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MCP Authorization

MCP WorkOS OAuth Policy

Authenticate MCP gateway requests using a gateway-issued OAuth access token, with browser login delegated to WorkOS.

This is a WorkOS-friendly wrapper around McpOAuthInboundPolicy. Provide clientId + clientSecret, and the WorkOS OIDC issuer, JWKS URL, and browser login endpoints are derived automatically.

Configuration

The configuration shows how to configure the policy in the 'policies.json' document.

config/policies.json
{
  "name": "my-mcp-workos-oauth-inbound-policy",
  "policyType": "mcp-workos-oauth-inbound",
  "handler": {
    "export": "McpWorkosOAuthInboundPolicy",
    "module": "$import(@zuplo/runtime)",
    "options": {
      "browserLoginOverrides": {
        "remoteTimeoutMs": 10000,
        "sessionTtlSeconds": 28800,
        "stateTtlSeconds": 900
      },
      "clientId": "$env(WORKOS_CLIENT_ID)",
      "clientSecret": "$env(WORKOS_CLIENT_SECRET)",
      "gateway": {
        "accessTokenTtlSeconds": 900,
        "cimdEnabled": true,
        "refreshTokenTtlSeconds": 2592000
      },
      "scope": "openid profile email"
    }
  }
}

Policy Configuration

• name <string> - The name of your policy instance. This is used as a reference in your routes.
• policyType <string> - The identifier of the policy. This is used by the Zuplo UI. Value should be mcp-workos-oauth-inbound.
• handler.export <string> - The name of the exported type. Value should be McpWorkosOAuthInboundPolicy.
• handler.module <string> - The module containing the policy. Value should be $import(@zuplo/runtime).
• handler.options <object> - The options for this policy. See Policy Options below.

Policy Options

The options for this policy are specified below. All properties are optional unless specifically marked as required.

• clientId (required) <string> - The WorkOS client_id registered for the gateway's browser login flow. The OIDC issuer and JWKS URL are derived from this client ID.
• clientSecret (required) <string> - The WorkOS client_secret. Use $env(...) to source from a secret environment variable.
• scope <string> - OIDC scopes requested during browser login. Defaults to "openid profile email".
• gateway <object> - Gateway-side OAuth token settings. The gateway issuer and advertised URLs are derived from the incoming request origin.
  • accessTokenTtlSeconds <integer> - Lifetime of access tokens issued by /oauth/token. Defaults to 900.
  • refreshTokenTtlSeconds <integer> - Lifetime of refresh tokens issued by /oauth/token. Defaults to 2592000.
  • cimdEnabled <boolean> - Whether to advertise client_id_metadata_document_supported in AS metadata. Defaults to true.
• browserLoginOverrides <object> - Optional overrides for the derived browser-login settings.
  • remoteTimeoutMs <integer> - No description available. Defaults to 10000.
  • stateTtlSeconds <integer> - No description available. Defaults to 900.
  • sessionTtlSeconds <integer> - No description available. Defaults to 28800.

Using the Policy

MCP WorkOS OAuth Inbound

Authenticate MCP gateway requests using a gateway-issued OAuth access token, with browser login delegated to WorkOS.

This is a thin WorkOS-friendly wrapper around the generic McpOAuthInboundPolicy. Use it when you want to configure browser login with just clientId + clientSecret instead of the full set of OIDC URLs.

Derived configuration

Given clientId: "client_01KC6057N3C66XJAXZ65YHAC72", the wrapper derives:

Generic field	Derived value
oidc.issuer	https://api.workos.com/user_management/client_01KC6057N3C66XJAXZ65YHAC72
oidc.jwksUrl	https://api.workos.com/sso/jwks/client_01KC6057N3C66XJAXZ65YHAC72
browserLogin.url	https://api.workos.com/user_management/authorize
browserLogin.tokenUrl	https://api.workos.com/user_management/authenticate
browserLogin.clientId / clientSecret / scope	from policy options (clientSecret is required)

These endpoint shapes come from WorkOS OIDC discovery at https://api.workos.com/user_management/{clientId}/.well-known/openid-configuration.

Configuration

Code
{
  "name": "workos-managed-oauth",
  "policyType": "mcp-workos-oauth-inbound",
  "handler": {
    "module": "$import(@zuplo/runtime/mcp-gateway)",
    "export": "McpWorkosOAuthInboundPolicy",
    "options": {
      "clientId": "$env(WORKOS_CLIENT_ID)",
      "clientSecret": "$env(WORKOS_CLIENT_SECRET)"
    }
  }
}

clientId must be the WorkOS client ID, such as client_01KC6057N3C66XJAXZ65YHAC72. The policy rejects issuer URLs, WorkOS API hostnames, and values that do not use the client_ ID shape.

Pairing

Pair this policy with McpTokenExchangeInboundPolicy and McpProxyHandler, the same as McpOAuthInboundPolicy. Only one MCP OAuth policy is allowed per project; attach the same policy by name to every MCP route.

Read more about how policies work