Content
# Minibridge
[](https://github.com/acuvity/minibridge/actions/workflows/build.yaml)
[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/acuvity/minibridge)
[](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/acuvity/minibridge)
[](https://hub.docker.com/u/acuvity?page=1&search=mcp-server)
Minibridge serves as a backend-to-frontend bridge, streamlining and securing
communication between Agents and MCP servers. It safely exposes [MCP
servers](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) to the internet and can optionally
integrate with generic policing services — known as Policers — for agent
authentication, content analysis, and transformation. Policers can be
implemented remotely via HTTP or locally using [OPA
Rego](https://www.openpolicyagent.org/docs/latest/policy-reference/) policies.
Minibridge can help ensure the integrity of MCP servers through
SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation and real-time validation.
Additionally, Minibridge supports [OTEL](https://opentelemetry.io/) and can
report/rettach spans from classical OTEL headers, as well as directly from the
MCP call, as inserted by certain tool like [Open
Inference](https://arize-ai.github.io/openinference).
- **Minibridge Frontend**: The Client connects to the Frontend part of Minibridge.
- **Minibridge Backend**: The Frontend connects to the Backend which wraps the MCP server.
- **Minibridge Policer**: The Policer runs in the Backend and can optionally take decision on the input and output based on some policies (locally with Rego or remotely using HTTPs)
> [!TIP]
> Conveniently, Minibridge can be started in an "all-in-one" (AIO) mode to act as a single process.
## Why using Minibridge ?
Minibridge covers the following:
- **Secure Transport**: Use TLS with optionally, client certificate validation
- **Integrity**: Ensure the MCP server can not mutate tools, templates, etc. during the execution
- **User Authentication**: Transport the user information to the Policer
- **Monitoring**: Expose prometheus metrics
- **Telemetry**: Report traces and spans using Opentelemetry
## Installation
Minibridge can be installed from various places:
### Homebrew
On macOS, you can use Homebrew
```console
brew tap acuvity/tap
brew install minibridge
```
### AUR
On Arch based Linux distributions, you can run:
```console
yay -S minibridge
```
Alternatively, to get the latest version from the main branch:
```console
yay -S minibridge-git
```
### Go
If you have the Go toolchain install:
```console
go install go.acuvity.ai/minibridge@latest
```
Alternatively, to get the latest version from the main branch:
```console
go install go.acuvity.ai/minibridge@main
```
### Manually
You can easily grab a binary version for your platform from the [release
page](https://github.com/acuvity/minibridge/releases/tag/v0.6.2).
## Features comparisons
| 🚀 **Feature** | 🔹 **MCP** | 🔸 **Minibridge** | 📦 **ARC (Acuvity Containers)** |
| ------------------------------ | ----------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------- |
| 🌐 Remote Access | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🔒 TLS Support | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 📃 Tool integrity check | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 📊 Visualization and Tracing | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🛡️ Isolation | ❌ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
| 🔐 Security Policy Management | ❌ | 👤 | ⚠️ |
| 🕵️ Secrets Redaction | ❌ | 👤 | ⚠️ |
| 🔑 Authorization Controls | ❌ | 👤 | 👤 |
| 🧑💻 PII Detection and Redaction | ❌ | 👤 | 👤 |
| 📌 Version Pinning | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
✅ _Included_ | ⚠️ _Partial/Basic Support_ | 👤 _Custom User Implementation_ | ❌ _Not Supported_
## Example: Configuring Minibridge in your MCP Client
Suppose your client configuration originally specifies an MCP server like this:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mcp-server-fetch"]
}
}
}
```
To route requests through Minibridge (enabling SBOM checks, policy enforcement, etc.), update the entry:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"fetch": {
"command": "minibridge",
"args": ["aio", "--", "uvx", "mcp-server-fetch"]
}
}
}
```
- **`minibridge aio`**: Invokes Minibridge in “all-in-one” mode, wrapping the downstream tool.
- **`uvx mcp-server-fetch`**: The original MCP server command, now executed inside Minibridge.
> [!TIP]
> The location of the configuration files depends on your Client. For example, if you use Claude Desktop, configuration files are located:
>
> - macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
> - Windows: `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
>
> See the official [MCP QuickStart for Claude Desktop Users](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user#2-add-the-filesystem-mcp-server) documentation.
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Your client must be able to resolve the path of the binary.
> If you see an error like `MCP fetch: spawn minibridge ENOENT`, set the `command` parameter above to the full path of minibridge (`which minibridge` will give you the full path).
## Documentation
Check out the complete [documentation](https://github.com/acuvity/minibridge/wiki) from the wiki pages.
## Contribute
We are excited to welcome contributions from everyone! 🎉 Whether you're fixing bugs, enhancing features, improving documentation, or proposing entirely new ideas, your involvement helps strengthen the project and benefits the entire community.
You do not need to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) — just open a pull request and let's collaborate!
## Join us
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/BkU7fBkrNk)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/acuvity)
- [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/acuvity.bsky.social)
- [Docker](https://hub.docker.com/u/acuvity)
