Gatehouse
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Quickstart

Run Gatehouse, add an MCP server, write a policy and connect Claude Code in about five minutes.

This guide runs Gatehouse on your machine, connects one MCP server, and points Claude Code at it.

1. Run Gatehouse

You need Node.js 24 or newer. There's no build step.

npm install
npm start

On first start, the log prints a setup code:

[gatehouse] First run: open http://localhost:8787/setup and enter setup code 3f9a1c2b7e04

Open http://localhost:8787/setup, enter the code, and create the owner account.

Want to look around first? npm run demo starts a fully populated demo company, "Northwind Pay", with five servers, policies and 24 hours of simulated activity. Sign in as maya@northwind.example with gatehouse-demo-pass.

2. Add an MCP server

Go to Servers → Add server.

  • Remote URL for hosted servers, for example GitHub's at https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/. Paste the service's token into API token; Gatehouse sends it as Authorization: Bearer <token>.
  • Local command for servers that run as a process, for example npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres with DATABASE_URL=… as a secret environment variable.

Gatehouse connects and lists the server's tools right away. They all start off.

3. Review and enable tools

Open Tools, expand the server, select the tools you want and click Enable selected. Read the descriptions first. Gatehouse flags text that looks like hidden instructions.

4. Write a policy

Go to Policies → New policy. A good first policy:

  • Name: Engineers can use read-only GitHub tools
  • What happens: Allow
  • Tools this policy covers: pick the read tools, or type a pattern like github__get_*
  • For whom: Groups and people → the engineering group

Without any matching policy, every call is denied. See Policies for approvals and conditions.

5. Connect Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http gatehouse http://localhost:8787/mcp

In Claude Code, run /mcp, choose gatehouse, then Authenticate. Your browser opens; sign in and click Allow. Claude Code now sees exactly the tools your policies allow for you.

Other agents are covered in Connect an agent.

6. Watch it work

Ask your agent to use a tool. Then open Audit log in the console: every call is there, with who made it, which agent, the decision and the reason.

Next steps