rhcl-install-mcp

name	rhcl-install-mcp
metadata	{"author":"rhoai3-coding-demo","version":"1.0.0","platform-family":"rhcl","platform-baseline":"repo","ocp-baseline":"repo","skill-group":"OpenShift Platform"}
description	Use when installing the MCP gateway on single or multiple clusters, including the mcp-gateway operator, MCPGatewayExtension CR, Gateway object listeners, ReferenceGrant for cross-namespace, and session store configuration. Do NOT use for registering MCP servers or creating auth policies for MCP; use rhcl-mcp-config. Do NOT use for Connectivity Link core operator installation; use rhcl-install.

RHCL Install MCP

Use this skill to ground MCP gateway installation decisions in official RHCL 1.4 documentation for the active baseline in docs/PLATFORM_BASELINE.md.

Source Grounding

Read references/source-capture.md before using product behavior. Official Red Hat documentation is product authority.

Technology Preview Notice

MCP gateway is a Technology Preview feature in RHCL 1.4. It is not supported with Red Hat production SLAs and might not be functionally complete.

Key Concepts

• Separate operator: mcp-gateway from redhat-operators on the preview channel.
• Uses OperatorGroup with targetNamespaces (namespaced install).
• MCPGatewayExtension CR (apiVersion mcp.kuadrant.io/v1alpha1) deploys the MCP broker-router and links to a Gateway listener.
• Each namespace can have only one MCPGatewayExtension. Each Gateway can have only one targeting it.
• Automatic HTTPRoute creation (mcp-gateway-route) routes /mcp traffic.
• httpRouteManagement: Disabled for custom route control.
• sessionStore references a Redis secret for persistent sessions.
• trustedHeadersKey enables JWT-based tool filtering.
• backendPingIntervalSeconds controls upstream MCP server health (10–7200s, default 60).

Workflow

1. Confirm the active RHCL baseline in docs/PLATFORM_BASELINE.md.
2. Read references/official-doc-extraction.md.
3. Identify whether the task is:
   • initial MCP gateway operator install
   • Gateway object with MCP listener creation
   • MCPGatewayExtension CR deployment
   • cross-namespace ReferenceGrant setup
   • session store or trusted-headers configuration
4. For manifests, verify API versions against official docs and cluster schema.
5. Validate with verification commands from the extraction.

Validation Signals

• oc wait csv -n <ns> -l operators.coreos.com/mcp-gateway.<ns>="" --for=jsonpath='{.status.phase}'=Succeeded --timeout=5m
• oc wait --for=condition=Ready mcpgatewayextension/<name> -n <ns>
• Automatic HTTPRoute exists: oc get httproute mcp-gateway-route -n <ns>
• EnvoyFilter present: oc get envoyfilter -n <gw-ns> -l app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=mcp-gateway-controller

Related Skills

• rhcl-install for Connectivity Link core operator installation.
• rhcl-mcp-config for registering MCP servers and creating policies.
• rhcl-configure for general gateway policy deployment.
• ocp-ingress-gateway-routes for OCP Gateway API primitives.

References

• references/source-capture.md
• references/official-doc-extraction.md