About OpenWork MCP Gateway
OpenWork MCP Gateway is presented as a way to expose an OpenWork organization’s skills, plugins, workflows, and connections through an OAuth MCP URL. The supplied README describes the Den API control plane, including authentication, organization, worker, and admin routes.
Key features
- 01Hono-based Den control plane
- 02Authentication and desktop handoff routes
- 03Organization and SCIM management routes
- 04Worker and admin endpoints
- 05Optional Redis read-through cache
- 06Selectable telemetry backends
Use cases
- 01Run the Den API locally
- 02Seed a local demo organization
- 03Manage organization and SCIM routes
- 04Observe requests with OTEL or Sentry
MCP support
The tagline describes access to an OpenWork organization’s skills, plugins, workflows, and connections through one OAuth MCP URL. The README itself documents the Den API control plane, not the gateway’s MCP tools or protocol behavior.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agentclaude mcp add --transport http com-openworklabs-openwork https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agent{"mcpServers":{"com-openworklabs-openwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agent"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"com-openworklabs-openwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agent"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"com-openworklabs-openwork":{"type":"http","url":"https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agent"}}}{"mcpServers":{"com-openworklabs-openwork":{"serverUrl":"https://api.openworklabs.com/mcp/agent"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
Details
From the project READMEDen API
Hono-based Den control plane implementation (den-api, formerly den-controller).
This package is the active Den control plane implementation.
It carries the full migrated Den API route surface in a foldered Hono structure so agents can navigate one area at a time without scanning the whole service.
Quick start
pnpm --filter @openwork-ee/den-api dev:local
Local demo org seed
With a local Den MySQL database running, seed a demo organization:
pnpm --filter @openwork-ee/den-api seed:demo-org
This creates Acme Robotics with demo users, teams, pending invites, and an imported Anthropic Knowledge Work Plugins marketplace. It is guarded by OPENWORK_DEV_MODE=1, defaults to the local Den DB URL, and does not create workers or active external integrations.
Default owner login: [email protected] / OpenWorkDemo123!.
Observability
DEN_OBSERVABILITY_BACKEND selects one backend: none, otel, or sentry.
none(default): structured JSON logs are written to stdout.otel: initializes the OpenTelemetry Node SDK before Hono/DB imports, exports OTLP HTTP/protobuf traces, metrics, and logs from standardOTEL_*variables, and uses@hono/otelfor normalized request spans/metrics without inbound HTTP auto-instrumentation.sentry: initializes@sentry/hono/nodebefore app imports and uses the official Hono middleware for errors/tracing/Sentry Logs. Do not combine it with the OTEL backend.
The request access log records request id, method, normalized route, status, duration and the number of database statements the request issued (db_queries, a count only), and omits health/readiness noise. Health/readiness requests also skip den-api's Hono observability middleware. Authorization, cookie, body, and query values are redacted from app telemetry. OTEL_SERVICE_NAME overrides the default den-api service name. Daytona's own OTEL bootstrap remains disabled; do not set Daytona OTEL enable variables from den-api.
Builds generate source maps. Sentry source maps are uploaded only when DEN_OBSERVABILITY_BACKEND=sentry and SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN, SENTRY_ORG, SENTRY_PROJECT, and SENTRY_RELEASE are present; SENTRY_DIST is passed through when set. The auth token must stay in secret storage and is never written to env examples or logs.
Approved web origins
Organization owners and admins approve self-hosted OpenWork Web instances in the Den dashboard under Org settings → Approved web origins (/v1/org/web-origins). Each entry is an exact HTTPS origin — scheme, host, and optional port, with no path, query, fragment, credentials, or wildcard — and an organization can approve up to 20. An approved origin can receive web sign-in handoffs back to /signin only while that organization is active, and is allowed for credentialed browser requests to Den API. Handoff approval is checked on every request; CORS approval is cached per process and takes effect within about 30 seconds on every Den API replica. If DEN_CORS_HANDLED_BY_EDGE=true, the edge must also allow the same exact origin and the Authorization preflight.
Current routes
GET /->302 https://openworklabs.comGET /health- Better Auth mount at
/api/auth/* - desktop handoff routes under
/v1/auth/* - current user routes under
/v1/me* - organization routes under
/v1/orgs* - active-organization SCIM management routes under
/v1/scim* - admin routes under
/v1/admin* - worker list, delete, and activity heartbeat routes under
/v1/workers*(OpenWork Web instances are worker rows; their lifecycle lives under/v1/cloud/*)
Folder map
src/routes/auth/: Better Auth mount + desktop handoff endpointssrc/routes/me/: current user and current user's org resolution routessrc/routes/org/: organization CRUD-ish surfaces, split by areasrc/routes/admin/: admin-only reporting endpointssrc/routes/workers/: worker list, delete, and activity heartbeat endpointssrc/middleware/: reusable Hono middleware for auth context, org context, teams, and validationsrc/cache.ts: shared Redis-backed read-through cache. Add expensive read helpers here, keyed ascache:${cacheParent}:${cacheChild}:${id}; for examplecache.auth.session(token)andcache.org.members(orgId). Redis is optional, so every helper must fall back to the DB loader.
Each major folder also has its own README.md so future agents can inspect one area in isolation.
Shared query cache
Use src/cache.ts for Den API read-through Redis caching. Do not create ad-hoc Redis calls in route handlers or domain modules.
Current public helpers:
const session = await cache.auth.session(token)
const members = await cache.org.members(orgId)
Cache key format:
cache:${cacheParent}:${cacheChild}:${id}
Example key:
cache:auth:session:<token>
cache:org:members:org_...
Rules for adding cache helpers:
- Add helpers under the exported
cachenamespace insrc/cache.ts. - Keep each helper as a read-through function: check Redis, run the DB loader on miss, write Redis, then return the loaded value.
- Redis is optional. Helpers must work when
DATABASE_REDIS_URLis unset. - Non-local Redis should use
rediss://. SetDATABASE_REDIS_ALLOW_INSECURE_INTERNAL=1only when theredis://endpoint is private, non-public, and restricted to a trusted internal network. - Use short TTLs unless invalidation is explicit and tested.
- Auth sessions are DB-authoritative and cached for at most one hour. Any session delete or identity-changing update must invalidate
cache.auth.deleteSession(token). - Do not add new security-critical cache helpers without explicit invalidation and tests.
- Prefer names that read like domain calls, for example
cache.auth.session(token)orcache.org.members(orgId).
SCIM existing-user adoption
The SCIM plugin in src/auth.ts requires existing membership in the connector's
organization before adopting an existing account. Its shouldLinkUser callback
also performs an uncached membership read by normalized user and organization
IDs with removed_at IS NULL. Better Auth 1.7.0-beta.10's built-in membership
lookup does not exclude removed rows, so both checks must remain enabled.
Invitations without a joined user, removed memberships, outside-org accounts,
and tokens without an organization cannot authorize adoption. No email-domain
exception applies. Successful adoption preserves the user ID and membership role;
the new-user provisioning path is unchanged.
The plugin evaluates this policy before its account-creation transaction. The fresh read excludes already-removed memberships, but does not serialize a concurrent removal with linking. Closing that race requires transactional policy support in the plugin; this callback is not an atomic membership lock.
Run the installed-plugin regression suite in its own Node process:
pnpm --filter @openwork-ee/den-api test:scim-existing-user-linking
It uses Better Auth's memory adapter and compiles the membership SQL without executing it. It does not import Den's full auth graph, start MySQL, configure OAuth, or require real credentials.
TypeID validation
- Shared Den TypeID validation lives in
ee/packages/utils/src/typeid.ts. - Use
typeId.schema("...")or the compatibility helpers likenormalizeDenTypeId("...", value)when an endpoint accepts or returns a Den TypeID. ee/apps/den-api/src/openapi.tsexposesdenTypeIdSchema(...)so path params, request bodies, and response fields all share the same validation rules and Swagger examples.- Swagger now documents Den IDs with their required prefix and fixed 26-character TypeID suffix, so invalid IDs fail request validation before route logic runs.
OpenAPI contract
packages/docs/openapi.jsonis an ignored build artifact generated bypnpm den:contractand linted withpnpm api:lint. CI generates OpenAPI/SDK from source and fails on generation/type errors, Spectral errors, or warnings above.spectral-baseline.json. Hosted docs read the same normalized public contract from/openapi.json?public=1;.github/workflows/refresh-api-docs.ymlrebuilds them once production serves a contract change.- Every route registration carries a
describeRoute()withsummary,tags,securityandresponses; conventions and documented exceptions are indocs/api-style.md.
Migration approach
- Keep
den-api(formerlyden-controller) as the source of truth for Den control-plane behavior. - Add endpoints in focused Hono route groups one surface at a time.
- Reuse shared middleware and Zod validators instead of duplicating request/session/org plumbing.
- Leave a short README in each route area when the structure changes so later agents can recover context fast.
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