Give the agent more tools with hosted MCP servers, or local ones that run inside every session.
An MCP server is a plug-in that hands the agent a set of tools, such as “search Linear issues” or “fetch the current docs for this library”. Alpha runs two kinds. A remote server is hosted on the web and reached through Alpha. A local server is a command that starts inside every session’s machine. Both live in Integrations, on the MCPs tab, and whatever you add there works in every session you own. To sign in to an app such as Gmail or Slack instead, see Connect an app. To call your remote servers from the app the agent builds, see Use integrations in your app.
MCPs → Remote lists the hosted servers your Alpha offers, and Add server at the right adds your own.
The two kinds differ in where the server runs and who holds its credentials. That decides what can reach it.
Remote
Local
Where it runs
On its maker’s servers. Alpha calls it for you.
As a command inside each session’s machine, started by the agent.
How it signs in
OAuth, an API key or nothing. The credential stays on Alpha’s server, and machines never see it or the server’s address.
It reads your secrets and integration variables from the session’s environment.
How the agent sees its tools
With your connected apps, under the built-in alpha_tools server (“Alpha connected tools”).
Under the server key you choose, such as context7. Claude Code names them mcp__context7__….
Can your app use it?
Yes, through the session’s key, in the Preview and in published apps.
No. Only the agent in the session can call it.
Add your own
Any public Streamable HTTP address
Any command, such as npx, uvx, node or python
Not sure? If the vendor gives you an address ending in /mcp, add it as a remote server. If its README tells you to run npx … or uvx …, add it as a local one.
Open Integrations in the sidebar, then the MCPs tab. Every catalog server carries a blue Verified check, because Alpha curated it. What you click depends on the sub-tab.
Sub-tab
Click
What happens
Remote, OAuth server
Sign in
The server’s consent page opens in a popup, as for connecting an app. There is no client ID to paste: “One consent on your account; the gateway registers its own client, nothing to paste.” Once you approve, Alpha lists the server’s tools and the card turns Active.
Remote, no-auth server such as Exa
Connect
Alpha adds the server and lists its tools at once.
Local
Install
Alpha adds the server to every session you own: “Installing puts it in every session on this Alpha; its tools join the agent’s list from the next message.”
The Local catalog has three servers. None needs a key.
Server
What it gives the agent
Context7
”Current, version-specific docs for any library”, fetched for the libraries the project uses, so the agent works from current APIs. A CONTEXT7_API_KEY secret raises its rate limit.
Memory
”A knowledge graph the agent keeps between turns”, stored in a file inside the session’s machine, so facts about the project survive compaction. Each session keeps its own graph.
Sequential thinking
”A scratchpad for step-by-step problem solving”, for working through a hard problem in revisable steps before acting.
New tools reach a session with its next message. If the agent is in the middle of a turn, they arrive when that turn ends, and a session that’s asleep picks up local servers when it wakes.
If you don’t see a hosted server you expected under Remote, or the tab is empty, it isn’t turned on for your Alpha. An admin chooses which hosted servers the catalog offers.
Use this for a hosted server that isn’t in the catalog, such as your company’s internal tools. Alpha’s server calls it, so the address must be reachable from the public internet.
1
Open the form
On MCPs, click Add server. The panel “Add an MCP server” opens. Under Where it runs, pick Remote · hosted.
2
Name it and give its address
Type a Server name, such as “Harbor tools”. In Streamable HTTP URL, paste the server’s MCP endpoint in full, such as https://tools.example.com/mcp. It is “usually …/mcp — not the site’s root”.
3
Choose how it signs in
Pick one option under Authentication.
Option
What you fill in
None
Nothing.
API key
The API key, which is “Not returned after save”. Header defaults to Authorization and Prefix to Bearer . Change them if the server expects something else, such as X-API-Key with no prefix.
OAuth 2.0
Usually nothing: with Custom OAuth client off, Alpha uses “the server’s own sign-in, from its URL alone (Linear, Notion…)”. Switch it on only if the vendor gave you a registered client. Then fill in Client ID, Client secret, Authorization URL, Token URL and space-separated Scopes.
Authentication starts on None; pick API key or OAuth 2.0 when the server needs a sign-in.
4
Add it, then sign in
Click Add remote server. With None or API key, Alpha lists the server’s tools straight away. With OAuth 2.0, the server’s panel opens on “Sign in”: click Connect OAuth and approve in the popup.
Addresses on localhost or a private network are refused, so an app running in a session’s Preview can’t be added this way.
Use this for a server that its README starts with a command. Node, npx, Python and uvx are already in every session’s machine.
1
Open the form
On MCPs, click Add server. Where it runs opens on Local · in the sandbox.
2
Name the server
Type a Server key, such as context7: up to 40 lowercase letters, digits, - and _, starting with a letter. “The agent’s tools are named after it.” Title and Description are optional, but the description is “Named to the agent, so keep it about what the tools do.”
3
Enter the command
Split the README’s command into Command, the first word, and Arguments, one per line. For example, this command:
npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp
becomes Commandnpx, with -y and @upstash/context7-mcp on two lines under Arguments.
A local server is a command and its arguments; a key goes in by its secret's name, never its value.
4
Add environment settings, if any
The server already gets every secret and integration variable in the session. Use Environment settings only to set plain options, or to hand a secret over under the name the server expects, one NAME=VALUE per line:
LOG_LEVEL=infoNOTION_TOKEN=${NOTION_API_KEY}
Alpha fills in ${NOTION_API_KEY} from your secrets when the server starts, so the key itself is never stored with the server.
5
Add it
Leave Startup timeout (s) at 180 unless the server is slow to start. The first start on a new machine downloads the package. Click Add local server. Its tools reach every session you own from that session’s next message.
A local server runs inside every session you own, with the same rights as the agent. It can read your project, run commands and see every secret in the environment. Install only servers you trust, from their publisher’s own package name.
You can also ask the agent. It installs a local server for your account, never only for its own machine, so every session you own gets it.Alpha will:
Install the server under your account. It appears under MCPs → Local, owned by you, with a startup timeout of 180 seconds.
Tell you its tools arrive with your next message, in this session and every other, with nothing to restart.
If a server needs a key, hand it over by the name of a secret rather than its value, and ask you to add that secret. It never asks you to paste the key into a message.
A remote server needs your sign-in, so the agent posts a card instead: “The agent wants to use Harbor tools”. Connect Harbor tools opens the remote form filled with the name and address. Choose the sign-in, add it, then click Tell the agent to continue. See When the agent asks you to connect.The agent can add servers, but only you can edit or remove them.
The panel’s first card shows the server’s status, and its buttons change with it.
Status
Meaning
What to do
Active
Signed in. The agent can call its tools.
Test connection reports how many tools it found and refreshes the Tools list, so use it after the vendor adds tools.
Sign in
Added but not signed in yet.
Click Connect OAuth.
Sign in again
”Its sign-in expired and could not be refreshed.”
Click Sign in again and approve in the popup.
Disconnected
You revoked it. “The agent can no longer call it.”
Click Delete, then add it again to reconnect.
Revoke cuts the agent off at once and leaves the server listed as Disconnected. There is no way to switch it back on. Delete removes it after you confirm “Delete Linear? The agent loses its tools on its next message.”
Turn it off to keep the server but give it to no session: “Kept here, handed to no sandbox until it is switched on.” The panel then reads Installed, switched off, and its card shows Off.
How it runs
Shows the command the agent starts. Catalog servers add a Documentation link.
Variable chips
Appear when a server declares variables it needs. Green is set and amber isn’t. Click an amber chip to connect the integration that provides it, or to open the vendor’s page to get a key you then add under Secrets.
Edit command and environment
Opens the same form as Add local server, with Save and Cancel.
Remove from every session
Deletes the server after you confirm “Remove Context7? Every session loses its tools on its next message.”
A server whose key is missing still starts; its tools fail to authenticate. The agent says so and carries on without them.
Type /mcp on the home screen to see the servers every new session starts with, without starting one.browser and alpha_tools are built in and can’t be removed. Remote servers have no rows of their own, because their tools reach the agent through alpha_tools. Manage servers opens the catalog.Inside a session, /mcp posts a card listing each server the agent has loaded, with its number of tools and the first few by name. With Claude Code, /mcp reconnect, /mcp enable and /mcp disable manage a server for that session. See Slash commands.
These limits are fixed in Alpha. For every other limit, see Limits.
Limit or message
What it means
What to do
”at most 32 MCP servers”
Your account already has 32 local servers, counting the ones you installed from the catalog and the ones the agent added.
Remove one you no longer use.
”a server named context7 already exists”
You already have a server with that key. browser and alpha_tools are taken too.
Pick another key, or edit the existing server.
”workspace is a server name Claude Code keeps for itself — pick another name”
workspace, claude-in-chrome and computer-use are reserved.
Pick another key.
”MCP URL must be a public http or https URL” or “remote MCP address is not allowed”
The address isn’t a full http(s):// URL, or points at localhost or a private network.
Use the server’s public endpoint.
”the MCP server publishes no OAuth authorization server metadata — register a custom OAuth client”
The server’s own sign-in can’t be found from its address.
Switch on Custom OAuth client and enter the vendor’s client and endpoints. The same fix applies when the message says the server “does not register clients”.
”MCP sign-in expired and the server issued no refresh token — sign in again under Integrations”
The agent hit an expired sign-in mid-turn.
Click Sign in again on the server’s panel.
”MCP server returned too many tools”
The server listed more than 500 tools.
Use a narrower endpoint from the vendor, if it offers one.
More than 100 connected tools
Past 100 tools from your apps and remote servers, they no longer appear in the agent’s own tool list.
