mcp-http

HTTP bridge for any stdio MCP server.

One process = one upstream stdio MCP server.
Multiple servers → multiple instances via the mcp-http@<name>.service systemd template.

How it works

HTTP client  ──POST /──►  mcp-http  ──stdio──►  any MCP server
             ◄─JSON───              ◄────────

mcp-http connects to the upstream server at startup, discovers all tools via list_tools, and proxies call_tool requests over HTTP.

API

GET /healthz

Returns server status and list of available tools.

{"ok": true, "cmd": "dav-mcp", "tools": ["read_file", "write_file"]}

POST /

Call a tool on the upstream MCP server.

{"tool": "read_file", "arguments": {"path": "/etc/hosts"}}

Returns the MCP CallToolResult as JSON.

If MCP_HTTP_TOKENS_FILE is set, the request must include:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables (see example.env):

Variable	Required	Default	Description
MCP_HTTP_CMD	✓	—	Command to launch the upstream MCP server
MCP_HTTP_ADDR		127.0.0.1:8770	Listen address (host:port)
MCP_HTTP_TOKENS_FILE		—	Path to Bearer tokens file (one per line)
MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_HOSTS		—	Comma-separated allowed Host headers
MCP_HTTP_TOOL_TIMEOUT		30s	Per-call timeout (Go duration)

Install

go install github.com/nikita-popov/mcp-http@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/nikita-popov/mcp-http
cd mcp-http
go build -o mcp-http .
sudo mv mcp-http /usr/local/bin/

systemd (multi-instance)

Copy the template unit:

sudo cp example@.service /etc/systemd/system/mcp-http@.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Create a config for each instance:

# /etc/mcp-http/dav-mcp.env
MCP_HTTP_CMD=dav-mcp
MCP_HTTP_ADDR=127.0.0.1:8771
MCP_HTTP_TOKENS_FILE=/etc/mcp-http/dav-mcp.tokens

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl enable --now mcp-http@dav-mcp
sudo systemctl enable --now mcp-http@mempalace
sudo journalctl -u mcp-http@dav-mcp -f

See example.nginx.conf for a reverse proxy configuration.

License

MIT