punkpeye/mcp-remote

What it solves

Many Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients—such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf—are currently limited to local (stdio) connections. This prevents users from easily connecting to remote, web-hosted MCP servers. mcp-remote acts as a bridge, allowing these local clients to connect to remote servers over HTTP/SSE while handling the necessary authentication and protocol translation.

How it works

mcp-remote is a proxy that you configure within your MCP client's settings. It intercepts the connection, manages OAuth flows (including token storage and refresh), and handles protocol translation. It supports modern MCP features like authorization, custom headers, and protocol version bridging (allowing legacy clients to communicate with modern, stateless servers).

Who it’s for

This tool is for developers and power users who want to use remote, hosted MCP servers with desktop AI applications that do not yet natively support remote or authenticated MCP connections.

Highlights

• Seamless Integration: Works as a drop-in replacement in standard MCP configuration files.
• Authentication Support: Handles complex OAuth flows, custom headers, and secure credential management via files.
• Protocol Bridging: Enables communication between legacy MCP clients and modern, stateless servers using an auto-negotiation mode.
• Highly Configurable: Offers extensive CLI flags for network timeouts, transport strategies (SSE/HTTP), proxy support, and tool filtering.