---
title: Model Context Protocol (MCP)
sidebar_position: 1200
---

Open WebUI natively supports **MCP (Model Context Protocol)** starting in **v0.6.31**. This page shows how to enable it quickly, harden it for production, and troubleshoot common snags.

> **Audience:** admins and power users configuring external tools

:::info 
Requires **Open WebUI v0.6.31+**.
:::

## 🚀 Quick start 

1. Open **⚙️ Admin Settings → External Tools**.
2. Click **+ (Add Server)**.
3. Set **Type** to **MCP (Streamable HTTP)**.
4. Enter your **Server URL** and **Auth** details (OAuth 2.1, if required).
5. **Save**. If prompted, restart Open WebUI.

You can now call tools exposed by your MCP server from Open WebUI.

## 🧭 When to use MCP vs OpenAPI

:::tip 
For most deployments, **OpenAPI** remains the **preferred** integration path.
:::

Choose **OpenAPI** if you want:

* **Enterprise readiness**: deep SSO, API gateways, audit, quotas, typed SDKs.
* **Operational resilience**: standard HTTP verbs, idempotency, caching, rich error codes.
* **Observability**: first-class tracing and policy integration.

Choose **MCP (Streamable HTTP)** if you need:

* A **common tool protocol** already used by your MCP servers/clients.
* **Streamed** tool events over HTTP with emerging ecosystem support.

> You don’t have to pick one: many teams expose OpenAPI internally and **wrap MCP** at the edge for specific clients.

:::warning
Browser-based, multi-user deployments increase the surface area (CORS/CSRF, per-user isolation, reconnects). Review your org’s auth, proxy, and rate-limiting policies before exposing MCP externally.
:::

## ❓ FAQ

**Do you support stdio or SSE transports?**
Native MCP support in Open WebUI is **Streamable HTTP only**. This design choice reflects our architecture: Open WebUI is a **web-based, multi-tenant environment**, not a local desktop process.

Browsers operate within strict **sandboxed and event-driven HTTP constraints**, making long-lived stdio or SSE connections difficult to maintain securely across users and sessions.

If you need to bridge those other MCP transports, check out [**mcpo**](https://github.com/open-webui/mcpo) — an open-source proxy that translates **stdio or SSE-based MCP servers into OpenAPI-compatible endpoints**. It effectively lets you run traditional MCP tools inside Open WebUI without modifying their transport layer.

**Is MCP considered stable here?**
Supported and improving. The broader ecosystem is still evolving; expect occasional breaking changes.

**Can I mix OpenAPI and MCP tools?**
Yes. Many deployments do both.