Show HN: Authorize MCP tool calls without giving agents the credentials

https://github.com/keydrisLabs/mcp-auth-keydris-template

7•b4timer•1d ago

Hey HN, Adam here.

We built a small MCP example around a single problem:

How do you let an agent use a tool that needs credentials without giving the credentials to the agent?

The demo has two tools. One is open. One is protected.

When the agent calls the protected tool, Keydris checks the policy first:

ALLOW → run the tool REJECT → stop

The credential stays on the server. The agent never sees it.

We do the check through a small middleware on the MCP server called the KIT Reader.

Repo: https://github.com/keydrisLabs/mcp-auth-keydris-template

We're early. If you're building with MCP, Claude Code or Codex, I'd love to know how you're handling this today and where you think this approach breaks.

We support other elements like integrations etc but would love your feedback

Comments

evanjrowley•1d ago

How would someone send the audit evidence to their organization's centralized log collection service(s)?

Maxious•23h ago

Other MCP gateway platforms seem to send extensive records to SIEM systems https://docs.domesystems.ai/operate

ahmed89•6h ago

Good point. What concerns do you see with this approach? And how would you handle sending this kind of activity to SIEM?

b4timer•23h ago

The audit evidence is hash chained and we allow for it to be exported off platform. Currently s3 bucket is supported. Additionally, we allow for normal csv-based exports. Would be interested to know what centralized log collection services you use.

1ClawAI•23h ago

This is great, we are working on something similar at 1Claw but I like your approach too. Want to trade notes sometime?

CharlieDigital•22h ago

    > How do you let an agent use a tool that needs credentials without giving the credentials to the agent?

I took a different approach [0].

    1. Register a secret and get back an opaque identifier (out-of-band, human action; can extend and add an API for listing by endpoint)
    2. Generate a JavaScript API call that includes the opaque identifier as header (for example)
    3. Send the JavaScript to a server that runs a JS interpreter
    4. Pre-process the inbound JS and replace the opaque identifier with the actual token
    5. Run the JS to invoke the API, make transforms, process the result, etc.

Effectively using agent generated JS script to make the actual API call where the agent only sees the opaque ID of the secret.

[0] https://github.com/CharlieDigital/runjs

coder-pm•18h ago

If the server is compromised, it still receives the real key on each call. If the vault issues a long lived key, e.g. GitHub PAT, one call will expose it forever. Does the vault issue short lived keys or the stored one?

Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations

Show HN: Capsule – Single-file web apps that save their data into SQLite

Show HN: Hacking a $20 4G wireless hotspot into a texting device

Show HN: Panel – A research workspace where the agent can build its own panes

Show HN: Ordewell – turn one goal into an ordered plan of coding-agent tasks

Show HN: Rewic – Turn Git commits into client-ready progress updates

Show HN: LoongForge-Train LLMs, VLMs, diffusion and embodied models, faster

Show HN: FlareDB – a Rust-based streaming database with Apache Beam as interface

Show HN: Trendradar for Horizon Scanning and Foresight

Show HN: Hazzel — a tiny, transparent coding agent for your terminal

Show HN: Check if your IP has appeared in a residential proxy network

Show HN: Redis City – Explore how Redis works in an interactive 3D model

Show HN: Loss. a tiny satire about AI progress

Show HN: I made an 8 bit game that teaches beginners to pwn basic C programs

Show HN: KaozKit – JavaScript LLM agents on an engine built for microcontrollers

Show HN: Lume – an open-source terminal you can drive from your phone

Show HN: Bulkgrid – Search websites and GitHub repositories from your AI agent

Show HN: A live Git diff view cli to stay on top of what agents are doing

Show HN: Infinite Shaders

Show HN: Prokop – Open-source AI coding workspace with cross-project memory

Show HN: Macros with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Pedalboard in macOS

Show HN: ScaleUp City Simulator

Show HN: Nari Qwen3-TTS and Qwen3-ASR – High accuracy, low latency and cost

Show HN: Pelican-bicycle alternatives

Show HN: Neobrutalism.dev – Just added Base UI support and added new color theme

Show HN: A Zoomable Equal-Area Map Projection that interpolates to Mercator

Show HN: Kinesis – Control your Mac with the Meta Neural Band

Show HN: Jinfer – AI inference engine for the JVM. AI in a jar

Show HN: Pushie – Get notified with a simple webhook

Show HN: Fly.exe – An EON systems like virtual fruit fly uploaded to computer