MCP Servers

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard designed to let AI assistants and agents securely interact with enterprise systems through natural language.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) in CTERA Content Services lets AI assistants and agents securely interact with the CTERA platform as a framework for defining and managing a variety of context-based configurations across the platform. This feature facilitates dynamic policy enforcement and adaptive user experiences by leveraging contextual data to tailor services, enhancing both security and efficiency.

MCP provides a structured, permission-aware interface that allows models to:

• Query systems like file storage or analytics.
• Perform user-authorized actions.
• Maintain session context across tools and tasks

MCP standardizes the interaction layer, making secure, intelligent automation scalable without the need for custom integrations for every system. SDKs help developers build integrations, whereas MCP is the integration layer itself: a shared language that AI models use to communicate with to enterprise tools. In other words, it’s plug-and-play for AI.

Embedding MCP support directly into CTERA Content Services enables LLMs, whether commercial tools like Claude and Cursor, or internally developed agents, to securely:

• Summarize file uploads in a shared folder.
• Retrieve document versions based on content.
• Generate and distribute a public or internal file link without a graphical user interface (GUI).
• Manage files using natural language instead of scripts or dashboards.

To add an MCP server:
After signing in, the Dashboard page is displayed.

1. Select MCP Servers in the navigation pane.
   

2. Click New MCP Server.
   

3. Enter the server details:
   Name – A name to identify the MCP Server.
   Transport Type – A sprotocol used for transport from the drop-down list: STDIO, SSE, or Streamable HTTP. The next fields change dependent on the transport type.
   STDIO:

   • MCP Gateway – The URL and port to access the MCP server.
   • Command – The command to send to teh MCP server.
   • Arguments – Arguments to apply to the command.

   SSE or Streamable HTTP:

   • MCP URL – The URL and port to access the MCP server.

4. Click Create to create the connect to the MCP Server.

5. Click Authenticate to authenticate with the MCP server.

6. When the Transport Type is STDIO add environmebt parameter key and value pairs, clicking to add each pair.

7. Continue specifying the defininition:
   Public Server – Slie on to enable the MCP server to be assigned to the experts of all the users.
   Server Status – The current status of the MCP Server service, Enabled or Disabled.

8. Click Save Changes.

To edit an MCP server:

1. Click MCP Servers in the navigation pane.
   
2. Click the MCP server to edit.
   
3. Make the changes as required.
4. Click Save Changes.