---
title: "MCP server connector"
description: "Connect MCP server to Overlane: Call tools on a third-party MCP server your team allowlisted. Auth, setup, typed actions with their autonomy class, and events."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.overlane.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# MCP server connector

{/* Generated from the connector's declaration and setup text by `pnpm --filter @overlane/sdk generate`. Do not edit. */}

Call tools on a third-party MCP server your team allowlisted. Only an allowlisted server is ever called, over https, with a time and size limit.

Connectors are optional on every plan. The Overlane-native path is Overlane's own MCP tools; nothing in Overlane needs MCP server connected. Read [how connectors work](/developers/connectors/) first.

## Auth

A key: Bearer token for the server, if it needs one.

## Set it up

1. Add the server to the team's allowlist with `overlane connector mcp add`, giving its https URL (a public DNS name, not an IP address) and, if it needs one, a bearer token from an environment variable.
2. List its tools with `overlane connector run mcp list_tools`, passing the server ID.
3. Call a tool with `overlane connector run mcp call_tool`. A tool call is a write in the policy class, because Overlane cannot know what an arbitrary tool does.

```sh
overlane connector mcp add --name Docs --url https://mcp.example.com/mcp --secret-env DOCS_MCP_TOKEN
overlane connector show mcp
```

The credential is read from the environment variable (or standard input with `--secret-stdin`), stored in your team's encrypted vault and never shown again. Storing, rotating or revoking a credential is in the `secrets` [autonomy class](/developers/approval-rule/). Revoke it with `overlane connector mcp remove`, which deletes the stored secret.

## Actions

Run one with `overlane connector run`. The class says what the call needs from the autonomy gate; see [the approval rule](/developers/approval-rule/).

| Action | Kind | Autonomy class | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `list_tools` | read | none | List the tools an allowlisted server offers |
| `call_tool` | write | `policy_change` | Call one tool on an allowlisted server |

```sh
overlane connector run mcp list_tools --input '{"serverId":"mcp_0123456789abcdef"}'
```

## Events

MCP server sends no signed events to Overlane in this connector.

## Limits and content

Overlane makes at most 60 MCP server calls a minute for one team, to protect the provider's own quota. A call over it returns `429` with `Retry-After`. A rate limit from the provider itself is waited out with its `Retry-After` and retried.

Everything MCP server returns is data, labelled `untrusted_data`, never instructions. If the text looks like it is written to instruct an AI reader, the label says so and the text is returned unchanged; nothing in it changes what Overlane does.

## Sources

- [Model Context Protocol specification](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18)
- The connector follows the provider's documentation as of 2026-10-01.

Source: https://docs.overlane.app/developers/connectors/mcp/index.mdx