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AcornOps provides installation UX over registries that you configure; it does not operate its own catalog. No public registry is enabled by default. Self-hosted operators can bootstrap internal registries, and workspace admins can add registries when deployment policy permits. Registries let administrators discover MCP servers without coupling a run to a live registry. AcornOps resolves and imports a pinned artifact onto one Agent or target installation. Runs use that stored snapshot even if the registry is later unavailable. AcornOps supports the official MCP Registry v0.1 wire format at /v0.1. A private registry can expose the same format. Other formats require a compiled, allow-listed adapter; AcornOps does not execute uploaded adapter code or arbitrary JSON mappings.

Discovery and installation

MCP registries and MCP installations have separate lifecycles:
  1. An administrator adds or bootstraps a catalog source.
  2. AcornOps synchronizes normalized artifacts, versions, digests, and compatible remote endpoints.
  3. An administrator chooses an Agent or target destination and imports a pinned version onto that installation.
  4. AcornOps discovers tools and leaves them disabled for review.
  5. An administrator reviews each exact server/tool pair.
Package-only and stdio-only registry entries remain visible as incompatible. AcornOps v1 imports only remote Streamable HTTP endpoints. Installing the same artifact on another Agent creates an independent installation. Each installation has its own server ID, endpoint configuration, enabled state, reviewed tools, provenance, pinned digest, connections, version history, and lifecycle. An installation never leaks to another Agent or target. Browsing keeps the destination fixed and provides a canonical Back to destination link. Existing /workspaces/:workspaceId/catalog links remain valid, but destination-less visits require selecting an Agent or target before installation. The same Add MCP server menu also provides Connect by URL. This accepts only the actual remote MCP Streamable HTTP endpoint, such as https://mcp.internal.example/mcp. It does not accept a registry URL, server.json, a GitHub repository, a package, a container, or a stdio command. Workspace settings contain MCP registries administration. Authorized admins can also open it from Manage registries while browsing. Target installations and Agent installations remain independent even when they point to the same upstream URL.

Managing registries

Admins with manage_catalog_sources can add, probe, edit, enable or disable, synchronize, and delete workspace-managed registries when deployment policy permits. Deployment-managed registries are configuration-read-only in the console, but authorized admins may synchronize them. Enter an HTTPS registry root or path prefix, such as https://registry.internal.example or https://platform.internal.example/mcp-registry. Do not include /v0.1, query parameters, fragments, or credentials; AcornOps appends /v0.1. Credentials belong in the authentication fields. Only direct routing is currently available. Disabling a registry immediately removes its artifacts from browsing but retains the cached snapshot for later re-enablement. Deleting a workspace registry removes its cache and registry credential. Neither operation uninstalls existing servers: installations retain pinned provenance and keep running, but cannot update until their source returns. When no registry is configured, the browser offers Connect by URL and, for authorized admins, Add a registry. Other users are told to contact a workspace administrator.

Agent and workflow permissions

Every workflow step selects exactly one Agent. The workflow can retain a subset of that Agent’s MCP, skill, and tool grants or remove them; it cannot add a capability the Agent does not already grant. Target-owned installations remain available only through that target’s default Agent and do not become workflow-owned credentials. An empty workflow restriction grants no capability. It does not inherit all Agent permissions. Runtime tool identity includes both the stable server ID and tool name. This keeps tools with the same name on different servers independently selectable and prevents name-only authorization.

Credential ownership

Authenticated MCP installations explicitly select workspace or individual credential ownership. Importing or enabling a server does not authorize it by itself. Workspace-managed credentials are installation-owned and can be used by user or service principals. Individual credentials are scoped to one user and one installation and require a user principal. Select the matching Connect credential action, enter the write-only credential, and grant storage consent. AcornOps stores it encrypted in the LLM gateway and immediately performs authenticated tool discovery. Responses never return the secret or its name. A target and an Agent always have separate connections, even for the same upstream server. AcornOps never deduplicates connections by URL or copies credentials between installations. Failed verification retains an encrypted error-state credential so an authorized owner can verify, replace, or disconnect it. An upstream 401 or 403 marks that exact connection erroneous.

Kubernetes configuration

Configure registry policy under components.llmGateway.catalog:
The chart renders a secret-free bootstrap JSON document. Each registry secretKeyRef is injected into a separate environment variable and copied into the configured gateway secret backend. Runtime MCP credentials are entered through the console and have no Helm client or callback configuration.

Air-gapped self-hosting

For a fully air-gapped deployment:
  • set officialRegistryEnabled: false,
  • bootstrap an internal v0.1-compatible registry,
  • allow-list only internal registry and MCP server hostnames,
  • mount your private CA through components.llmGateway.mcpEgress.caBundle, and
  • keep all registry synchronization, artifact import, tool discovery, and runtime MCP traffic on the internal network.
No public internet access is required when the gateway, registry, and MCP servers share the private network. Registry availability stays outside global platform readiness. Synchronization failures appear through each registry’s status, bounded metrics, and structured logs.

Agent-owned skills

Install manual or Git-backed skills from the same Agent Capabilities page. Git imports resolve to a pinned commit and content digest; upgrades require an explicit reimport. Skill installation state is independent on every Agent. The catalog layer reserves agent_skill as a later artifact handler, but MCP import never executes or installs skill content. See MCP and tools for direct endpoint rules, tool review, and runtime behavior, and Configuration for egress controls.