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expose-existing-mcp-server.md

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title Connect and govern existing MCP server in Azure API Management
description Learn how to expose and govern an existing Model Context Protocol (MCP) server in Azure API Management.
author dlepow
ms.service azure-api-management
ms.topic how-to
ms.date 11/13/2025
ms.author danlep
ms.collection ce-skilling-ai-copilot
ms.update-cycle 180-days
ms.custom

Expose and govern an existing MCP server

[!INCLUDE api-management-availability-premium-dev-standard-basic-premiumv2-standardv2-basicv2]

This article shows how to use API Management to expose and govern an existing remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server - a tool server hosted outside of API Management. Expose and govern the server's tools through API Management so that MCP clients can call them by using the MCP protocol.

Example scenarios include:

  • Proxy LangChain or LangServe tool servers through API Management with per-server authentication and rate limits.
  • Securely expose Azure Logic Apps–based tools to copilots by using IP filtering and OAuth.
  • Centralize MCP server tools from Azure Functions and open-source runtimes into Azure API Center.
  • Enable GitHub Copilot, Claude by Anthropic, or ChatGPT to interact securely with tools across your enterprise.

API Management also supports MCP servers natively exposed in API Management from managed REST APIs. For more information, see Expose a REST API as an MCP server.

Learn more about:

Limitations

  • The external MCP server must conform to MCP version 2025-06-18 or later. The server can support:

  • For external MCP servers, API Management currently supports MCP server tools and resources, but it doesn't support MCP prompts.

  • API Management currently doesn't support MCP server capabilities in workspaces.

Prerequisites

  • If you don't already have an API Management instance, complete the following quickstart: Create an Azure API Management instance. The instance must be in one of the service tiers that supports MCP servers.

  • Access to an external MCP-compatible server (for example, hosted in Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions, LangServe, or other platforms).

  • Appropriate credentials to the MCP server (such as OAuth 2.0 client credentials or API keys, depending on the server) for secure access.

  • If you enable diagnostic logging through Application Insights or Azure Monitor at the global scope (all APIs) for your API Management instance, set the Number of payload bytes to log setting for Frontend Response to 0. This setting prevents unintended logging of response bodies across all APIs and helps ensure proper functioning of MCP servers. To log payloads selectively for specific APIs, configure the setting individually at the API scope, allowing targeted control over response logging.

  • To test the MCP server, use Visual Studio Code with access to GitHub Copilot or a tool such as MCP Inspector.

Expose an existing MCP server

Follow these steps to expose an existing MCP server in API Management:

  1. In the Azure portal, go to your API Management instance.
  2. In the left-hand menu, under APIs, select MCP servers > + Create MCP server.
  3. Select Expose an existing MCP server.
  4. In Backend MCP server:
    1. Enter the existing MCP server base URL. For example, https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp for the Microsoft Learn MCP server.
    2. In Transport type, Streamable HTTP is selected by default.
  5. In New MCP server:
    1. Enter a Name for the MCP server in API Management.
    2. In Base path, enter a route prefix for tools. For example, mytools.
    3. Optionally, enter a Description for the MCP server.
  6. Select Create.

:::image type="content" source="media/expose-existing-mcp-server/create-mcp-server.png" alt-text="Screenshot of creating an MCP server in the portal." :::

  • The MCP server is created and the remote server's operations are exposed as tools.
  • The MCP server is listed in the MCP Servers pane. The Server URL column shows the MCP server URL to call for testing or within a client application.

:::image type="content" source="media/expose-existing-mcp-server/mcp-server-list.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the MCP server list in the portal." lightbox="media/expose-existing-mcp-server/mcp-server-list-large.png":::

Important

Currently, API Management doesn't display tools from the existing MCP server. You must register and configure all tools on the existing remote MCP server.

[!INCLUDE api-management-configure-test-mcp-server]