🛡️ AgentMesh MCP Proxy

June 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

Important

Public Preview — This npm package is a public preview release. APIs may change before GA.

Anthropic built the USB port. AgentMesh is the Firewall.

A security proxy for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Adds authentication, rate limiting, policy enforcement, and audit logging to any MCP server with zero code changes.

🎯 The Problem

MCP is brilliant for connecting AI agents to tools, but it currently has:

❌ No authentication
❌ No rate limiting
❌ No access control
❌ No audit logging

Any prompt injection can call any tool with any arguments.

✅ The Solution

# Before (vulnerable)
npx @anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem /path/to/files

# After (secured)
npx agentmesh-mcp-proxy protect @anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem /path/to/files

That's it. One command wraps any MCP server with enterprise security.

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

npm install -g agentmesh-mcp-proxy

Protect Any MCP Server

# Wrap the filesystem MCP server
agentmesh protect @anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem /home/user/documents

# Wrap a custom MCP server
agentmesh protect ./my-custom-mcp-server.js

# With a policy file
agentmesh protect --policy=strict.yaml @anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem /tmp

Claude Desktop Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "secure-filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "agentmesh-mcp-proxy",
        "protect",
        "--policy=strict",
        "@anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem",
        "/home/user/documents"
      ]
    }
  }
}

🔒 Security Features

1. Policy Enforcement

Define which tools can be called and with what arguments:

# policies/strict.yaml
version: "1.0"
mode: enforce  # or "shadow" for testing

rules:
  # Block dangerous tools
  - tool: "run_shell"
    action: deny
    reason: "Shell access not permitted"

  # Restrict file access
  - tool: "read_file"
    action: allow
    conditions:
      - path_starts_with: "/home/user/documents"
      - path_not_contains: [".env", "secrets", "credentials"]

  # Rate limit expensive operations
  - tool: "web_search"
    action: allow
    rate_limit:
      requests: 10
      per: minute

2. Audit Logging

Every tool invocation is logged with:

Timestamp
Tool name and arguments
Agent identity (if available)
Policy decision (allow/deny)
Response summary

{
  "specversion": "1.0",
  "type": "ai.agentmesh.tool.invoked",
  "source": "urn:mcp-proxy:secure-filesystem",
  "time": "2026-02-03T10:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "tool": "read_file",
    "arguments": { "path": "/home/user/documents/report.txt" },
    "decision": "allow",
    "latency_ms": 45
  }
}

3. Rate Limiting

Prevent resource exhaustion:

rate_limits:
  global:
    requests: 100
    per: minute
  
  per_tool:
    write_file:
      requests: 10
      per: minute
    web_search:
      requests: 5
      per: minute

4. Input Sanitization

Automatically detect and block:

Prompt injection attempts
Path traversal attacks (../../../etc/passwd)
Command injection (; rm -rf /)
PII in tool arguments

5. Shadow Mode

Test policies without blocking:

agentmesh protect --mode=shadow ./my-mcp-server

In shadow mode:

All requests pass through
Policy violations are logged (not blocked)
Use to tune policies before enforcement

📊 Built-in Policies

Policy	Description
`minimal`	Allow all tools, log everything
`standard`	Block known-dangerous tools
`strict`	Allowlist only, deny by default
`enterprise`	Full audit, PII detection, rate limits

agentmesh protect --policy=strict ./my-mcp-server

🔧 CLI Reference

`agentmesh protect`

Wrap an MCP server with security controls.

agentmesh protect [options] <mcp-command> [args...]

Options:
  --policy <name|file>   Policy to apply (default: standard)
  --mode <mode>          enforce | shadow (default: enforce)
  --log <path>           Audit log file path
  --log-format <fmt>     json | cloudevents (default: cloudevents)
  --rate-limit <n/m>     Global rate limit (e.g., 100/minute)
  --no-sanitize          Disable input sanitization
  --verbose              Verbose logging

`agentmesh audit`

Analyze audit logs.

agentmesh audit <logfile>

# Show policy violations
agentmesh audit --violations-only audit.log

# Export to CSV
agentmesh audit --format=csv audit.log > report.csv

`agentmesh policy`

Manage policies.

# Validate a policy file
agentmesh policy validate my-policy.yaml

# Generate policy from audit log
agentmesh policy generate audit.log > learned-policy.yaml

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Claude / AI Agent                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼ MCP Protocol
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   AgentMesh MCP Proxy                        │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────────────┐ │
│  │   Policy    │  │    Rate     │  │    Audit Logger     │ │
│  │   Engine    │  │   Limiter   │  │  (CloudEvents)      │ │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────────────┘ │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────────────┐ │
│  │   Input     │  │  Identity   │  │    hash chain Chain     │ │
│  │ Sanitizer   │  │  Resolver   │  │  (Tamper Detection) │ │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼ MCP Protocol (unchanged)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Original MCP Server (unchanged)                 │
│     (filesystem, github, database, custom servers...)       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🔌 Integration

With Claude Desktop

See Claude Desktop Configuration above.

With Cursor

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "secure-fs": {
        "command": "agentmesh",
        "args": ["protect", "--policy=strict", "@anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem", "/tmp"]
      }
    }
  }
}

With Custom Applications

import { MCPProxy } from 'agentmesh-mcp-proxy';

const proxy = new MCPProxy({
  target: '@anthropic/mcp-server-filesystem',
  targetArgs: ['/tmp'],
  policy: 'strict',
  onViolation: (event) => {
    alertSecurityTeam(event);
  }
});

await proxy.start();

📈 Roadmap

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

📄 License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE

🔗 Links

AgentMesh: https://github.com/microsoft/agent-governance-toolkit
MCP Specification: https://modelcontextprotocol.io

"Running an MCP server without AgentMesh is like running a web server without a firewall."