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Version: 19.x (unreleased)

MCP Access Getting Started Guide

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Teleport can provide secure connections to your MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers while improving both access control and visibility.

This guides shows you how to:

  • Enroll the Teleport demo MCP server in your Teleport cluster.
  • Connect to the MCP server via Teleport.

How it works​

The Teleport Application Service includes a built-in demo MCP server designed to showcase how MCP access works.

Users can configure their MCP clients such as Claude Desktop to start an MCP server using tsh. Once successfully authorized, tsh establishes a session with the Application Service.

Once the session is established, the Application Service starts the in-memory demo MCP server. Teleport then proxies the connection between the client and the remote MCP server, applying additional role-based access controls such as filtering which tools are available to the user. While proxying, Teleport also logs MCP protocol requests as audit events, providing visibility into user activity.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport cluster. If you want to get started with Teleport, sign up for a free trial or set up a demo environment.

  • The tctl and tsh clients.

    Installing tctl and tsh clients

    1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The tctl and tsh clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at /v1/webapi/find and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version:

      TELEPORT_DOMAIN=example.teleport.com:443
      TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')"

    2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install tctl and tsh clients:

      Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the tctl and tsh clients:

      curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg

      In Finder double-click the pkg file to begin installation.

      danger

      Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security.

  • A host, e.g., an EC2 instance, where you will run the Teleport Applications Service.

Step 1/3. Configure the Teleport Application Service​

You can update an existing Application Service or create a new one to enable the demo MCP server.

If you already have an existing Application Service running, you can enable the demo MCP server by adding the following in your YAML configuration:

app_service:
  enabled: true
+  mcp_demo_server: true
...

Now restart the Application Service.

Step 2/3. Configure your Teleport user​

In this step, you will grant your Teleport user access to all MCP servers and their MCP tools.

If you have an existing Teleport user, you can create a role for MCP access assign it to your Teleport user.

tctl create <<EOFkind: roleversion: v8metadata:  name: access-mcpspec:  allow:    app_labels:      '*': '*'    mcp:      tools:      - '*'EOF

Alternatively, add the above allow permissions to an existing Teleport role.

tip

You can also create and edit roles using the Web UI. Go to Access -> Roles and click Create New Role or pick an existing role to edit.

Step 3/3. Connect​

Log in to Teleport with the user we've just created.

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 --user=my_user

Now we can inspect available MCP servers:

tsh mcp ls
Name              Description                                                       Type  Labels----------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ------teleport-mcp-demo A demo MCP server that shows current user and session information stdio

To show configurations for your MCP client to connect:

tsh mcp config
Found MCP servers:teleport-mcp-demo
Here is a sample JSON configuration for launching Teleport MCP servers:{  "mcpServers": {    "teleport-mcp-teleport-mcp-demo": {      "command": "/path/to/tsh",      "args": ["mcp", "connect", "teleport-mcp-demo"]    }  }}
Tip: You can use this command to update your MCP servers configuration file automatically.- For Claude Desktop, use --client-config=claude to update the default configuration.- For Cursor, use --client-config=cursor to update the global MCP servers configuration.In addition, you can use --client-config=<path> to specify a config file location that is compatible with the "mcpServers" mapping.For example, you can update a Cursor project using --client-config=<path-to-project>/.cursor/mcp.json

Once your MCP client configuration is updated, you will find the Teleport demo MCP server in your MCP client. The demo MCP server consists of several tools that provide basic information on this demo, your Teleport user, and the MCP session. You can interact with it using sample questions like "can you show some details on this teleport demo?":

Demo Server Claude Desktop

Next Steps​

Learn more about protecting MCP servers with Teleport in the following topics: