Docker MCP Gateway is a Docker CLI plugin that runs and manages Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, which connect AI applications to external tools, services, databases, and APIs. Developers use it to give multiple AI clients a shared, controlled way to access MCP servers, including isolated containers and authentication flows. The catalogue add-ons support operating and configuring this gateway.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to docker/mcp-gateway. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/mcp-gateway/main/CLAUDE.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/docker/mcp-gatewayWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docker/mcp-gateway/claude-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docker/mcp-gateway/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/docker/mcp-gateway/claude-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docker/mcp-gateway/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/docker/mcp-gateway/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.01077 | $0.01077 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00431 | $0.00431 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00215 | $0.00215 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00108 | $0.00108 |
Grade A, and why
mcp-gateway CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 145 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
CLAUDE.md
This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.
Overview
This is the Docker MCP Gateway - a CLI plugin that enables easy and secure running of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers through Docker containers. The plugin acts as a gateway between AI clients and containerized MCP servers, providing isolation, security, and management capabilities.
Architecture
The codebase follows a gateway pattern where:
- AI Client connects to the MCP Gateway
- MCP Gateway (this CLI) manages multiple MCP Servers running in Docker containers
Key architectural components:
- Gateway: Core routing and protocol translation (
cmd/docker-mcp/internal/gateway/) - Client Management: Handles connections to AI clients (
cmd/docker-mcp/client/) - Server Management: Manages MCP server lifecycle (
cmd/docker-mcp/server/) - Catalog System: Manages available MCP servers (
cmd/docker-mcp/catalog/) - Security: Secrets management and OAuth flows (
cmd/docker-mcp/secret-management/,cmd/docker-mcp/oauth/)
Development Commands
Building
# Build the CLI plugin locally
make docker-mcp
# Cross-compile for all platforms
make docker-mcp-cross
Testing
# Run all tests
make test
# Run integration tests specifically
make integration
# Run long-lived integration tests
go test -count=1 ./... -run 'TestLongLived'
# Run specific tests by pattern
go test -count=1 ./... -run 'TestIntegration'
# Run a single test file
go test ./cmd/docker-mcp/server/server_test.go
# Run tests with coverage
go test -cover ./...
Code Quality
# Format code
make format
# Run linter
make lint
# Run linter for specific platform
make lint-linux
make lint-darwin
# Run Go vet (static analysis)
go vet ./...
# Run Go mod tidy to clean dependencies
go mod tidy
Project Structure
cmd/docker-mcp/- Main CLI application entry pointcmd/docker-mcp/internal/gateway/- Core gateway implementation with client pooling, proxy management, and transport handlingcmd/docker-mcp/internal/docker/- Docker integration for container managementcmd/docker-mcp/internal/mcp/- MCP protocol implementations (stdio, SSE)cmd/docker-mcp/internal/desktop/- Docker Desktop integration and authenticationcmd/docker-mcp/catalog/- Server catalog management commandscmd/docker-mcp/client/- Client configuration and connection managementcmd/docker-mcp/server/- Server lifecycle management commandscmd/docker-mcp/tools/- Tool execution and managementexamples/- Usage examples and compose configurationsdocs/- Technical documentation
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 2mo ago First seen · 145 lines · 1,077 tokens per session scan A 70f009a0da62
mcp-gateway CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository docker/mcp-gateway (1,626 stars, last pushed 11d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,077 tokens to every session, about $0.0043 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
mcp-gateway CLAUDE.md compared with instructions from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mcp-gateway CLAUDE.mddocker/mcp-gateway | Instructions file | 1.6k | 11d ago | MIT | A | 1,077 | Claude Code |
| vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | today | MIT | A | 9,719 | GitHub Copilot |
| next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js | Instructions file | 143k | today | MIT | A | 7,461 | Codex, OpenCode |
| langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain | Instructions file | 149k | today | MIT | A | 4,680 | Codex, OpenCode |
| vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | today | MIT | A | 5,516 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | today | MIT | A | 3,093 | GitHub Copilot |
| deepseek-harness AGENTS.mddeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness | Instructions file | 274k | 2d ago | MIT | A | 4,313 | Codex, OpenCode |