Files
mcpctl/docs/mcptoken-implementation.md
Michal efcfeeab65 feat(cli)!: migrate create rbac bindings to --roleBindings kv syntax
BREAKING: `mcpctl create rbac` no longer accepts `--binding` or
`--operation`. Use `--roleBindings` instead with key:value pairs:

  # resource binding
  --roleBindings role:view,resource:servers
  --roleBindings role:view,resource:servers,name:my-ha

  # operation binding (role:run is implied by action:)
  --roleBindings action:logs

The on-disk YAML shape (`roleBindings: [{role, resource, name?}]` or
`{role:'run', action}`) is unchanged, so Git backups and existing
`apply -f` files continue to work. Only the command-line input format
changes.

The parser is extracted to src/cli/src/commands/rbac-bindings.ts so the
upcoming `mcpctl create mcptoken --bind <kv>` verb can reuse it.

Completions, tests, and the new parser unit test all pass (406/406).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-17 01:03:57 +01:00

6.9 KiB

mcptoken + HTTP-mode mcplocal — implementation log

Companion to the approved plan at /home/michal/.claude/plans/lets-discuss-something-i-bright-lovelace.md. This file is updated as each milestone lands, so you can review what was actually done vs. what was planned.

Context (why)

You're running your own vLLM inference outside Claude Code and want it to consume mcpctl over MCP with the same UX Claude gets: project-scoped server discovery, proxy models, the pipeline cache. Today mcplocal is systemd-only and serves STDIO — unreachable from off-host and unauthenticated. This work adds:

  1. A containerized, network-accessible mcplocal serving Streamable HTTP.
  2. A new McpToken resource (CLI: mcpctl get/create/delete mcptoken) — project-scoped bearer tokens with the same RBAC stack as users. Hashed at rest; raw value shown once.
  3. Tokens as a first-class RBAC subject kind (McpToken:<sha>), with a creator-permission ceiling so non-admins cannot mint escalated tokens.
  4. k8s deploy (Service mcp, Ingress mcp.ad.itaz.eu, PVC-backed FileCache).
  5. A CLI breaking change: mcpctl create rbac --binding edit:servers--roleBindings role:edit,resource:servers. You explicitly asked for this; only one command uses it.
  6. A product-grade mcpctl test mcp <url> verb for validating any Streamable-HTTP MCP endpoint, reused by smoke tests.

Branch

All work lives on feat/mcptoken (off main at 3149ea3).

Pre-work committed to main (outside this branch)

Before starting the feature, we flushed your in-flight changes to main so they wouldn't travel with the branch:

  • 3149ea3 fix: MCP proxy resilience — discovery cache, default liveness probes — per-server tools/list cache in McpRouter with positive+negative TTL so dead upstreams only stall the first call; default liveness probe (tools/list through the real production path) applied to any RUNNING instance without an explicit healthCheck. Already pushed to origin.

Status legend

  • done
  • 🚧 in progress
  • not started

PR 1 — Schema + token helpers + mcpd CRUD routes

# Step Status
1 McpToken Prisma model + Project/User reverse relations; AuditEvent.tokenName / tokenSha + index
2 src/shared/src/tokens/index.tsgenerateToken, hashToken, isMcpToken, timingSafeEqualHex, TOKEN_PREFIX
3 src/mcpd/src/repositories/mcp-token.repository.ts + new interfaces in repositories/interfaces.ts
4 src/mcpd/src/services/mcp-token.service.ts — creator-ceiling via rbacService.canAccess/canRunOperation, raw token returned only once, auto-creates an RbacDefinition with subject McpToken:<sha> when bindings are non-empty
5 src/mcpd/src/routes/mcp-tokens.ts — POST / GET / GET:id / DELETE:id + POST:id/revoke + GET /introspect
6 Wired into main.ts — repo/service constructed, routes registered, mcptokens added to URL→permission map + name resolver; /mcptokens/introspect added to auth-skip list so mcplocal can call it with a raw McpToken bearer
7 RBAC extensions: new subject kind McpToken in rbac-definition.schema.ts; mcptokens added to RBAC_RESOURCES and RESOURCE_ALIASES; rbac.service.ts threads optional mcpTokenSha through canAccess, canRunOperation, getAllowedScope, getPermissions; resolver matches {kind:'McpToken', name: sha}
8 Unit tests — tests/mcp-token-service.test.ts covering: empty/clone modes, ceiling rejection, RbacDefinition auto-create with correct McpToken:<sha> subject, duplicate-name conflict, introspect valid/revoked/expired/unknown, revoke deletes the RbacDefinition. 11/11 green. Full mcpd suite still 648/648.

What this PR does NOT do yet (coming in PR 3)

  • The mcpd auth middleware does not yet dispatch on the token prefix. A raw mcpctl_pat_… bearer sent to any /api/v1/* endpoint (other than /introspect) is still rejected as an invalid session. That's intentional — PR 3 extends middleware/auth.ts to recognize both session bearers and McpToken bearers.
  • No CLI yet. Tokens can be created only via POST /api/v1/mcptokens for now.

PR 2 — RBAC CLI migration

Migrated mcpctl create rbac from positional flag syntax to the key=value form you asked for.

Before:

mcpctl create rbac developers \
  --subject User:alice@test.com \
  --binding edit:servers \
  --binding view:servers:my-ha \
  --operation logs

After:

mcpctl create rbac developers \
  --subject User:alice@test.com \
  --roleBindings role:edit,resource:servers \
  --roleBindings role:view,resource:servers,name:my-ha \
  --roleBindings action:logs
# Step Status
1 New shared parser at src/cli/src/commands/rbac-bindings.ts exporting parseRoleBinding(entry)
2 src/cli/src/commands/create.ts — old --binding/--operation flags replaced with one repeatable --roleBindings <kv>. Uses the new parser.
3 Tests in src/cli/tests/commands/create.test.ts rewritten to the new form (8 RBAC tests updated)
4 New dedicated unit test src/cli/tests/commands/rbac-bindings.test.ts — 9 cases covering unscoped / name-scoped / action / trim / empty-value / unknown-key / action-conflict / missing-role rejections
5 Shell completions regenerated via pnpm completions:generate — both completions/mcpctl.{bash,fish} now offer --roleBindings, no longer --binding/--operation
6 Nothing in docs/ or README.md referenced the old flags

Full CLI suite still 406/406 green. On-disk YAML shape (roleBindings: [...]) is unchanged, so backups and existing apply -f files keep working.

The extracted parseRoleBinding helper is what PR 3's mcpctl create mcptoken --bind <kv> flag will reuse.

PR 3 — CLI mcptoken verbs + mcpd auth dispatch + audit

(blocked)

PR 4 — HTTP-mode mcplocal + container + mcpctl test mcp + smoke

(blocked)

Design decisions recap (so you don't have to re-read the plan)

Decision Choice
Transport Streamable HTTP only
Binary shape Same @mcpctl/mcplocal package, two entry files (main.ts STDIO, serve.ts HTTP)
Container runtime Node (not bun-compiled) — mirrors mcpd
Cache PVC at /var/lib/mcplocal/cache
Hostname k8s Service mcp, Ingress mcp.ad.itaz.eu
Token format mcpctl_pat_<32-byte base62>, stored as SHA-256, shown-once at create
Resource McpToken, CLI noun mcptoken, one-project-per-token, FK cascade
Subject kind New McpToken:<sha>
TTL No default. Optional --ttl 30d / never / ISO date
Default bindings --rbac=empty (default), --rbac=clone, --bind <kv> — creator ceiling enforced server-side
Binding CLI --roleBindings role:view,resource:servers[,name:foo] or --roleBindings action:logs
Project enforcement Endpoint visibility only (no strict create-time check) — same mechanism Claude uses