cMCP: Confidential MCP Runtime

Enforce MCP tool policy inside a TEE, where the agent it governs cannot reach it

Quick Start · Architecture · Configuration · CLI · Changelog

Developer Preview - launched at the Confidential Computing Summit, June 23 2026. May have breaking changes before v1.0. See STATUS.md for exactly what ships today versus what is on the roadmap.

cMCP (Confidential MCP Runtime) is the secure, confidential way to run MCP: an open-source gateway that enforces MCP tool-call policy inside a hardware Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). Every tool call is intercepted, evaluated against a Cedar policy bundle, and enforced where the process it governs cannot reach it. Each session produces a signed TRACE Claim that a verifier checks without trusting the operator, hardware-attested when the gateway runs in a TEE and signed-only in software mode. If you are looking for a secure version of MCP, this is the AgenTrust runtime for it.

TL;DR - Point your agent at the cMCP Gateway. It evaluates every tool call against a Cedar policy inside a TEE, blocks or redacts what the policy denies, and emits a tamper-evident TRACE Claim as proof. Run pip install cmcp-runtime and start in software mode with no hardware required.

Your agent calls Snowflake, Salesforce, a dozen APIs. What stops it from leaking a customer's data on one of those calls? If a regulator asks, could you prove it didn't?

The problem

An agent calls a tool. The policy engine says allow. The tool call goes through.

None of that proves the policy engine itself was not compromised. Software-only MCP governance cannot guarantee:

• The Cedar policy on disk is the one that ran. A rogue admin can swap the bundle after approval; the hash check runs inside the same OS the admin controls.
• The allow/deny decision was not flipped in memory. A supply chain CVE in the evaluator runs in the same address space as the attacker.
• The audit log reflects what actually happened. Any party holding the software signing key can reconstruct a valid audit chain after the fact.

The control plane that governs tool calls must run where it cannot be reached by the process it governs.

Hardware-attested policy enforcement for MCP tool calls. Every tool call is intercepted, evaluated against a Cedar policy bundle, and enforced by a policy engine running inside a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). The policy bundle hash is measured into the hardware attestation report before any code runs.

Unlike tunnel-based connectivity solutions, the cMCP Runtime processes tool-call payloads inside the TEE. The connectivity provider sees ciphertext, not plaintext. The only thing that leaves the enclave is the signed TRACE claim.

Quick Start

pip install cmcp-runtime

Create cmcp-config.yaml:

attestation:
  provider: auto
  enforcement_mode: advisory   # advisory eases first-run tuning; the default is `enforcing`
listen_addr: "127.0.0.1:8443"  # pin loopback: dev mode runs without a bearer token
policy_bundle_path: ./policies/
catalog_path: ./catalog.json

listen_addr is not optional here. CMCP_DEV_MODE=1 deliberately skips the bearer token requirement so you can try things quickly, and the default bind is still 0.0.0.0:8443. On 0.3.0 that combination stood up an unauthenticated gateway on every interface on your machine. From 0.4.0 it is refused: tokenless dev mode may only bind a loopback address, and a non-loopback bind requires CMCP_BEARER_TOKEN. Pin listen_addr explicitly and the config is correct on both.

Start the gateway:

CMCP_DEV_MODE=1 cmcp start --config cmcp-config.yaml

Make a tool call:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8443/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"salesforce.contacts","arguments":{"query":"Acme Corp"},"_cmcp":{"session_id":"s1","workflow_id":"demo-agent"}}}'

Prefer a guided version? agentrust-io.com/quickstart walks the same path in about ten minutes on a laptop, with no hardware and no signup: install, write one Cedar forbid rule, watch a tool call return 403 POLICY_DENY before it reaches an upstream, then verify the signed receipt.

See docs/quickstart.md for the full walkthrough: Cedar policy, tool catalog, first TRACE Claim, and verification (no hardware TEE required).

How it works

1. The agent sends every tool call to the cMCP Gateway instead of directly to MCP servers.
2. At startup the gateway measures the Cedar policy bundle hash into the hardware attestation report. No code runs before this measurement.
3. Each incoming tool call is evaluated by the Cedar policy engine running inside the TEE. The result is allow, deny, or redact. The call and its decision are appended to the hardware-sealed audit chain.
4. At the end of the session the gateway produces a TRACE Claim: a signed, hardware-attested artifact that records which tools ran, which policy decided each call, and the full audit chain. A verifier checks this without trusting the operator.

Agent -> cMCP Runtime -> Cedar Policy Engine (TEE) -> Tool
                     |
               GatewayClaim (TRACE Profile)
               +-- trace.eat_profile
               +-- trace.runtime.platform + measurement
               +-- trace.policy.bundle_hash
               +-- trace.cnf.jwk  (Ed25519 confirmation key)
               +-- gateway.audit_chain (root/tip/length)
               +-- signature (Ed25519 over canonical JSON)

Hardware providers

Provider auto-detect probe order: azure-cvm -> tpm -> sev-snp -> tdx. The first provider whose detect() succeeds is selected. opaque is a not-yet-implemented placeholder: it is excluded from auto-detect, and selecting it explicitly raises ATTESTATION_PROVIDER_NOT_IMPLEMENTED rather than falling through silently. If no hardware provider is detected, the gateway starts only under CMCP_DEV_MODE=1 (a non-attested software-only fallback) and otherwise refuses to start.

from cmcp_runtime.config import TEEProvider

# Auto-detect (default)
# attestation.provider: auto  ->  azure-cvm -> tpm -> sev-snp -> tdx
# (software-only is used only under CMCP_DEV_MODE=1)

# Explicit hardware selection
# attestation.provider: sev-snp

# OPAQUE Managed Runtime (opt-in only; not yet implemented)
# OPAQUE_ATTESTATION_URL=https://... cmcp start --config cmcp-config.yaml

Enforcement modes

Default is enforcing. Set enforcement_mode: advisory in cmcp-config.yaml to use advisory mode.

Configuration

cmcp-config.yaml full reference:

attestation:
  provider: auto                    # auto | tpm | sev-snp | tdx | opaque | software-only
  enforcement_mode: enforcing       # enforcing | advisory | silent
  validity_seconds: 86400           # attestation freshness window (default: 24 hours)
  staleness_policy: fail_closed     # fail_closed | warn_only
  expected_measurement: ~           # pin a specific PCR/measurement (optional)

policy_bundle_path: policies/       # directory containing .cedar files and manifest.json
catalog_path: catalog.json          # approved tool catalog

listen_addr: "127.0.0.1:8443"     # tokenless dev mode is loopback-only; set CMCP_BEARER_TOKEN before binding wider
max_response_size_bytes: 2097152    # 2 MB default
policy_reload_interval_seconds: 0   # >0 with a pinned CMCP_POLICY_HASH refuses to start, see docs/spec/policy-hot-reload.md

Environment variables:

CLI reference

TRACE Claims

A GatewayClaim is the unit of proof handed to an auditor, regulator, or downstream verifier. It is produced per session (or per call, configurable) and signed with a key that never leaves the TEE.

(This table is a summary of the most-used fields.)

Verification with the cmcp_verify library does not require trusting the operator. The verifier checks the signature against the TEE-bound key, the policy bundle hash against the approved value, and the audit chain for internal consistency.

The normative schema is schemas/trace-claim.schema.json, and docs/quickstart.md shows a complete example. See docs/spec/verification-library.md and the TRACE specification for the full verification protocol.

Standards alignment

Security

See SECURITY.md for vulnerability reporting and response SLAs. See LIMITATIONS.md for explicit scope boundaries, including residual risks for APM payload capture, runtime config injection, and P4.1 supply chain (typosquat) that Phase 1 does not close.

Documentation

FAQ

What is cMCP?

cMCP (Confidential MCP Runtime) is an open-source gateway that enforces MCP tool-call policy inside a hardware Trusted Execution Environment. It intercepts each tool call, evaluates it against a Cedar policy bundle, enforces the decision (allow, deny, or redact), and records the call in a hardware-sealed audit chain.

How is cMCP different from software-only MCP governance?

Software-only governance runs the policy engine in the same OS an operator or a supply-chain CVE can reach, so it cannot prove the policy that ran was the approved one or that the decision was not flipped in memory. cMCP runs the policy engine inside a TEE and measures the Cedar bundle hash into the hardware attestation report before any code runs, so the control plane cannot be reached by the process it governs.

Do I need special hardware to try it?

No. Set CMCP_DEV_MODE=1 to use the software-only TEE provider and run the full quickstart without a hardware TEE. Hardware providers (TPM, AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX, OPAQUE) are used in production.

What is a TRACE Claim?

A TRACE Claim (a GatewayClaim) is a signed, hardware-attested artifact produced per session. It records which tools ran, which policy decided each call, the Cedar bundle hash, and the audit chain, and it is signed with an Ed25519 key that never leaves the TEE. A verifier checks it with the cmcp_verify library without trusting the operator.

Which TEE providers are supported?

TPM 2.0 / vTPM, AMD SEV-SNP, and Intel TDX, with NVIDIA GPU confidential computing planned for v0.2 and OPAQUE Confidential Runtime available as explicit opt-in. Auto-detection order is Azure confidential VM, then TPM 2.0 / vTPM, then AMD SEV-SNP, then Intel TDX; the software-only provider is used only under CMCP_DEV_MODE=1.

What license is cMCP under?

MIT.

Contributing

CONTRIBUTING.md · GOVERNANCE.md · Discussions

Join the community on Discord.

Using cMCP in production? Add your organization to ADOPTERS.md.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.