External MCP accounts and services Beta
External Model Context Protocol (MCP) services let Foxglove's agent read from other products and write back to them. For example, the agent can look up an issue for context, or post an investigation summary, using the tools that service provides.
An organization admin allows a service for the organization. Each member then connects their own account on that service. The service determines which tools are available; your connected account determines whose access the agent uses.
The agent sidebar and Slack use the connected account of the member who asks. An automation uses its owner's connected account, and only the services and tools that owner allows for that particular automation. The agent sidebar and automations can send updates to external services; Slack can only read from them.
The settings on this page are only in the web app.
Turn MCP services on or off
An organization admin controls whether the agent can use external MCP tools:
- In the web app, go to Settings → Integrations → Allowed MCP services.
- Toggle Enable MCP services.
Enable MCP services is on by default. Turning it off stops the agent sidebar, Slack, and automations from calling these services. It doesn't delete the services or disconnect members' accounts, so turning it back on restores access.
On Enterprise plans, organization admins can review service additions, edits, and deletions, and account connections and disconnections, in Audit logs.
Add a service
An organization admin can add a service from Settings → Integrations → Allowed MCP services while Enable MCP services is on. Members connect their own accounts under Settings → Connected accounts; they can't add or edit the organization's services.
- Click Allow beside a preset, such as Linear or GitHub, to add a preconfigured service. Most presets use OAuth. The GitHub preset uses a bearer token.
- Add custom asks for a Name, a URL, and Authentication. The URL has to be a public HTTPS endpoint, with no username or password in it.
Authentication is one of:
- OAuth is the default and recommended option. Each member approves access at the provider.
- Bearer token is a fallback for services that don't support OAuth. Each member enters their own token under Connected accounts.
- None is for services that don't need a sign-in. Every member who can use the agent can reach it.
The service is available to the whole organization as soon as an admin adds it. If it needs a sign-in, each member still connects their own account.
Each service's menu has these options:
- Test lists the tools the service advertises. If the service needs a sign-in, connect your own account first.
- Disable stops the agent from calling the service but keeps members' connected accounts, so nobody has to reconnect after Enable.
- Delete removes the service and disconnects every member's account from it.
Changing a service's URL or authentication disconnects every member. If the service still needs a sign-in, each member has to connect again.
Connect your account
In the web app, open Settings → Connected accounts. The MCP accounts card lists the organization's services.
- No sign-in required means there is nothing for you to connect.
- Connect starts OAuth at the provider, or asks you for a bearer token.
- Reconnect replaces an authorization that has expired.
- Disconnect removes Foxglove's access to your account until you connect again.
A service an admin has disabled stays in your list with a Disabled chip if you still have a connected account or an automation that references it. Disconnect is still available for a connected account, so you can revoke a token the provider would still honor.
OAuth has to finish in the browser, so connect accounts in the web app. Once connected, the agent sidebar can use the service in both the web and desktop apps.
Agent sidebar
In the agent sidebar, the agent uses your connected account on each allowed service.
A tool the service marks as read-only runs without asking. A tool that can create, change, or delete data pauses on the same Allow this action? prompt as any other change. Allow once, Allow for this chat, and Always allow work the same way. Review or revoke Always allow under Settings → Personal → Agents & MCP.
If a service needs sign-in and you haven't connected your account, the agent can't call it. It can tell you the service is available and link you to Connected accounts, but it doesn't know which tools the service offers until you connect.
Foxglove trusts the read-only label the external service sends. A service that marks a write as read-only can run that write without a prompt. Allow a service only when you trust it and the people who operate it.
Slack
In Slack, @Foxglove can read from the external services the organization allows. It uses the connected account of the member who asks, and it posts the result in the thread.
In a channel, everyone in that channel can read the result. The result can include private data from the account of the person who asked, such as a private issue. A direct message stays in that conversation.
A member has to connect an account under Connected accounts before @Foxglove can use a service that needs its own sign-in. Otherwise, the reply links them there.
@Foxglove uses an external tool only when that service marks it read-only and not destructive. It doesn't offer a tool that creates, changes, or deletes data, because Slack has no approval step. If you ask for that kind of change, @Foxglove says it can't make the change from Slack. Use the agent sidebar when the change should wait for your approval.
A service that marks a write as read-only can still be called from Slack. Anyone who can read the channel can also read what @Foxglove brings back from your account. Mention @Foxglove in a channel only when both of those are acceptable. Use a direct message when the answer should stay between you and @Foxglove.
Automations
Automations is in private beta for organizations on Foxglove Cloud and Foxglove Cloud, bring your own storage. It isn't available for on-premises Primary Sites. Contact Foxglove to join.
An automation doesn't call an external service until its owner allows that service. Under MCP servers on the automation, choose one of:
- None: The automation doesn't call the service.
- Read-only: The automation can call tools the agent sidebar would run without a prompt.
- All tools: The automation can also create, change, or delete data on that service. Foxglove asks the owner to confirm. After that, those writes run with no further prompt.
The run uses the owner's connected account, including when another project member starts the run. A project member who can start the run can cause the allowed tools to run, including with what they type in Context. Only the owner can change which services are allowed, and whether each one is Read-only or All tools.
All tools lets the automation create, change, or delete external data with the owner's account, without asking on each call. Other project members can start that run. Allow it only for a prompt you trust.
If the owner hasn't connected their account on an allowed service, or the account needs to be reconnected, the run can't call the service or ask anyone to connect. It reports a blocker instead. A saved service that is turned off, has no connected account, or is no longer available stays on the automation until the owner clicks Remove.
To connect your account from the automation, click Manage external MCPs. To allow another service, ask an organization admin to add it under Allowed MCP services.
Caveats
- Responses from an external service can contain text that looks like instructions. Foxglove tells the agent to treat that text as data, not as a new task. Connect your account only to a service whose responses you trust.
- A call can do only what the connected account can do on the external service. Running inside Foxglove doesn't grant extra access.
- Prompts and tool results go to the model that answers the chat. How that provider handles the data depends on the model your organization uses.
- In the agent sidebar and in Slack, Foxglove data access follows the member who asked. An automation follows the automation's owner, for both Foxglove data and the external account.