MCP Toolkit

Table of contents

The Docker MCP Toolkit enables seamless setup, management, and execution of containerized MCP servers and their connections to AI agents. It removes the friction from tool usage by offering secure defaults, one-click setup, and support for a growing ecosystem of LLM-based clients. It is the fastest path from MCP tool discovery to local execution.

Key features

  • Cross-LLM compatibility: Instantly works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue.dev, and Gordon.
  • Integrated tool discovery: Browse and launch MCP servers from the Docker MCP Catalog directly in Docker Desktop.
  • Zero manual setup: No dependency management, runtime configuration, or server setup required.
  • Functions as both an MCP server aggregator and a gateway for clients to access installed MCP servers.
Visualisation of the MCP toolkit

Security

The Docker MCP Toolkit combines passive and active measures to reduce attack surfaces and ensure safe runtime behavior.

Passive security

  • Image signing and attestation: All MCP server images under mcp/ in the catalog are built by Docker and digitally signed to verify their source and integrity. Each image includes a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for full transparency.

Active security

Security at runtime is enforced through resource and access limitations:

  • CPU allocation: MCP tools are run in their own container. They are restricted to 1 CPU, limiting the impact of potential misuse of computing resources.

  • Memory allocation: Containers for MCP tools are limited to 2 GB.

  • Filesystem access: By default, MCP Servers have no access to the host filesystem. The user explicitly selects the servers that will be granted file mounts.

  • Interception of tool requests: Requests to and from tools that contain sensitive information such as secrets are blocked.

Enable Docker MCP Toolkit

  1. Open the Docker Desktop settings and select Beta features.
  2. Select Enable Docker MCP Toolkit.
  3. Select Apply & restart.
Note

If you have the MCP Toolkit extension installed, you can uninstall it.

Install an MCP server

To install an MCP server:

  1. In Docker Desktop, select MCP Toolkit and select the Catalog tab. When you select a server you can see the following information:

    • Tool name and description
    • Partner/publisher
    • The list of callable tools the server provides.

  2. Find the MCP server of your choice and select the Plus icon.

  3. Optional: Some servers require extra configuration. To configure them, select the Config tab and follow the instructions available on the repository of the provider of the MCP server.

Tip

By default, the Gordon client is enabled, which means Gordon can automatically interact with your MCP servers.

To learn more about the MCP server catalog, see Catalog.

Example: Use the GitHub MCP server

Imagine you want to enable Ask Gordon to interact with your GitHub account:

  1. From the MCP Toolkit menu, select the Catalog tab and find the GitHub Official server and add it.

  2. In the server's Config tab, insert your token generated from your GitHub account .

  3. In the Clients tab, ensure Gordon is connected.

  4. From the Ask Gordon menu, you can now send requests related to your GitHub account, in accordance to the tools provided by the GitHub MCP server. To test it, ask Gordon:

    What's my GitHub handle?

    Make sure to allow Gordon to interact with GitHub by selecting Always allow in Gordon's answer.

Install an MCP client

When you have installed MCP servers, you can add clients to the MCP Toolkit. These clients can interact with the installed MCP servers, turning the MCP Toolkit into a gateway.

To install a client:

  1. In Docker Desktop, select MCP Toolkit and select the Clients tab.
  2. Find the client of your choice and select Connect.

Your client can now interact with the MCP Toolkit.

Example: Use Claude Desktop as a client

Imagine you have Claude Desktop installed, and you want to use the GitHub MCP server, and the Puppeteer MCP server, you do not have to install the servers in Claude Desktop. You can simply install these 2 MCP servers in the MCP Toolkit, and add Claude Desktop as a client:

  1. From the MCP Toolkit menu, select the Catalog tab and find the Puppeteer server and add it.

  2. Repeat for the GitHub server.

  3. From the Clients tab, select Connect next to Claude Desktop. Restart Claude Desktop if it's running, and it can now access all the servers in the MCP Toolkit.

  4. Within Claude Desktop, run a test by submitting the following prompt using the Sonnet 3.5 model:

    Take a screenshot of docs.docker.com and then invert the colors