build.schema.json on every run.

Key

Purpose

build.engine

podman or docker

build.name / build.tag

Image coordinates, overridable with the IMAGE_NAME environment variable

build.port

Streamable HTTP port, inside the container and on the host binding. Optional, default 20000

build.podman.generate_quadlet_unit

Emit a <name>.container systemd unit alongside the image

build.podman.description

Unit Description=. Optional, default Local MCP aggregate

build.podman.volumes

Extra Volume= entries. Optional

build.podman.environment

Extra Environment= entries as NAME=value. Optional

mcp.servers

Downstream servers, written verbatim into the router's mcp.json under mcpServers

mcp.oauth

Server names requiring an interactive login on the build host

A server is stdio and requires command, or http / streamable-http and requires url. Unknown fields pass through to mcp.json untouched, so router features absent from the schema still work. Recognized extras include description, allowedTools and disabledTools (picomatch globs), and enabled. The router shows description in its tool catalogue so the model can tell what a server is and when to reach for it, so keep it to a sentence or two.

IMPORTANT

Do not usenpx for stdio servers, which contacts the registry on every invocation even for an installed package, but instead define it as a dependency and let the Container build prefetch it for you.

{
	"$schema": "build.schema.json",
	"build": {
		"engine": "podman",
		"name": "mcp-aggregator",
		"tag": "latest",
		"podman": {
			"generate_quadlet_unit": true,
			"description": "MCP aggregate",
			"volumes": [
				"/srv/data:/data:ro"
			],
			"environment": [
				"TZ=Europe/Vilnius"
			]
		}
	},
	"mcp": {
		"servers": {
			"github": {
				"type": "http",
				"url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
				"description": "GitHub repositories, issues, pull requests and code search. Use for anything hosted on github.com.",
				"headers": {
					"Authorization": "Bearer ${GITHUB_MCP_PAT}"
				}
			},
			"filesystem": {
				"type": "stdio",
				"command": "mcp-server-filesystem",
				"args": [
					"/data"
				],
				"description": "Read-only access to the files mounted at /data.",
				"disabledTools": [
					"*write*",
					"*delete*"
				]
			},
			"internal": {
				"type": "streamable-http",
				"url": "${INTERNAL_MCP_URL}",
				"description": "Internal company API for service data that is not public.",
				"oauth": {
					"clientId": "${INTERNAL_CLIENT_ID}",
					"scope": "read"
				}
			}
		},
		"oauth": [
			"internal"
		]
	}
}

Placeholders

${VAR} and ${VAR:-default} in mcp.servers resolve against the environment, falling back to .env in the repository root. An unset placeholder without a default aborts the build.

Building

npm install
npm run build
flowchart TD
	bj["build.json"] --> val["validate against<br/>build.schema.json"]
	val --> exp["resolve placeholders<br/>from environment and .env"]
	exp --> mj["mcp.json<br/>temp file"]
	cache["credentials.json<br/>repository root"] --> gate{"tokens missing for<br/>any mcp.oauth server?"}
	gate -->|yes| login["interactive login<br/>on build host"]
	login --> cj["credentials.json<br/>temp file"]
	gate -->|no| cj
	mj --> rev["CONFIG_REVISION<br/>digest of both files"]
	cj --> rev
	rev --> eng["engine build<br/>with both files as secrets"]
	eng --> img["image"]
	eng --> unit["name.container unit"]

OAuth

Login runs on the build host, because the authorization-code flow needs a browser. Tokens are cached in credentials.json at the repository root and bound to the server URL they were issued for, so changing a server's url triggers a fresh login on the next build; --login re-authorizes every server in mcp.oauth:

npm run login

A pre-registered OAuth client, one with a fixed clientId, must allow the loopback redirect URI http://127.0.0.1/mcp-compress-router/oauth-callback on any port. Clients created through dynamic registration need no setup.

NOTE

supergateway starts a separate router for every client session. The routers sharecredentials.json in the <name>-state volume and serialise writes and token refreshes through lock files beside it, so when a provider rotates refresh tokens, one session's refresh is adopted by the others instead of invalidating them. Podman seeds credentials.json only into an empty <name>-state volume, so recovering from a revoked or expired refresh token means rerunning npm run login, rebuilding, and recreating that volume.

Deploying

With generate_quadlet_unit enabled, a build renders quadlet.container.liquid to mcp-aggregator.container with LiquidJS:

mkdir -p ~/.config/containers/systemd
cp mcp-aggregator.container ~/.config/containers/systemd/
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user start mcp-aggregator
IMPORTANT

The health check probes supergateway's/healthz endpoint, so the unit replaces a container whose gateway is wedged as well as one whose process has exited. It does not probe the downstream servers, so a healthy verdict means the gateway is answering, not that every downstream is reachable.

Connecting a client

http://127.0.0.1:20000/mcp
NOTE

The port followsbuild.port.

Licence

MIT © Džiugas Eiva

Maintenance

ActivityActive
ResponsivenessNo issues

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