AI agent governance

MCP Gateway: Govern Every Agent's Access to Your MCP Servers

Secure MCP tool calls with enterprise identity, data loss prevention (DLP), and PII protection. Control which tools agents can use, inspect arguments and results, protect credentials, and audit every call without changing your MCP server code.

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Identity-aware MCP gateway between AI agents and enterprise MCP servers

Category overview

What is an MCP gateway?

The Model Context Protocol gives AI agents and assistants a standard way to call tools: query a database, file a ticket, retrieve a document, or update a record. An MCP gateway is a reverse proxy purpose-built for that traffic. It sits between MCP clients and MCP servers, then enforces who may connect, which tools each identity may see and call, how fast they can call them, and what audit trail is recorded. The need is practical. MCP servers are being stood up quickly, especially when teams expose them so cloud-based assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot Studio can reach enterprise tools. Without a gateway, an MCP server URL can become a broad path to whatever the tools behind it can do.

Identity is easy to skip

Many early MCP deployments are launched before enterprise identity, lifecycle, and access reviews are fully mapped to agent tool use.

Tool access can expose sensitive data

An approved read tool can return customer PII, secrets, or confidential records. Write, export, and admin tools add further risks that require access and content policies.

Audit needs real context

Security teams need to know which person, agent, tool, action, policy, and downstream system were involved in each request.

What the gateway enforces

What Datawiza Agent Gateway enforces for MCP traffic

Datawiza Agent Gateway combines enterprise identity, tool authorization, and sensitive-data protection in front of MCP servers. Apply access policies and inspect tool arguments and results without changing MCP server code.

Authentication in front of every MCP server

Users and agents sign in through your IdP before any request reaches the MCP server. Access can use Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or another OIDC-compliant provider.

Tool-level authorization

Filter which tools each identity can discover with tools/list and enforce which tools or actions it can invoke with tools/call.

Rate limiting and usage attribution

Apply per-user and per-agent limits, then attribute usage to real identities for cost control, abuse detection, and operational review.

Credential protection

Keep upstream secrets in the gateway so agents and users never hold the keys to the systems behind your MCP tools.

Audit and SIEM visibility

Record authenticated identity, MCP server, tool, access decisions, DLP events, and enforcement outcomes for audit and security review.

DLP and PII protection

Inspect tool arguments and returned content for PII, secrets, and sensitive data. Block or redact matched values according to policy.

Architecture

MCP gateway architecture

Agents and MCP clients connect through Datawiza. The gateway validates identity, authorizes the tool, applies DLP to its arguments, and brokers credentials before forwarding approved requests. Returned tool content passes through response inspection before it reaches the agent.

Step 1

Agent or MCP client

Authenticates with Entra ID, Okta, or another IdP and receives a signed access token.

Step 2

Datawiza Agent Gateway

Validates issuer, audience, signature, expiry, scopes, and claims, then checks MCP server, tool, and action policy.

Step 3

MCP servers and tools

Receive only approved MCP requests. Denied, approved, and approval-routed decisions are logged.

Identity providers

Entra IDOktaPingAWS IAMOAuth / OIDC

Deployment options

Azure / AWS / Google CloudOn-premises / private networkDatawiza-hosted service

Token validation: trust the IdP token only after Datawiza verifies it.

Tool policy: allow or deny by agent, claim, MCP server, tool, action, and environment.

Audit: record who or what called the tool, which policy matched, and the outcome.

Sensitive data protection

Reduce sensitive-data exposure through MCP tools

Apply data loss prevention (DLP) to both directions of MCP traffic: arguments sent to tools and results returned to agents. Help prevent sensitive-data leaks by detecting PII and secrets, then blocking or redacting matched content according to policy.

Inspect MCP tool inputs

Detect PII, credentials, and restricted content in tool arguments before forwarding the request to an internal or third-party MCP server.

Protect sensitive tool results

Inspect data returned by MCP tools and block or redact matched sensitive values before the result reaches the agent.

Apply DLP policies with an audit trail

Govern sensitive content in requests and responses, with detections and enforcement outcomes tied to the user, agent, MCP server, and tool.

Identity-native control

Why identity is the hard part of MCP security

Most gateway approaches can answer whether a request has a token or key. Enterprise security teams need a stronger answer: which person or agent did this, under whose authority, and what policy allowed it? Agent Gateway binds MCP access to enterprise identity, so lifecycle controls, group changes, disabled accounts, and agent identities matter at the gateway layer.

Enterprise IdP binding

Use Entra ID, Okta, or another OIDC-compliant provider as the source of identity for MCP access decisions.

Context-rich policy

Evaluate user, group, agent, delegated context, server, tool, action, and environment before forwarding a request.

Lifecycle-aware access

Disable a user, revoke an agent credential, or change a group in the IdP and MCP access follows the same lifecycle.

Deployment

How Agent Gateway deploys as an MCP gateway

Agent Gateway runs as a lightweight containerized reverse proxy in your cloud, DMZ, or data center, managed from a central console. Point the MCP server public hostname at the gateway, connect your IdP, define tool policies, and reuse the same deployment model for REST API traffic from agents.

Flexible placement

Deploy close to your MCP servers in cloud, hybrid, DMZ, or private-network environments.

Central policy management

Configure identity, tool policies, DLP rules, rate limits, credential handling, and audit export centrally.

MCP and API coverage

Use the same Agent Gateway control layer for MCP servers, LLM APIs, internal APIs, SaaS APIs, and enterprise tools.

Workflow

How to roll out an MCP gateway with Agent Gateway

Start with one MCP server, connect enterprise identity, and define tool access and DLP policies. Review permitted calls, blocked transfers, and redacted results before expanding to more workflows.

1Start with one MCP endpointChoose one MCP server or agent workflow where identity, tool access, rate limits, or audit needs to be enforced before tool calls run.
2Connect enterprise identityConnect Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or another OIDC-compliant provider so users and agents authenticate before MCP access.
3Set access and data-protection policiesDefine which identities may discover and call tools, which actions require approval, and where limits apply. Set DLP policies for sensitive arguments and results, including when to block or redact.
4Route, enforce, and auditPoint clients at the gateway, inspect requests and responses, and forward content that satisfies policy. Export access and data-protection decisions for audit and SIEM review.

Use cases

Common MCP gateway use cases

Cloud-based assistant access

Require sign-in and tool-level policy before cloud-based assistants can reach an enterprise MCP endpoint.

PII protection for enterprise records

Let agents retrieve approved customer, employee, and financial records while masking sensitive fields according to policy before results reach the model.

Least-privilege tool access

Allow read-only tools broadly while restricting write, export, delete, production, or admin actions to approved identities.

Data-loss investigation and audit

Attribute calls and DLP events to real users and agents, throttle high-volume access, and send enforcement decisions to security tooling.

Comparison