Gateway pattern keeps API credentials away from AI agents running MCP servers
Developers using MCP servers in AI agents commonly store live API keys directly in the agent's environment, exposing them to theft via prompt injection or compromised dependencies. A more secure approach places a trusted gateway process between the agent and the MCP server, so the agent only receives a short-lived, scoped token rather than the actual credential. The gateway injects the real API key at the moment of each tool call and strips it from any response returned to the agent. This architecture also acts as a policy enforcement point, allowing operators to restrict which tools each agent can access and to log every call in a tamper-resistant location. An open-source tool called Agenthof, written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license, is offered as one implementation of this credential governance pattern.
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