MCP Broker for Desktop AI Agents

The MCP Broker lets desktop AI agents, including Claude and ChatGPT, natively connect to resources you are entitled to within StrongDM, with credential-less, fully audited access.

This feature is part of the Secure AI offering. If it is not enabled for your organization and you would like it to be, please contact your StrongDM/Delinea representative for more information.

Overview

The MCP Broker is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server built into the StrongDM client. It lets desktop AI agents such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Codex discover and use the StrongDM resources you are already entitled to, directly from within the agent. Agents can list your resources, connect using just-in-time (JIT), run SQL queries and MongoDB commands, execute SSH commands, and run kubectl commands, all through StrongDM's secure, audited, credential-less access layer.

Your agent acts as the MCP client. The Broker receives the agent's MCP tool calls and converts each one into the resource's native protocol (such as PostgreSQL, SSH, or Kubernetes), and then it can route the traffic through the same StrongDM proxies that handle your normal client traffic. Every action runs under your existing StrongDM entitlements, and no credentials are ever exposed to the agent or stored on your machine.

MCP Broker Versus MCP Gateway

These are different features. The MCP Broker lets your desktop agent reach StrongDM-protected resources (for example, databases, servers, clusters) over their native protocols. The MCP Gateway is a resource type that proxies traffic to upstream MCP servers (such as GitHub's). This page covers the MCP Broker only.

Supported agents

Agent	Support level	Notes
ChatGPT Desktop	✅ Supported	Verified and supported
Claude Code (CLI)	✅ Supported	Primary development platform; recommended for best experience
Claude Desktop	✅ Supported	Primary development platform; recommended for best experience
Cursor	⚠️ Partially supported	Should work but has not been tested end to end
Other MCP-compatible agents	⚠️ Partially supported	May work; not officially validated in this preview

Supported resource types

The Broker can execute commands against the following resource types. Other StrongDM resource types you are entitled to still appear in listings and support connect/disconnect, but the agent cannot execute against them through the Broker.

Resource type	Agent capability	Minimum client version
Kubernetes resource types	kubectl commands	53.22.0
Microsoft SQL Server (including Azure AD and Kerberos variants)	SQL queries	53.56.0
MongoDB and Amazon DocumentDB	Database commands	53.56.0
MySQL resource types (including Aurora MySQL, Azure, MariaDB, and SingleStore/MemSQL)	SQL queries	53.22.0
PostgreSQL resource types (including Aurora, Azure, CockroachDB, Greenplum, and Citus)	SQL queries	53.22.0
Redshift and Redshift Serverless	SQL queries	53.22.0
SSH resource types	Shell commands	53.22.0

What Agents Can Do

The Broker exposes the following MCP tools to your agent.

Tool	Description
connect / disconnect	Establishes or tears down a just-in-time (JIT) connection to a resource
execute_k8s_command	Runs a kubectl command against an entitled cluster
execute_mongo	Runs a MongoDB database command against an entitled MongoDB or DocumentDB resource
execute_ssh	Runs a command on an entitled SSH server (60-second default timeout)
execute_sql	Runs a SQL query against an entitled database. Results are limited to 200 rows and 30 seconds by default (the agent can adjust both per query)
list_resources	Lists every resource you are entitled to, with its type, ID, connection state, and the tools it supports
status	Reports whether the Broker is ready: sign-in state, listener health, and the signed-in account

The agent does not need to connect before executing: the execute tools automatically establish a connection to the resource if one is not already active.

All actions are subject to your existing StrongDM entitlements and are fully audited in the StrongDM activity log, the same as access through the StrongDM client.

Prerequisites

For End Users

StrongDM Desktop Client version 53.22.0 or later (53.56.0 or later for Microsoft SQL Server and MongoDB) must be installed and running on your machine, and you must be authenticated to your StrongDM organization. Verify your version by running:

sdm --version

You should see output similar to:

sdm version 53.26.0 (20de84af2c20bb60149b5512c12b36726977c6d3) (crypto)

If you are not at the correct version, ensure that you are authenticated to your organization, and update the client:

sdm update

For Kubernetes resources, kubectl must be installed on your desktop.

If you are a developer with a custom install path, you need to set this environment variable:

SDM_HOME=~/.sdm-app.strongdm.com

If your organization uses a non-default StrongDM app domain (such as for a non-US control plane region), set SDM_APP_DOMAIN inside the MCP server's env block in your agent's configuration (as shown in the setup examples below), not only in your shell profile. Desktop agents launch the Broker with a minimal environment that does not load your shell profile, and the Desktop App's region selector isn't used.

For StrongDM Administrators

• Users must be entitled to resources within StrongDM before their agent can access them. The Broker respects all existing entitlements, and agents can only see and connect to resources the user is already authorized for.
• No additional configuration is required at the admin level beyond standard resource entitlement workflows. For optional controls such as AI agent policy conditions, audit attribution, and enforcing the Broker as the only MCP path on managed devices, see MCP Broker Administration.

Setup Instructions

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop Instructions

1. Install Claude Desktop.
2. Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings > Developer > Edit Config.
3. Open the configuration file in your preferred editor and add the following:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "sdm-listener-mcp": {
         "command": "sdm",
         "args": [
           "mcp",
           "--acknowledge-experimental-status"
         ],
         "env": {
           "SDM_APP_DOMAIN": "app.strongdm.com"
         }
       }
     }
   }

4. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.
5. Verify the connection by navigating to Settings > Developer and confirming that sdm-listener-mcp shows a status of "running".

Claude Code (CLI)

Claude Code (CLI) Instructions

1. Install and configure Claude Code.
2. Issue the following command on the CLI (single line):

claude mcp add-json sdm-listener-mcp '{"command":"sdm","args":["mcp","--acknowledge-experimental-status"],"env":{"SDM_APP_DOMAIN":"app.strongdm.com"}}' --scope user

1. Run claude on the CLI.
2. Verify by prompting it for database or SSH resource access.

   

Codex Desktop

Codex Desktop Instructions

1. Install Codex Desktop.
2. Navigate to Settings > MCP Servers > Add Server and enter the following:

Field	Value
Name	SDM Listener
Type	STDIO
Command to Launch	sdm
Argument 1	mcp
Argument 2	--acknowledge-experimental-status
Environment Variable Key	SDM_APP_DOMAIN
Environment Variable Value	app.strongdm.com

1. Click Save at the bottom of the settings panel.
2. Restart Codex Desktop.
3. Verify the connection is active under Settings > MCP Servers.

Cursor

Cursor Instructions (App)

1. Install Cursor.
2. Navigate to Settings > Tools & Integrations > MCP Servers.
3. Click Add New MCP Server and configure as follows (this config file can also typically be found at ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "SDM Listener": {
      "command": "sdm mcp --acknowledge-experimental-status",
      "env": {
        "SDM_APP_DOMAIN": "app.strongdm.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor-specific setup steps are being finalized. Please verify with the StrongDM product team if you encounter issues

Sign In and Session Behavior

The Broker only works while you have a valid StrongDM session. It cannot sign you in on its own.

• If you are signed out, the agent's tool calls return a clear message telling you to open StrongDM Desktop and sign in. Sign in, and then ask the agent to retry. No restart is needed.
• If your session expires mid-task, the next tool call fails with re-authentication guidance rather than hanging. The Broker automatically refreshes its authentication state once before reporting the failure, so brief interruptions often recover on their own.
• If access to a resource is revoked while you are using it, the agent receives a message that the resource is no longer available. It can run list_resources again to see your current entitlements.
• After your computer wakes from sleep, the agent's connection to the Broker can become stale. If tool calls fail after waking, fully restart the agent application (for example, Claude Desktop or Codex Desktop) and retry.

You can always ask the agent to check the connection. For example, "check my StrongDM status" runs the status tool and reports whether you are signed in and which account is active.

Known Technical Preview Limitations

• The Broker cannot initiate authentication. When you are signed out, you must sign in through StrongDM Desktop, and then retry from the agent.
• You cannot request access to new resources from within the agent. Only resources you are already entitled to appear in listings. Use your normal access request workflow to gain access, and then ask the agent to list available resources again.
• The configuration of the MCP server in each agent remains a manual process.
• Cursor setup steps are pending final validation.
• For Kubernetes, kubectl must be installed on the user's desktop.

Questions and Feedback

This is a Technical Preview. If you encounter issues or have feedback, please reach out to the StrongDM Product team directly.